DMZFrank
Thank you for your service! I was in high school and college during the Viet Nam war, and joined the Navy in Dec. 1974. I was in OCS with a number of people who had, as enlisted in the Navy, served in Viet Nam. I got lots of information from them that was never discussed by the MSM. In April 1975, with the fall of South Viet Nam, some of these Officer Candidates were so disgusted with the betrayal of the South Vietnamese allies by the U.S., because of Congress's actions, that they stated that they felt their sacrifices (and those of many who paid the ultimate price) had been devalued and discarded. Many of them removed the ribbons and medals that had been earned in Viet Nam.
There is lots of information available about how all the battles and war were won in the field, but the "5th column" back home was ready to rip defeat from the jaws of victory. People like Jane Fonda, who stated that if we knew what communism was, we would be on our knees praying for communism to come to the U.S., were doing everything possible to prevent the communists from loosing.
J.F.Kerry went out of his way to lie, and smear the veterans. There is adequate information available to refute the many lies that are still perpetrated by the Main (Lame) Stream Media. The Viet Nam vets are claimed to be suffering from PTSD, were uneducatd, have high rates of suicide, drug use, etc. Bill Burkett wrote a book (Stolen Valor) to clearly prove that those MSM "facts" are lies ... yet the MSM continues to follow liberal lies - becuase to do otherwise, would undercut their messages.
The failure of the U.S. to support South Viet Nam in 1974 was costly - it cost the people of South East Asia big time. Hundreds of thousands died, millions put in "re-education camps" (variations of the Soviet Gulag). Cambodia didn't fear the U.S., and Pol Pot's regime proceeded with "cleansing" (a polite name for mass murder that killed almost 2 million people.) Those deaths are on the Democrat party - because that is the result that they were willing to accept. The Democrats don't want the U.S. to be a world power, and don't want impediments to a "global world community" that embraces the U.N. and all things socialist.
Now - the Democrats are more willing to accept the risk of turmoil in the Middle East when they might be able to defeat the Republican Party, using the same tactics they used 30+ years ago. The Democrat party is the same party that used tactics that led this country to Civil War in 1861 - they didn't mind slavery and separation into the C.S.A. and U.S.A. was okay by them. After the Civil War, the Democrat party was the "insurgency" - as they worked above board to repeal Republican-passed Civil Rights legislation and to pass onerous laws that targeted the African-Americans, and below-board - as the K.K.K. As the Democrats didn't care about the oppression of the black man, the Democrats today don't care about the oppression of the Arab. Iraq has an insurgency that is a very active minority (similar to the KKK of the 1870's and 1880's). But today, the Republicans must fight for the 90% of the Iraqi's that want us to succeed. In the U.S., the insurgency was actually very successful, and the Republicans were driven out of the South - and the blacks suffered for many more years - all due to the Democrats.
Bottom line - the failures of U.S. policy can be laid at the feet of the Democrat party.
Mike