Posted on 12/03/2007 3:23:05 PM PST by STARWISE
"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."
— George Santayana from "Reason in Common Sense"
Despite the hope that we can learn from past mistakes and not repeat them, history suggests it is counterintuitive to actually believe it could be so.
We won every military engagement of the Vietnam War yet Walter Cronkite and the American media conspired with the enemy to do what the North Vietnamese could not do on the battlefield.
General Võ Nguyên Giáp, who was the commander of the North Vietnamese army, has published his memoirs. He has confirmed what most Americans either knew or suspected. The war in southeast Asia was not lost in Vietnam.
It was lost here at home.
The American media, enabling and functioning as symbiots for the John Kerry anti-war gaggle accomplished in a few short years what Giap could not do in three decades of fighting.
Giap was an immensely accomplished general, highly respected (some say brilliant). Before, during and after his martial career, he was a scholar, journalist, historian, and philosopher.
The following quote is from his memoirs currently found in the Vietnam War memorial in Hanoi:
"What we still don't understand is why you Americans stopped the bombing of Hanoi. You had us on the ropes.
If you had pressed us a little harder, just for another day or two, we were ready to surrender! It was the same at the battles of TET. You defeated us! We knew it, and we thought you knew it.
But we were elated to notice your media was definitely helping us. They were causing more disruption in America than we could in the battlefields. We were ready to surrender. You had won!"
Giap knew we had crushed his Army in the battles of Tet. Our generals and soldiers knew we had won. But when ‘Uncle Walter’ told the American people that February in 1968, “Who won and who lost in the great Tet offensive against the cities? I'm not sure.”, waffling public opinion changed. Cronkite may not have been sure but Gen. Giap sure knew.
Not unlike Gen. Robert E. Lee who supposedly said, "“It appears we have appointed our worst generals to command forces, and our most gifted and brilliant to edit newspapers.” "General" Cronkite apparently had greater insight and omniscience than Gens. Giap and Westmoreland.
Cronkite said, “The Vietcong did not win by a knockout, but neither did we. The referees of history may make it a draw.”
No it wasn’t even close to a draw . . . and Giap understood, if the nattering nabobs didn’t. However, that lesson ignored does underscore that the media is the first draft of history, and their errors, omissions and prejudices are obvious in their copy.
The French ran away from Vietnam previous to our flight. When it became plain that France was becoming involved in a long-drawn-out war, the French government tried to negotiate an agreement with the Vi?t Minh. H? Chí Minh and the other indigenous leaders did not trust the word of the French (good call) and continued the war.
Five specific reasons led to the French bailing:
1. Significant numbers of French troops were killed, wounded or captured between 1946 and 1952;
2. The cost of the war had been twice what they were getting from the United States under the Marshall Plan;
3. After seven years, the prospect of a French victory was slim to none.
4. Popular French opinion concluded France did not have any moral justification for being in Vietnam;
5. Parts of the French left supported the goals of the Vi?t Minh to form a socialist state.
Fast forward to today.
1. Although battlefield survivability is greater in Iraq than any previous war, deaths and injuries are the focus of the news.
2. Wars cost big money.
3. A quick clean victory is elusive and unlikely.
4. The drive by media continues to pick at scabs over why we are there.
5. The anti-war left is . . . the anti-war, left wing, left.
Cronkite concluded his broadcast that night in 1968 saying, “But it is increasingly clear to this reporter that the only rational way out then will be to negotiate, not as victors . . .”
Several of the ’08 presidential wannabes likewise say we should stack arms and "negotiate."
John Stuart Mill once observed, "War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things: the decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks nothing worth a war, is worse . . ."
Ultimately, the most committed wins, and to date commitment to victory isn't our long suit. Anything we do or don't do that encourages further aggression is unacceptable. We cannot and should not reward the enemy with political, economic and diplomatic efforts.
The most committed wins!
~~~~
RUSH: How many of you remember the name General Giap from the North Vietnamese army? General Giap, G-i-a-p is how you spell it, but pronounce it General Giap. He was a very famous, knowledgeable general in the North Vietnamese army.
He's published his memoirs and here's a pull quote:
"What we still don't understand is why you Americans stopped the bombing of Hanoi. You had us on the ropes. If you had pressed us a little harder, just for another day or two, we were ready to surrender.
It was the same at the battle of Tet. You defeated us. We knew it. We thought you knew it. But we were elated to notice that your media was definitely helping us. They were causing more disruption in America than we could in the battlefield. We were ready to surrender. You had won."
He makes the point the Vietnam War was not lost in Vietnam; it was lost here.
That's why I keep telling everybody that the Drive-Bys were trying to do the same thing in Iraq that they did in Vietnam for a host of reasons, not the least of which among them was to reestablish their own ability to influence people into the United States losing a war that the media was opposed to.
Scary, scary stuff.
PING~~!
We were sure as hell winning when I was medevaced out!
General Giap is a more honorable man than John Kerry........
General Giap is an honorable man. John Kerry is a traitorous dog!
I had General Giap’s book. He also said that he was ready to give up when he noticed that the anti-war demonstrators were starting to have an effect. The anti-war demonstrations gave him the courage to keep fighting.
Good post and it belies the childhood words; “Sticks and stones may break our bones but words can never harm us”!!
Nowadays careless, mean and radical words are doing irreparable harm in every venue of our lives!
We were engaged with the enemy during TET and killed piles, heaps of them. Though we suffered some deaths and many wounded, there is no doubt we held our ground and eliminated the threat in our AO by the next day. We had the ammo and wherewithall to eliminate more but did not. We didn’t run out of artillary support or Air Force/Navy dropped Napham or CBUs.
Yet, upon returning stateside months later, we heard that we had “lost” the Tet offensive. What a load of horsecrap. That is the moment that confirmed what I was starting to believe, that there was a conspiracy amongst our news media and somebody was telling a huge lie, betraying our men and women in uniform for the sake of a bunch of hippies. Cronkite confirmed it.
We quit in VietNam and General Giap confirmed what Osama Bin Laden hoped - that we were weak willed and uncommitted to preserving our freedom. If not for President Bush, we all would be shopping for sheets - to wear on our heads.
Thanks for posting this. I like this quote:
“It appears we have appointed our worst generals to command forces, and our most gifted and brilliant to edit newspapers.” ~Gen. Robert E. Lee
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Why the smart money is on Duncan Hunter
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1926032/posts
Posted on 11/15/2007 3:43:17 AM PST by Kevmo
It was the same at the battle of Tet. You defeated us. We knew it. We thought you knew it. But we were elated to notice that your media was definitely helping us. They were causing more disruption in America than we could in the battlefield. We were ready to surrender. You had won.”
Do you know which Giap book that is pulled from? I’ve read and have People’s War, People’s Army, How we won the War, and still don’t know where those quotes come from. They are pretty much Communist puff pieces, does he have other memoirs?
God bless you for your service and
the service of all our troops, past
and present.
thanks you. It was an honor to serve.
“But we were elated to notice your media was definitely helping us. They were causing more disruption in America than we could in the battlefields. We were ready to surrender. You had won!” ................... OK, I’m baffled. Where is this quote written? Someone tell me the book title and exact page on which this appears. I want to show it to my Liberal friends. In fact I’ll have it framed and given to them for Christmas presents.
Thanks for the ping. I also heard Rush talking about it on his program today.
Too bad the MSM will bury this because it exposes them for the anti-American defeatists they are.
General Giap was a worthy adversary and honorable man. J F’n K was/is nothing more than a mealymouthed charlatan and traitorous SOB not worthy to lick the sweat off....... you get the picture.
I knew this in 1968 when I was doing my job listening to NVA radio ops in the aftermath of the Spring Offensive in which the NFL completely ceased to be represented by living southerners and the NVA was shredded yet again. All they wanted was out.
I take it that you are not the lady with two kids who spit on me in SFO in '72.
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