William J. Bennett: This Isn't Vietnam

The New York Post ^ | April 11, 2004 | William J. Bennett

[angkor]

* As Vietnam became more and more political, we sought "Peace with honor," as an objective.

Vietnam was a political failure caused by people like Ted Kennedy and John Kerry.

According to NVA colonel Bui Tin (who personally received the unconditional surrender of the RSVN in 1975), "Our forces in the South were nearly wiped out by all the fighting in 1968. It took us until 1971 to reestablish our presence but we had to use North Vietnamese troops as local guerrillas. If the American forces had not begun to withdraw under Nixon in 1969, they could have punished us severely."

On America's dissidents, colonel Bui said "Every day our leadership would listen to world news over the radio at 9AM to follow the growth of the antiwar movement."

[karbine]

Correct if I'm wrong here, but if RMN was elected in Nov of '68, he wouldn't have been sworn in until Jan of '69 and not really begin having a meaningful impact on the actions in VN for awhile after that. God Bless those brave Americans who "gave all" in VN, but theirs was a very noble cause---hijacked by the leftists of the dem party. Just ask the survivors of the millions of dead Indochinese how liberating the friends of fonda and kerry were. God Bless this country and God watch over our brave military personnel in Iraq.

[SuziQ]

The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself."

Are you listening, Democrats?

[SuziQ]

Do people still take what he has to say to heart?

Why shouldn't they? He didn't break the law, only engaged in an activity that many don't particularly like.

[SuziQ]

Continued for God knows how many years (Six?), resulting in how many thousands of deaths (twenty five?) by none other than Richard (I have a sceret plan) Nixon. Pardon me, was he a dimmo?

No, Nixon was not a dimmo, but it was dimmos like Teddy the Swimmer who were going behind the backs of those in the State Dept. who were trying to negotiate a peace with the North Vietnamese. The Dems sabotaged the peace talks for their own political purposes (sound familiar?) and as a result, the war dragged on for several years past when it should have ended.

[JasonC]

Ad hominem - standard fallacy, says absolutely nothing. Everything he writes in this article is true. If you think otherwise, you can say so with specificity and support that opinion with reasoned argument. If you cannot, you know your own position is unreasonable. If you stick to a position you know is unreasonable for political gain, to whom do ad hominems properly apply?

[Adam36]

What makes Ted Kennedy's comments ever worse.
His brother Robert F Kennedy was murdered by an Arab terrorist. He now wants to appease these Arabs. What a disgrace.

[beavus]

There are at least some comparisons:

VietCong ==> Iraqi insurgents
U.S.S.R. ==> Iran
Cold War ==> War on Terror
Press ==> Press
Kerry ==> Kerry
J. Fonda ==> J. Fonda
China ==> France

are just some of the analogies that come to mind.

[secretagent]

China ==> France

France has 50,000 technicians aiding the Iraqi insurgents?

We're holding back because we're afraid France will enter the war against us?

[beavus]

China ==> France

France has 50,000 technicians aiding the Iraqi insurgents?

We're holding back because we're afraid France will enter the war against us?

Not that I'm aware of. The analogy is that France and China allied themselves with our enemies.

[secretagent]

Sorry for the rhetorical question.

I see your point, but the trade between France and Iraq doesn't doesn't compare with the aid from China to North Vietnam, in my mind. Not that I have any numbers.

Also, the US pulled its punches with NV, because it didn't want a war with China. We don't fear the Iraq war widening to include France.

I'd go more along with "China ==> Iran".

[DCPatriot]

The only part I have trouble reconciling is this:

Saddam Hussein wielded fear and power with savagry in order to gain the grudging "respect" of the masses.

That's the only way we can maintain our objective....to install a limited democracy in Iraq with hopefully a government friendly to the USA.