Ken who? Is that the guy who won a ton of money of Jeopardy or some other liberal named Ken?
The stated goal in SE Asia was to stop the domino effect of countries in the region falling to communism. That was accomplished. So did we really lose the war?
We should have decided to win. democrats decided we should lose instead.
For younger freepers: the Democrats, led by FDR wannabe and scoundrel Lyndon “Stolen Valor” Johnson, ginned-up the Vietnam war.
Despite saying, “We are not about to send American boys 9 or 10 thousand miles away from home to do what Asian boys ought to be doing for themselves.” - Lyndon B. Johnson, the Democrats loved dishonest double-talk, even then.
Then ... they lost interest (”War is hard ... “) and bailed, started blaming Nixon and back-biting our troops & CICh until Congress cut funding.
Like Pepperidge Farms, those of us alive then—we remember. We Americans didn’t lose a major battle, starting with the Ia Drang valley in `65.
Our troops were the willing, led by the unknowing, and did the impossible for the ungrateful.
This is all on the `rats. They own the Vietnam debacle.
All in all, I'd say LBJ and McNamara have borne the brunt of the scorn. But that could also be my personal point of view being confirmed.
Of course, the left has diligently worked for 40 years to remove patriotism and pride in country from our skools, they don’t want today’s young people to be exposed to that kind of thinking now.
Which is EXACTLY why I didn't even bother to tune in to watch the show. FU Ken Burns!
Burns did the same distorted versions of history re the Civil War and WWII. It is all about social justice and aggrieved minorities.
The so-called anti-war movement was actually the catalyst for my turning to the right.
I was brought up by New Deal Democrat parents, and considered myself a liberal. But the smugness of the Left in their hatred for America, and the group-think that was evident amongst the anti-war demonstrators, all turned me off.
In the 1972 presidential election, though I was a registered Democrat at the time, I could not make myself pull the lever for the insufferable George McGovern.
some times media build for themselves “respectability”.
e.g CNN (”America’s news source”), Ken Burns (”he does deep and well researched documentaries....”), Tom Brokaw (didn’t he write “The Greatest Generation”?).
So they are not questioned. And for that reason, they are able to subtly put forth propaganda in the form or balanced news/information.
And for that reason, their are dangerous with out a free press that can and should respond.
A free, mainstream, press, which we do not have
Kenny should stick with baseball.
Schmuck!
America had a great military and of course smart people only the libs would try to slant that. What we didn’t have was leadership up the food chain. I have read books that claimed LBJ saw himself as some great military leader and he so wanted to be a hero he tried to micromanage the war from the oval office- with detailed maps trying to tell military leadership what to do next and how to do it.
Of course anyone like that is going to make sure they have people at the top of the military that agree with them or are at least willing to support their decisions 1000%. Those military leaders that really knew what was going on, those that were there in Vietnam, in the field with the soldiers were not listened to. The top of the food chain makes decisions those at the bottom have to deal with or die from or what have you.
In the beginning the Vietnam War had the support of the American people (we can all argue whether we should have been involved or timing or whatever) but as the war moved forward there was weakness from lack of/terrible leadership which gave an opening to the liberal protestors and of course they took that opening and ran with it.
I don’t blame the protestors for the outcome; I do blame them for their disrespect for this country and for their despicable treatment of our military. The truth is the liberals have always hated the military, they do now. With the complete lack of leadership then they could freely disrespect our military and get away with it. I hated them protesting when they were doing it, hate it now but they weren’t the main cause of the outcome, they just used that war to further their cause.
Don’t forget the role our wonderful media played either. Any success on our part was ignore or downplayed. Any weakness on our part was magnified out of proportion. Support or patriotism was ridiculed or downplayed and liberals protesting was supported. Most Americans trusted the media then, so it demoralized and eroded the support of many average Americans. The media started the body count game, further weakening resolve of support.
After all of this- the last time I looked in a school history text book, the Vietnam War had about one page and was referred to as “Nixon’s War” no mention of LBJ whatsoever. Great example of liberal history revision right there.
Liberals did all the same things they do now, we just didn’t realize it when it was happening then.
Bttt for later reading
Hanoi John Effin’ Kerry is a prime example of what you refer to. The North couldn’t possibly fear troops like him.
PS We didn’t “lose”. Those spineless maggots in DC gave up on us and sold us out.
Semper Fi, Brother!
Main problem was that Washington was looking at Vietnam through the prism of the Korean War experience. Hardest thing to do is not re-fight the last war.
It's a long, complicated series that says a lot of different things. Burns doesn't think we could have won the war. But he also shows Vietnamese who fought against us and now question whether all the bloodshed was necessary.
I don't think Burns slights the patriotism and pride of those who fought. He does show some things that maybe the soldiers weren't proud of, but he has respect and sympathy for those who fought and what they went through.
The show was ambivalent about the anti-war protestors. Burns agrees with them, but the program argues that much of the protesting was about self-interest, rather than moral principles.
Did you see this thread?
The key to real history will be that he shows that we won the war and got our prisoners back and came home. Only 5000 Americans remained when the communists broke the Paris treaty and invaded the south because the Democrat congress after the resignation of Nixon stopped funding or supplying the South with critically need military supply . This left the South helpless against the second invasion . The communist then slaughtered over a million South Vietnam civilians. What I write here is absolute historic fact. Let’s see how burns covered up what the Democrats did to the free south Vietnamese.
Well, well, well. They just showed the “hero” John McCain interviewed in the Hanoi Hilton. It added nothing to the documentary.
He said to tell his wife he loved her. He didn’t say he would one day divorce her so he could marry a wealthy beer distributor’s daughter so he could get elected to Congress.
Oh, how I despise him.