Singapore, Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur and the Malacca Strait owe their freedom to Americans who served in Vietnam. You killed a million Communist cadres in the field and gutted the North Vietnamese State, depriving them of a generation of their best troops without which they were powerless to extend the "war of national liberation" to Jakarta and beyond.
That's what sticks in the craws of the American Left to this day. You came so close to winning, that in the longer run the difference didn't matter. You "lost" because liberals threw in the towel........"but Jeez, just look at the other guy!"
Well done, guys. Signal Bravo Zulu.
Most of the military professional I've spoken with believe that we could have stalled the 1975 invasion of South Vietnam, if we had provided air support after the North Vietnamese broke the Paris peace treaty. In retrospect, that seems like a reasonable price to pay for preventing the execution of millions and the imposition of totalitarian communism on most of the peninsula.
It's true that we dealt the North Vietnamese aggressors grievous damage before giving up, but that only provides limited consolation.