Posted on 05/19/2004 7:50:42 AM PDT by Bob J
Last week my article received some rather heated emails. So here is a quick response to those. Yes Eisenhower put advisors in Vietnam (1954) before Kennedy ever came along. The first American death in Vietnam, however, was one Lt. Col Dewey OSS in 1945. That was during WWII under Roosevelt as we assisted Ho Chi Minh oust the Japanese from Vietnam. Several people told me I would find a way to blame the Democrats for the whole mess and as you can see I did. Truman also kept up the same game, but assisting the French against Ho Chi Minh this time. Next Eisenhower, a Republican, came along and continued Truman’s policies of aiding the French, and the liberals all point to him. They also blame Nixon too. Kennedy was the one that escalated the war. I don’t fault Kennedy for that either. We could have won that war with ease and we would have saved a lot of our lives, and Vietnamese lives, if we had actually tried to win it. Kennedy also removed the corrupt leader Diem but he forgot something and it is something we all tend to forget. We humans tend to point fingers and therefore tend to ignore the big picture. Diem was there because he represented the people. The corruption couldn’t be removed by simply removing one person. The people were corrupt, and as a result so was their government. This series isn’t about Roosevelt, Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, LBJ or Nixon, however. This series is about a pattern of treason that led to our leaving. Our military wasn’t defeated in Vietnam - the will of the country here was defeated. That is the exact same game we are seeing in play right here, right now. Good old LBJ had a lot to do with causing us to lose in Vietnam. Under his tutelage our boys in uniform were completely hamstrung while the war was spread wider and wider. It was the numerous flawed rules of war that caused the problem. The soldiers in the field were required to ask permission before they shot back. They weren’t even allowed to bomb the Ho Chi Minh trail. The first rule of warfare is to cut off the line of supply. The politicians over here decided to make that against the rules. All of the rules of war were ground ruled out by people who were protecting their own kids from having to go.
By the time Nixon came to power the troops were completely hamstrung. It just got worse and worse as time went on. Back home the Tet Offensive was cast as an American defeat. Never mind the fact that the other side lost half of its troops. The reason they lost half of their troops was because we knew they were coming. Col. Bill Davis who was in charge of defending Da Nang Airbase said they knew they were coming because they hadn’t found any booby traps in over 48 hours. “So we were waiting and we waxed them. We were the defenders and they were just coming in waves to be killed.” The attack took place in 68 towns and the media went wild stating it was an American defeat.
These are the things I grew up seeing. But I also got to see something else. I grew up in that quiet little neighborhood called Columbine Knolls where nothing ever happens according to the media. That is unless they see a chance to make political hay for gun control. Let me tell you a little bit about that neighborhood. The year after I left a policeman’s car was blown up into the air by a ticked off thug. I asked the officer about it after I moved back into the area and he said he knew who did it but couldn’t prove it. His Jefferson County Jeep Patrol vehicle was blown into the air causing it to land upside down in the street while his wife’s car was blown into their living room. It’s a real quiet neighborhood, most of the time.
Also in that same neighborhood lived the highest-ranking official to be killed in Vietnam. He left the military in 1963 while Kennedy was still in charge and came back as a civilian after a few years. The brass was punishing him for his honesty. He openly said we were creating more enemies with our random and excessive bombings of hamlets. When he returned as a civilian LBJ was in charge and the month he returned LBJ spread the war into areas all around Vietnam. This man of whom I speak was Major General John Paul Vann. His youngest son Pete and I were best friends. It was interesting meeting his dad because he met me once and knew my name and face from that moment forward. He would come home from the war for a few days and return not to be seen for many months. He was quite dedicated to the cause of defeating the Communists.
Mary Jane his wife would quite often have an article laid out on the kitchen table when Pete and I would walk in. “Well your dad beat the odds again.” I remember reading quite a few of those articles in the Denver Post. He would always be away from his base of operations and it would get wiped out. As a kid I used to wonder how that could be. It seemed odd that he always managed to not be there. The Denver Post used to call him ‘The Cat” because he had nine lives.
To be continued…
R.A. Hawkins is the author of "Through Eyes of Shiva", available through http://www.amazon.com/. Visit http://www.entropical-paradise.com/ -- Entropical Paradise - The Home Of R.A. Hawkins for more commentaries and editorials by R.A. Hawkins.
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© 2004 R.A. Hawkins
bmp
I believe it's "Baines". Good post. I read something once about Ho Chi Minh being pro-American in 1945, and his turning communist was out of disillusionment and in revenge for the US siding with France after WW2. Thanks, France.
Actually, Ho joined the CP back in the 30's --- it had nothing to do with "disillusionment".
Uncle Ho was a Paris-educated communist long before 1945. I'm not disputing the rest of what you said, since that seems to be the generally accepted historical account.
Remove the Kennedy Assassination and the Presidency of LBJ and we wouldn't be talking about this today. imo
I'll even go further. I believe Johnson used the buildup in Vietnam, his Great Society initiative and his phony sentiment towards Civil Rights legislation in a successful attempt to change the subject from a meaningful investigation into his complicity in the assassination.
Also, I believe John Paul Vann had the equivalency of MG but he was a retired LTC.
Vann's book is the best summary of the Viet debacle ever...
And, if you want to be honest about Viet Nam start with the US supported cancellation of general elections in 1956 (Ike's years). The 1954 Geneva Conference, to which we were a signatory, mandated general elections in Viet Nam (both) in 1956. We thought Ho would win so we called them off through proxy. That began the war.
Shortly thereafter we put troops into Laos, our first SE Asia misadventure (also Ike). Our Loatian exercise was a precursor and model for our early insertion of "advisors" into South Viet Nam.
Trying to give a history lesson about the VN war and starting in the 1960s is like teaching the Civil War starting with Gettysburg.
He fought the Japs in WW2 by building and leading a guerilla force. After the war he agreed to keep French Indo-China (there was no Viet Nam) as part of the Greater French Republic. The french broke various commitments and he led a rebellion that culminated in the French defeat at Diem Bien Phu, after which the two Viet Nam's were created (Geneva Accords 1954) with the 17thP as the border.
The same pact that created the two VNs called for general elections to be held in 1956. We (Ike) called the elections off by proxy. That's when Ho turned his army south.
any VN vet freepers want to respond? first I've heard of this. I have heard of free fire zones, where anyone and everyone was considered hostile, and could be engaged at will.
They weren’t even allowed to bomb the Ho Chi Minh trail.
not true- it was bombed as part of rolling thunder, one of the earliest large scale bombing campaigns.
John Paul Vann - JPV was scathing toward the pentagon- asctually wound up getting cashiered, and going back as a civilian, where he was killed in a helo crash.
Sure, the politicians puttheir grubby little fingers in the pie...but the brass themselves were guilty of faulty strategy as well.
It's stories like that that make you realize that the French are a hopeless nation.
Anyone who has NOT read the Caro LBJ has - no clue ...
Don't you believe it for a second. Ho Chi Minh was a dedicated life long Communist who was a member of the Comintern since the Russian Revolution. He was dedicated to expanding Communism not only throughout Indochina, but around the entire world.
We backed France because the French would have refused to join NATO had we not. In hindsight, it would have been better had the French never joined NATO.
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