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Sunday marks 50 years since U.S. combat troops arrived in Vietnam
ABC7 Chicago ^ | 03/08/2015

Posted on 03/08/2015 7:06:50 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum

DA NANG, Vietnam (WLS) -- Sunday marks 50 years since United States combat troops arrived in Vietnam when two battalions made up of hundreds of Marines landed in Da Nang on March 8, 1965.

They originally went to help the South Vietnam government defeat communist forces.

The U.S. sent in more troops over the next few years, peaking at 543,000 in April, 1969.

More than 58,000 U.S. troops lost their lives in the war. The last U.S. troops left the country in March 1973.


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To: 21twelve

Thank you. Aweful hard looking back, how futile
it all was just because of the leftism of the
Democrats. They threw it away then just like Iraq
and Afghanistan today.

To hell with the democrat party, many of them
deserved to be strung up from lamp posts.
Ya hear that JANE you ageing slut.
Naturally I include Jf’nK also.


21 posted on 03/08/2015 7:44:42 PM PDT by tet68 ( " We would not die in that man's company, that fears his fellowship to die with us...." Henry V.)
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To: PROCON

LOL....Me too. 1966 at 17 1/2. I was such a stupid kid.


22 posted on 03/08/2015 7:46:28 PM PDT by Gator113 (Cruz, Lee, and Sessions speak for me.... most anyone else is just noise.)
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To: centurion316

Nixon was a Democrat? Who knew?


It was the Democrat controlled Congress under Ford that stopped the funding at the most critical time.


23 posted on 03/08/2015 7:47:45 PM PDT by laplata ( Liberals/Progressives have diseased minds.)
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To: ASA Vet
I successfully dodged the draft.

I successfully volunteered before being old enough to register for the draft.

24 posted on 03/08/2015 7:48:32 PM PDT by doorgunner69
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To: headstamp 2

That’s right. Please see my post 23.


25 posted on 03/08/2015 7:49:44 PM PDT by laplata ( Liberals/Progressives have diseased minds.)
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To: 21twelve

Nixon began to withdraw combat troops immediately upon being sworn into office and before the war had been won, The North Vietnamese continued to test our resolve with massive conventional force invasions. I was personally involved in the attacks across the borders in the Central Highlands in 1971. The biggest attacks occurred in 1972, when all our grounds forces had either left the country or withdrawn to coastal enclaves.

Through the course of these offensives, we continued to withdraw ground troops demonstrating our unwillingness to stand up to outright invasion. The South Vietnamese were able to stand up against these attacks with American air and artillery support, but soon even these units were gone, the Paris Accords were signed and all that was left was a promise to provide financial and military logistical support.

When the 1975 invasion started, the Democrat Congress refused to deliver on the United States promise. But, without American forces, the South Vietnamese had insufficient forces to stop a multi-corps armor and infantry invasion.

The North Vietnamese won the war with conventional forces fighting conventional tactics in an undeveloped country. We did the same thing in the South Pacific in WWII. The South Vietnamese were left to defend their country with what little they had, much like Japanese forces in the Pacific.

Certainly, if the Congress had lived up to our promises, the South Vietnamese could have held out longer, but they almost certainly couldn’t have won.


26 posted on 03/08/2015 7:51:02 PM PDT by centurion316
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To: PROCON; xrmusn
Well, I did too, but I never thought of it that way, LOL, but I guess it's true!

Y'all are friggin' nutz!

I have never heard of that sort of twist to it.

27 posted on 03/08/2015 7:51:54 PM PDT by doorgunner69
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To: Gator113

1966 huh, you’re an old guy; I didn’t enlist until 1969 :-)


28 posted on 03/08/2015 7:53:04 PM PDT by PROCON (Always Give 100% --- Unless you're donating blood.)
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To: laplata

See my Post #26.

That was just the final blow and conveniently forgets what Nixon had done.


29 posted on 03/08/2015 7:54:34 PM PDT by centurion316
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To: laplata

Welcome home back to ya!


30 posted on 03/08/2015 7:55:53 PM PDT by PROCON (Always Give 100% --- Unless you're donating blood.)
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To: laconic

“Thank you, Lyndon Johnson and Robert McNamara.”

Don’t leave out JFK.

He managed to get RSVN President Diem assassinated in November 1963 leaving Vietnam rudderless and unable to form a stable government, much less to defend itself.

This played a big role in LBJ’s decision to send in American combat troops.


31 posted on 03/08/2015 7:56:52 PM PDT by Pelham (The refusal to deport is defacto amnesty)
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To: PROCON

No, he successfully dodged the draft by enlisting in the Army. If I recall correctly, he served in Nam.

I did the same. When I was drafted, I signed up. Still ended up in Nam as well.


32 posted on 03/08/2015 7:59:36 PM PDT by miele man
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

My younger brother was one of those Marines. Thank God, he managed to survive his year there.


33 posted on 03/08/2015 8:00:52 PM PDT by Tupelo (I feel more like Philip Nolan by the day)
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To: Jet Jaguar

Pingy.


34 posted on 03/08/2015 8:02:41 PM PDT by PROCON (Always Give 100% --- Unless you're donating blood.)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum; blueyon; KitJ; T Minus Four; xzins; CMS; The Sailor; ab01; txradioguy; ...

Active Duty/Retiree ping.


35 posted on 03/08/2015 8:03:15 PM PDT by Jet Jaguar
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To: Eric in the Ozarks

“The war had been won.”

Not exactly. Nixon and Kissinger had negotiated a “peace agreement” that left NVA troops still in place in South Vietnam. We didn’t reduce their military to rubble like we did Germany and Japan. This was just another cease fire like we have in Korea and it depended upon a constant US presence to enforce it.

It we had won the war it wouldn’t have mattered if we had left because the North wouldn’t have been in a position to send thousands of armored vehicles into South Vietnam whenever they chose to do so.


36 posted on 03/08/2015 8:03:46 PM PDT by Pelham (The refusal to deport is defacto amnesty)
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To: PROCON

Thanks.


37 posted on 03/08/2015 8:03:58 PM PDT by Jet Jaguar
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To: PROCON

Yep.... getting old in body, but staying young in mind. ;>)


38 posted on 03/08/2015 8:04:56 PM PDT by Gator113 (Cruz, Lee, and Sessions speak for me.... most anyone else is just noise.)
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To: centurion316

No Centurion, Ford was President. The Democrat controlled Congress refused to fund the effort the peace.
Kinda like the current Republican Congress refused to fund Obama’s legalization of wetbacks.
Oh wait, THAT did not happen.


39 posted on 03/08/2015 8:05:07 PM PDT by Tupelo (I feel more like Philip Nolan by the day)
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To: centurion316

True enough.


40 posted on 03/08/2015 8:05:37 PM PDT by laplata ( Liberals/Progressives have diseased minds.)
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