we didn't lose... we QUIT!!!Then, two years later, the North violated their own treaty and invaded.
We simple did not re-engage and continued a percipitous withdrawal.
It was a shameful display by our politicians. We lost politically as almost all of the enemy leaders wrote in their memoirs, even though they admitted to losing time and again, and abjectly, militarily on the battlefield.
It has taken us decades to overcome it and now we have a candidate who wants to repeat the same mistake again.
Democrat Congress defunded South Vietnam, and it fell.
Bull Sh**. The only answer to this is that the US did NOT lose the war. The politicians forced a withdrawal on us. The Vietcong was done, we won but the MSM lied and more soldiers died. There are no various answers, only one truthful answer. The US was betrayed by the left wing media and by communist a**hats such as Jane Fonda. I was there, I lived through it. Tout your “it depends on your point of view” somewhere else. We lost because the frickin’ communist traitors here in the US forced it on us.
ABC, CBS, NBC, NYT...
There is one thing about it which struck me as the only thing that mattered. The French were out numbered something like 100 to 1 and fought about as well as any soldiers have ever fought. The Communists were not brilliant or brave or anything heroic. They simply overwhelmed the French. After they won, they then demonstrated real brutality toward their victims.
The reason Saigon fell was also the fact that the South Vietnamese Army had no arms with which to fight for their own country, courtesy of the US Congress controlled by Democrats reneging on treaty obligations.
..the only thing we lost in Viet Nam was a propaganda war.
We simply withdrew and the political left made sure that the Communists defeated S. Viet Nam--We Did Not Lose...
The Vietnam War was a win.
The purpose was to stop the advance of Communism. North Vietnam could have been taken in any given three week period, but that was not the purpose.
Communism stopped right there. The Leftists and Fellow Travellers never saw that and still don’t.
12. We lost the war because John Kerry only stayed 3 months. Had he stayed the full tour of duty, he would have won the war by himself.
The question should be, “How did the US lose the Vietnam War after winning it?”
Answer: the commie-symp Congress
Why did ted kennedy leave a young girl to drown,why did walter cronkite stand up and point at a map?
We lost in Vietnam because we took too long. The American people stuck by us for nearly eight long years as our government diddled (LBJ choosing which targets we could strike in the North, etc.), our combat leadership failed to adapt to the enemy's tactics or just reacted too slowly, and bit by bit, the enemy won the propaganda war by influencing the "peace" movement, our media, then the American people.
Our leaders completely underestimated the size, capabilities and resiliency of the North Vietnamese and the Viet Cong and wasted incalculable amounts of lives and treasure by applying inappropriate weapons and tactics in what was a true counterinsurgency war. The South Vietnamese were good people and they deserved to be saved from the Communists but we did not succeed.
I will never regret fighting in the Vietnam War nor stop cherishing the fellow soldier, sailors and Marines that fought there with me, but unless we ferret out and face the truths of that war, we will not have faithfully served this generation of warriors.
After hearing that, "Uncle Walt" went on the air with his "Broadcast from Vietnam" and told the American people
We have been too often disappointed by the optimism of the American leaders, both in Vietnam and Washington, to have faith any longer in the silver linings they find in the darkest clouds. They may be right, that Hanoi's winter-spring offensive has been forced by the Communist realization that they could not win the longer war of attrition, and that the Communists hope that any success in the offensive will improve their position for eventual negotiations. It would improve their position, and it would also require our realization, that we should have had all along, that any negotiations must be that-negotiations, not the dictation of peace terms. For it seems now more certain than ever that the bloody experience of Vietnam is to end in a stalemate. This summer's almost certain standoff will either end in real give-and-take negotiations or terrible escalation; and for every means we have to escalate, the enemy can match us, and that applies to invasion of the North, the use of nuclear weapons, or the mere commitment of one hundred, or two hundred, or three hundred thousand more American troops to the battle. And with each escalation, the world comes closer to the brink of cosmic disaster.
To say that we are closer to victory today is to believe, in the face of the evidence, the optimists who have been wrong in the past. To suggest we are on the edge of defeat is to yield to unreasonable pessimism. To say that we are mired in stalemate seems the only realistic, yet unsatisfactory, conclusion. On the off chance that military and political analysts are right, in the next few months we must test the enemy's intentions, in case this is indeed his last big gasp before negotiations. But it is increasingly clear to this reporter that the only rational way out then will be to negotiate, not as victors, but as an honorable people who lived up to their pledge to defend democracy, and did the best they could.
This is Walter Cronkite. Good night.
Thus began the age of the MSM dictating US policy, both abroad and domestic having never been elected or appointed by the American people.
Ooo! Ooo! I know the answer to that one: Because Walter Cronkeit lied every night to SeeBS’s huge, gullible audience, telling them that the US was losing the war, thus eroding support of our military during wartime.
Giap couldn’t believe his good fortune in having dolts such as LBJ and McNamara in charge of the war, and the Left in charge of the rabble on both our coasts.
Why in the world would any sane voter put a Democrat in office as CIC after the disastrous experiences we have had?
Yes, the present divisions date from then, when the Dems were taken over by the McGovernites and threw out the Jackson Democrats.
Find out how someone feels about the Vietnam War and abortion and you pretty much know where they stand these days.
It's kinda like their template for Iraq...
The real answer begins with a clear understanding that the ‘Vietnam War’ [sic] was actually the Vietnam campaign in WW III (a.k.a. the Cold War).
The campaign was a military success, but treasonous elements in the United States Congress prevented the accords which lead to the American withdrawal from being carried out: we were supposed to bomb the bejeezus out of North Vietnam if they invaded after we pulled out, and we didn’t.
As a result the fruits of the successful military campaign were lost and South Vietnam fell under Communist domination.
Again thanks to all WW III vets, whatever campaign you served in, and congratulations on whatever role you played in the victory we won with the collapse of the Soviet Union.
we didn't lose... we QUIT!!! Haiphong harbor is an unusual harbor. It is man made not natural. It needed to be dredged if large ships carrying the materials of war were to enter this harbor. All we needed to was BOMB THE DREDGING EQUIPMENT,and if it was replaced bomb it again. The politicians who were no more than traitors REFUSED to allow the DREDGING equipment to bombed. Our so called allies and who knows maybe traitorous profiteers among never lost the ability to provide the North war supplies through Haiphong Harbor.
Walter Crankcase.