“It’s more accurate to say our country did not fulfill its commitment to South Vietnam,” he said. “By virtue of Vietnam, the U.S. held the line for 10 years and stopped the dominoes from falling.”
He would later say he did not know how history would deal with him.
“Few people have a field command as long as I did,” he said. “They put me over there and they forgot about me. But I was there seven days a week, working 14 to 16 hours a day.
“I have no apologies, no regrets. I gave my very best efforts,” he added. “I’ve been hung in effigy. I’ve been spat upon. You just have to let those things bounce off.”
Later, after many of the wounds caused by the divisive conflict began to heal, Westmoreland led thousands of his comrades in the November, 1982, veterans march in Washington to dedicate the Vietnam War Memorial.
He called it “one of the most emotional and proudest experiences of my life.”
years ago, conservative lore included the thought that the death of Lin Piao in a plane crash in Mongolia while purportedly fleeing from Peking to Moscow, in 1969, broke the Red bloc-- he had supposedly been Moscow's man in Peking. Therefore, losing VN in '75 was a far different proposition than it might have been in '65. I'm ashamed to admit, I don't even know what either Nixon or Kissinger said about this.
As a vet and a part year resident of Thailand, I can attest to his accuracy in this statement. If we had the political will, the tragedies of Laos and Cambodia as well as that of Vietnam would not have happened. As is, Thailand was strengthened as was Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia. The fighting in the Philippines could have been much worse. It is sad what the three dominoes which fell have gone through and are still suffering.
God bless General William Westmoreland. May he rest in peace.