It would be good to get together with some old geezer like me, and just let him talk. I couldn’t possibly do that much typing.
Try “Strategy for Defeat” by Admiral Sharp for one perspective.
We were already involved by the time Kennedy was killed, and we were in too deep for LBJ to cut and run. He didn’t want to spend money on VN; he wanted to spend it turning America socialist. Whether it was policy or whether he was just buffeted by events I do not know. What he did, though, was to expand our presence gradually, doing just enough not to lose, while never doing anything that could lead to victory.
He was afraid that Russia and China might come into the war if he mined Haiphong Harbor and bombed Hanoi, the rail lines that brought military aid from Russia and China, or the Ho Chi Minh trail.
Nixon did exactly those things, and it brought the commie murderers to the table and did not bring the Ruskies or the Chicoms in. This, together with his successful Vietnamization program allowed him to keep his promise of Peace with Honor. The war was won.
At the same time, the left was successfully doing to Nixon what they’ve been trying to do to President Trump. Poor Nixon had no Internet to disseminate the truth, so he resigned for good of the country. That was the cue for communist traitors in the Senate to disgracefully repudiate our treaties with South Vietnam, leaving them helpless in the face of North Vietnam, backed as always by Russia and China.
As we all knew it would, a bloodbath ensued, and every leftist’s hands run red with the blood of the innocent.
Bookmarked, for each of the books mentioned. Read the first (1972) book, was even then disgusted with what Washington did, how they decided things, how they mucked up things - almost deliberately.
I have not read the more recent.
Thank you so much dsc. It’s an important time in history to reflect upon and I thank God men like HR McMaster are at the helm of our security and of our troops - so that we chart a path as a nation without repeating the same mistakes! (And have men lead who are humble enough to admit when they do.)
I also think it’s a part of our history that we need to make sense of and make peace with as a country. And, as Trump says, it’s atrocious how we have treated our veterans. I hope that vets feel the peace and appreciation they deserve.