"Daddy loves Froggy...Froggy love Daddy?"
Posted on 04/18/2021 10:40:04 AM PDT by knarf
>>The Soviets responded to US Congressional action by re-arming the North Vietnamese. North Vietnamese regulars came in with more tanks than Patton had in World War II. The South Vietnamese ran out of bullets.
The so called “anti-war” movement didn’t protest the USSR’s involvement in Vietnam.
The so called “anti-war” movement openly celebrated the North Vietnamese military and their victories. That doesn’t sound anti-war to me. They chose a side. Jane Fonda said that we’d all love to live under Communism if we only truly understood what it “really is”.
While scampaiging in 2004 John FTA Kerry admitted he’d lied to Congress. He went on to say that his claims of witnessing and participating in war crimes in Vietnam were over eager words.
Interesting fact: the majority of people in Viet Nam have little or no memory of the Viet Nam War.
They still celebrate kicking out the French (I mean who wouldn’t), but they really don’t talk about the US War.
Not only old enough to remember WW2, I was the one who told my parents that the Haps had bombed Pearl Harbor. I was 5. Having Sunday dinner (remember those?) at neighbors’ house. I was allowed to leave the table before adults had finished their meal. Went into living room, turned on radio to listen to music just in time to hear Roosevelt announce it...went and told parents. My dad and every other man in America went to the draft board Monday morning to volunteer for service.
Still makes me cry to think about it—lives lost, shortages, gold and silver stars on almost every window. Friends just 10 years younger have no idea how horrible it was and how many people lost sons, husbands,, brothers. Shortages: No butter, no paper, no new cars, etc etc...and yucky margarine with packets of orange dye that you mixed in to make it look better.
No. She must be comfortably numb
We had that war won in 1970.
The communists were preparing to pursue a truce, until the likes of John Kerry and Jane Fonda talked them out of it.
Absent the betrayal by Congressional Democrats, South Vietnam could probably be free and prosperous today, much like South Korea.
The bigger crime was what happened in neighboring Cambodia, even though ironically it took the NVA to get rid of Pol Pot.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89487uG13Ro
Vera Lynn at her very best. I get all misty-eyed every time I listen.
Enjoy!
That, there, is what you call a “riposte!”
“I’m old enough to remember Froggy the Gremlin.”
And Andy Devine!
Remember it?
Hell, I was there......
I was too young but knew one of the guys at the Ambassadors residence standing security on the wall during the fall of Saigon. Amazing stories.
“Pluck your magic twanger Froggy!”
"Daddy loves Froggy...Froggy love Daddy?"
And Ted Kennedy lead the effort to abandon Vietnam.
I remember my dad taking me and my brother
out to a dark open area beside the high-school
so we could watch Sputnik I fly overhead.
Hold on there, Grasshopper. In brief overview, US involvement in Vietnam is a rather long and convoluted tale, which apparently began during WW-2. Although Japanese forces occupied Indochina in 1940 the region was initially allowed to remain under French administration while Japan used it as a staging area for attacking China. However after the fall of France the Vichy government’s influence was slowly diminished, (Japan correctly suspected loyal French were providing intelligence information to the allies) and as Indochina became much more strategically important, Japan launched Operation Maigo, a swift and forceful armed takeover effectively ending French Colonial rule. Alarmed by the loss of vital intelligence and cognizant of the growing importance of the region,
the US sent OSS ‘Deer Teams’ to Vietnam under the command of Major Allison Thomas to train the local Viet Minh in the use of American weapons. The Viet Minh had long opposed both the French and the Japanese, they fought for Vietnamese independence. Their leader, Ho Chi Minh, was chosen by OSS to coordinate with American advisors because he had saved a downed American pilot and personality escorted him back to 14th Air Force HQ in China. Ho had received so such positive recognition that OSS agent Charles Fenn was sent to find and evaluate Ho. Fenn reported back that Ho was articulate and charismatic, open and friendly to Americans and would make an excellent intelligent agent. OSS concluded that Ho and his Viet Minh would be valuable assets in the war against Japan. Thus did Ho Chi Minh enter the American OSS as newly minted secret agent ‘Lucius.’
However, planned American and Viet Minh military cooperation was cut short when the US exploded nuclear bombs over Japan in 1945.
Americans began arriving in Hanoi on August 22, 1945 to prepare for the formal surrender of Japanese forces. Captain Archimedes Patti led the American Mission which was received with warmth and appreciation by the Vietnamese people. The Viet Minh marched in their first parade, the Vietnamese flag flew alongside those of the victorious allies, and the new Vietnamese National Anthem was played right after The Star Spangled Banner.
Vo Nguyen Giap (a name Americans should recognize, but most will not) remarked: This is the first time in the history of Viet Nam that our flag has been displayed in an international ceremony and our national anthem played in honor of a foreign guest. I will long remember this occasion.
Unfortunately, the dream of Vietnamese independence was soon shattered when the French attempted to reestablish colonial dominance in Vietnam. French expectations were that the US would help them reestablish pre WW-2 colonial rule, however, the US was looking ahead and preparing for Cold War with the USSR and showed little interest.
Sentiments ran high and relations between the French and Vietnamese deteriorated to the point of escalating violence. OSS Mission Chief in Saigon, Lt. Col. Peter Dewey, encapsulated the overall situation in his last transmission as he prepared to leave Vietnam: Cochinchina is burning, the French and British are finished here, and we ought to clear out of Southeast Asia.
Unfortunately, Lt. Col. Peter Dewey died on the day of his planned departure from Vietnam, he was shot dead by local guards who said they thought he was a Frenchman. Consequently, Peter Dewey became America’s first post WW-2 casualty in Vietnam. No one suspected then how many thousands more would follow.
[I intended a brief overview but it’s gotten out of hand. I’m hungry, I’m tired and I’m quitting for the evening. I’ll write more if anyone is interested.]
HR puffinstuff
None of us ever considered the conflict to be as political and insidious as it was.
I've concluded Vietnam was a way to get rid of the angry young (white) man, bursting on the scene, aspiring to be politicians intent on throwing out the establishment.
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