Congressional Democrats literally abandoned our South Vietnamese allies and it was they, not the U.S. military, who were responsible for the carnage that followed, the slaughter, imprisonment and forced "re-education" of millions of innocent civilians throughout Southeast Asia by an avenging North Vietnamese Army.
There's another little-known fact.
Several months after the last U.S. ground combat forces left Vietnam in 1972, the North Vietnamese Communists and the Viet Cong signed the Paris Peace Accords, promising, among other things, to cease all hostilities and to NOT invade South Vietnam, much less conquer it, as they did in 1975.
Then and now, 30 years later, rarely is there ever a mention of this diplomatic treachery. Broken treaties, even ones for which the Nobel Peace Prize is awarded, apparently aren't worthy of mention in the evening news, certainly not in history textbooks, at least not when it comes to Vietnam.
The 'Rats betrayal of South Vietnam and America was one of the darkest moments in American history.
The military doesn't decide which wars to fight in, Uncle Dumbass.
It's a good thing CBS and Cronkite weren't around during The Revolutionary War. That war wasn't very popular either.
To me this is the worst of the worst of the worst. Shame on Kerry and Kennedy, the disgusting so-called Catholic twosome from Massachussetts who led the charge to cut off funding.
God's blessings on the continuing efforts of the VVLF.
If Cronkite believes 'we lost' the war he should pat himself on the back because he did everything in his power to make
that happen...he abused his status as 'the most trusted man in America' to out right lie to mom and pop as they sat with their families watching CBS nightly leftist propaganda disguised as 'the truth'
Cronkite did his worst to turn the middle class and middle aged against our war efforts and then afterwards did his best to have Americans blame Vietnam veterans for the loss...
He is a disgusting bass turd and a liar...one of ten thousand
of his ilk who should have been tarred and feathered and run back to Hanoi,Moscow,Bejing, or Paris where he, like his soul brother John Kerry, both belong
imo
It wasn't much of a war. But it was the only one we had.
But that was when republicans had a spine.. but
Democrats have always been morons even in WWII.. and WWI..
from June 69- Jan.77 we knew that the Beltway bunch had
lied and were our most clear and present danger.Today a
letter from a soldier in Iraq sounds an awaful lot like
we did. He says they know they were lied to- and he thinks the war is immoral. But he also says he is there by choice-- and they have done some good. And have made some positive changes. I am convinced America cannot win nor be
honest to those sent until/ unless we withdraw from the
enemies camp (The United Nations) So long as our leaders serve a foreign entity we cannot win.
Ping for a great article by Carlton Sherwood, producer of the Stolen Honor documentary.
Instead, it was Congress – more specifically, the nearly 2-to-1 Democrat majority in the Senate (61 to 37) and the House (291 to 144) in 1975 – that voted to cut off all military funding to the Saigon government that was directly responsible for the defeat of South Vietnam.Congressional Democrats literally abandoned our South Vietnamese allies and it was they, not the U.S. military, who were responsible for the carnage that followed, the slaughter, imprisonment and forced "re-education" of millions of innocent civilians throughout Southeast Asia by an avenging North Vietnamese Army.
This was, IMHO, among the most invidious betrayals in America's otherwise proud history. It should also serve as a reminder never to trust the left, even it's more moderate elements. Although it was tacit rather than explicit, and excluded the most radical leftists who openly wanted the communists to triumph, there was effectively a "bargain" struck between hawks and doves with and after the election of Nixon. It's terms were that the hawks, and the Nixon administration, would extricate American forces from Vietnam, that is they would "bring the troops home," and in exchange the doves would agree to continued support for America's allies in Indochina and necessary enforcement of peace treaties.
Nixon and the hawks kept their side of the bargain, and the left, including the "moderate" left, reneged, slashing aid again and again and again -- viciously, vindictively, gratuitously -- far beyond anything explainable by mere political expediency. The South Vietnamese army, for instance, was forced to heavily ration artillery shells during the last year of their struggle, and at the end their forces literally ran out of bullets. For Cambodia the situation was even worse. Aid had been cut off entirely, and even reconnaissance flights over the country were prohibited by Congress.
Nixon almost managed to salvage a 'Rat debacle in South Vietnam (and even President Ford courageously continued to demand reasonable and necessary levels of aid for South Vietnam, even when there was no chance of Congressional acquiescence). Nixon fought far more effectively than LBJ even with a small fraction of the forces that the 'Rats had committed (in large part simply by doing the bleeding obvious -- bombing the hell out of the North and attacking North Vietnamese forces in Cambodia and Laos) and consequently achieved a peace agreement that the liberals, doves and radicals had all declared impossible.
It's almost as though the 'Rats were determined that the war be lost, and actively and energetically sabotaged both aid and treaty enforcement to acheive the end. We know that the radical left and much of the "peace" movement's leadership desired this, but what is truly shocking, and should be a caution to Americans even today, is the extent to which the behavior of moderate leftists and liberals coincided with the goal of America being shamed and defeated (no matter what the cost in lives to the Indochinese people).