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To: Chainmail
Bingo! The whole reason that the Left went after Nixon like they did is that they knew that if they took out Nixon, they'd win the war.

You know, over all these years I've never added two plus two like that ... but now it makes perfect sense.

75 posted on 09/18/2017 1:21:28 PM PDT by NorthMountain
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To: NorthMountain
The part that has never been discussed was how the whole "opposition to the war" thing went down. The American Left - the Communist Party USA, the Socialist Worker's Party, and a host of interconnected satellites were busy undermining us even during WWII when we were "allies". Once the Second World War was over, the covert part of the Left funneled secrets to the USSR while the above-ground face of the Party started the "Ban the Bomb" movement because at first the Sovs didn't have nuclear weapons.

Even once they had tested their own, the Left continued a campaign to have the US disarm. The original "Ban the Bomb" emblem was what was morphed into the "peace symbol" once Vietnam kicked in. Thus the Left, in it many factions had a solid cadre of activists who had all of the connections, funding, structure, and skills to run an opposition movement.

Hanoi already had a lot of experience with working with the French Communist Party to undermine their efforts during the Indochina War, so working with the American Communists had started even before we actually had ground forces in Vietnam.

During our war in Vietnam, there were two major umbrella organizations: the People's Coalition for Peace and Justice (PCPJ) and the New Mobe (Socialist Worker's Party). Both organizations clustered many other entities together - the National Welfare Rights Organization, Save Our Soldiers, Strike For Peace, Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW),assorted Lefty Unions, etc., etc. which diffused where the leadership was and where their direction was coming from. The majority of the rank and file were "activists" who either didn't want to get drafted and fight or people who didn't want a relative to be drafted and have to fight. Their politics were thinner than a sheet of paper and most demonstrations were just a lark to them but they added mass to the actions and camouflaged the real leadership.

Hanoi was leading it all for the get-go: they had communications with the leaders of the movement and hosted some of those leaders in Hanoi (such as David Ifshin, Stokely Carmichael, Ramsey Clark, Al Hubbard, and of course, Jane Fonda). The Soviets and the Chinese provided some propaganda, some printed material, and some money but the NVA directed when and where demonstration would take place, the "thrust" (theme) of the demonstrations, and even suggested which of the umbrella groups would be the most prominent.

As the Left gained steam, the direction of the Movement was towards pushing for an immediate pullout and of course, smearing the men fighting the war as "war criminals" with lots of fictional material provided by the enemy for the use of the antiwar leaders and their friends in the press. (there were actually printed material and movies shipped to the US from Hanoi and distributed on campuses)

Because Hanoi understood that Nixon was an unusually tough leader and couldn't be swayed by their usual tactics, they tried to get Nixon removed from Day One. There was literally not a single day that went by without articles attacking Nixon (reminiscent of the way they are dealing with Trump now). Soon there was the "Milk Fund Scandal" which wasn't anything, and then the "Secret Bombing of Cambodia" scandal which didn't get any traction, and then, at long last, Watergate - which also really didn't amount to anything but the press pitched it in little increments over several months and the Lefty Democrats gleefully piled on. Then, as now, the powder puff Republicans bailed and Nixon was forced to resign. Then unlike the "73 Easter Offensive" which Nixon destroyed through the massive use of airpower, the '75 offensive crushed the South Vietnamese, as Hanoi always wanted.

The FBI knew all about all of this but inexplicably, none of the traitors were ever charged much less prosecuted.

78 posted on 09/18/2017 3:43:30 PM PDT by Chainmail (A simple rule of life: if you can be blamed, you're responsible.)
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