Posted on 08/28/2007 11:57:49 PM PDT by Angel
America's defeat in Vietnam was seemingly a triumph for the anti-war left. Yet the years following that defeat--the era of American retreat and "national malaise"--proved so traumatic that the American people have never wanted to repeat them. Thus, what the anti-war radicals regarded as a vindication ended up discrediting the left on foreign policy for a generation. You could say that they won the political battle over the war--but they lost the peace.
This thesis is still somewhat new and controversial--but there is enough truth to it that it is beginning to stick. There is no doubt that the anti-war left pushed for American failure and accomplished it by persistent and vigorous legislation. And that is the crucial issue. If the architects of the Vietnam War in the Johnson administration can be criticized (as Moyar does) for not doing enough to win the war, the later anti-war left actively pursued American defeat and humiliation as their goal. They didn't merely want us to withdraw; they wanted us to lose, and they did whatever was necessary to make sure that happened.
So instead of being a story of the failure of imperialist, war-mongering Republicans, the Vietnam War was the story of two separate failures by Democrats. The Democrats who started the war held back from using the force necessary to win it--and the Democrats who ended the war deliberately knocked all of the remaining props out from under the South Vietnamese government to ensure the defeat of an American ally.
So the twin pillars of the contemporary Islamist threat--al-Qaeda and the Islamic Republic of Iran--owe their origins to the collapse of American power in the aftermath of the Vietnam War. What new disasters wait to be spawned in the aftermath of a defeat in Iraq?
(Excerpt) Read more at realclearpolitics.com ...
Yeah, liberals really like to screw America over time and time again. Of course, to these leftist A-holes, America doesn’t exist. We’re just part of the global community, so just sit back and smoke a blunt.
And the same worthless garbage that was protesting then are the same people protesting the mission against terrorists now, just the drugs have baked their brains to the point where they probably still think it’s the 60s.
The 60s are over, you saggy old wierdos.
When will these stupid hippies learn to shut up and start acting like real americans?
During Senate floor debate in September 1970, Sen. George McGovern (D) assailed his colleagues for not supporting an amendment that he had cosponsored with Senator Mark Hatfield (R-Oregon) calling for a complete withdrawal of troops from Vietnam:
“Every Senator in this chamber is partly responsible for sending 50,000 young Americans to an early grave... This chamber reeks of blood... it does not take any courage at all for a Congressman or a Senator or a President to wrap himself in the flag and say we are staying in Viet Nam, because it is not our blood that is being shed.” He blamed his colleagues for having contributed to “that human wreckage all across our land — young men without legs or arms or genitals or faces — or hopes.”
Dang, that just has to be a verbatim Murtha speech.
Sure - the politicians and Leftists agitated for surrender and abandonment, rather than pursuing victory..
But - the American people LET them get away with it...
Not a single leftist was “called out”..
Not a single leftist traitor was charged...
Not a single lying politician was tossed out of office.
Not a single enemy of the Republic was found hanging from a light post - anywhere
Most of America was a willing accomplice to defeat in Vietnam....
The Islamist will bring the war to our shores. When enough people here die in multiple attacks the public will eventually demand that it be stopped by any means necessary. At least I think they will...
Remember in those days there was only MSM (main stream media). There was not alternative media or forum to get out the true message.
Thanks for posting. Brilliant analysis. Anyone who lived through the ‘boat people’ period and experienced its effects, especially on the West Coast, will never want to see another such time again.
btt
There were hundreds of thousands of veterans coming home, who could testify to the truth - had any citizens ASKED them.
America elected to ignore them at best and slander or insult them at worse..
America elected to listen to the Democrats, Leftists, Fondas, Kerrys, Communists and all the phony “veterans” in the Fonda/Kerry “veterans against the war” zoo.
Folks should go to that cold stone wall on the Mall, and ask the 58,169 eternally young men there — who betrayed them...
It wouldn’t hurt to ask their forgiveness while they’re there...
...the Vietnam War was the story of two separate failures by Democrats. The Democrats who started the war held back from using the force necessary to win it--and the Democrats who ended the war deliberately knocked all of the remaining props out from under the South Vietnamese government to ensure the defeat of an American ally.
By 1972 most of the south was judged secure and the South Vietnamese armed forces were able to throw back the Easter Offensive with help from lots of American aircraft but few American soldiers. If the US had continued to support Saigon with a small troop presence and substantial supplies, there is every reason to believe that South Vietnam could have survived.... But after the signing of the 1973 Paris Peace Accords, we all but cut off South Vietnam, even while its enemies across the borders continued to be resupplied by their patrons in Moscow and Beijing.
This thesis is still somewhat new and controversial--but there is enough truth to it that it is beginning to stick.
This thesis is new? It's been the thesis I've subscribed to my adult life.
Don’t bet on it. I saw a bumper sticker yesterday that read “9/11 FORGIVE AND FORGET”. The car also had a Hillary ‘08 sticker on it.
Bump.
Sure they can. It was the left that controlled the Congress and voted to cut off funding for the troops.
btt
True --- But the American people let them get away with it.
American stood by silently, and then reelected the bastards.
just remember, the war was started by a democrat.
‘The Democrats who started the war held back from using the force necessary to win it—and the Democrats who ended the war deliberately knocked all of the remaining props out from under the South Vietnamese government to ensure the defeat of an American ally. ‘
Whats telling is most liberals refuse to acknowledge it was Democrats that got us into that mess, it was a Democrat President that lied to congress, and the American people about the Gulf of Tonkin Non-Incident.
I run into these idiots on occasion. After they get done sputtering, in typical cowardly liberal fashion they claim EISENHOWER was to blame for Vietnam....(shakes head).
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