[BroJoeK]

gleeaikin: "So, Republicans in office from early 1969 to early 1977, during which Saigon fell in 1975."

The Republican narrative is: Saigon fell because Congressional Democrats cut-off support for our South Vietnam allies.
The Democrats' counter-narrative is that they never cut off all support, and anyway, the Nixon-tapes revealed that Nixon himself intended to let South Vietnam fall, in due time.

The truth of it is as follows:

1. In 1972 North Vietnamese launched a massive 300,000 man invasion of South Vietnam called the Easter Offensive.
   South Vietnamese forces were pushed back in April 1972, but in May stabilized the front and were able to retake most of their lost territories by September.

2. In 1972 US military aid to South Vietnam, in today's dollars, was roughly the levels the US supplied Ukraine since February 2022.
   That proved to be just barely enough to help South Vietnam defeat North Vietnam's Easter Offensive invasion.
   Pres. Nixon promised South Vietnam's government that the US would support them with massive bombing, should the North invade again.

3. But, in 1974 Democrats in Congress reduced Pres. Nixon's request for aid to South Vietnam by more than half and then refused to provide any additional aid, as requested by Pres. Ford, after the North's invasion of March 1975.
   The US provided the South no additional support in 1975.

4. At the same time, Soviet and Chinese aid to North Vietnam, while less than for the 1972 Easter Offensive, was double what it had been in 1970.

5. The North Vietnamese 1975 invasion was somewhat larger than 1972's and was more concentrated on Saigon.

6. At the end of April 1975, South Vietnamese, somewhat like our Afghan allies in 2021, saw the lack of US support and collapsed after two months' fighting.

For our radical Democrats, the fall of Saigon in 1975 was a win-win -- America was defeated and humiliated and they got to falsely blame Republicans for it.

At least with Afghanistan, Democrats must take 100% responsibility for their own bad behavior... not that they ever will, but voters might.

Today I think we can depend on Democrats to support Ukraine until they can figure out a way to blame and humiliate Republicans for Ukraine's loss.
And, sadly, too many Republicans seem to want to help Democrats accomplish their political goals in this.

[gleeaikin]

I wonder how many other Republicans besides Johnson were offered contributions by companies owned or guided by Putin loving Russians. Even though he returned the money, the question persists, Why did they think he would be receptive to their attention?