Confusion over the Vietnam War [Veterans Please Bring Input]

[vigilence]

The Viet Nam war was the defining issue of my generation and continues to be to this day. I lost four years of my life to the conflict but consider it to be one of the best things I've ever volunteered to do.We still hear echoes from the war in the form of politicians using it for their own interests to this very day (Daschle, Gore, Kerrey etc.). I personally think that , historically, the Viet Nam conflict was only one battle of the overall war between Communism and Democracy that was fought on all continents but mainly between the US and the USSR. So, in that context, who won the war? We basically opposed them on all fronts and bled them dry economically. The USSR spent billions in Viet Nam and never recovered. Although many countries stll call themselves Communist they are little more than Socialist states with ruling dictators that control their military. But America is stll a democratic republic and the Soviet Union ceases to exist and in fact is closer to democracy than it's former client states.

[laconic]

Robert McNamara is the Rosetta Stone of the failure of the Vietnam War. Robert Strange McNamara was the single most incompetent, stealthy, dishonest, disloyal individual ever to hold a high position in the US government. It was this corrupt and venal simpleton who devised the body count strategy of the war, and when it turned south on him, he hightailed it out of the Administration to the safety of the World Bank and the Georgetown cocktail parties, where he did everything he could to screw those who had to conduct his idiot strategy. He has since become a leading apologist for Bill Clinton's draft dodging of HIS War. While in charge of the war, he allowed his draft-deferred son and his wife to lead antiwar demonstrations (it was HIS war!) and lodged demonstrators in the basement of his HOUSE while American men were dying BECAUSE OF HIM. This utterly immoral and unethical individual was one of Washington Post publisher Katherine Graham's closest friends and to this day, sits on the Post's board of directors. That should tell you everything you need to know about that newspaper.

[Minutes]

I need to give this some thought....

[fuzzthatwuz]

"Don't forget about the 50,000 American Servicemen lost in the line of duty also."

I won't forget, nor will many freepers, but those numbers simply do not compute in a Democratic Party agenda. They, under LBJ and gang, darn near wiped out the American spirit. Thank GOD it is back!!

[JLO]

vigilence, you posted a very good, thought-provoking post.