Posted on 04/28/2021 5:31:19 AM PDT by Red Badger
Guest post below and the note I received from the author, a regular here at CFP Nation.
Dear Kane
Today April 28 marks the 46th anniversary of the three day period of the fall of Saigon and the end of the Vietnam War. The evacuation commenced on the 28th with the phrase, “The temperature in Saigon is 105 degrees and rising,” followed by Armed Forces Radio broadcasting Bing Crosby’s singing of “White Christmas” as the signal to begin.
The media barely covers the anniversaries of Pearl Harbor, D-Day and the like anymore. I faithfully scan the sites for any acknowledgement of the events and find nothing. With very little of our WWII and Korean War veterans remaining and CFP populated by Vietnam/Vietnam Era veterans (Dan066, Cat, D-NoMoray, Vietnam Veteran, Corpsman, myself, and others) I offer this as a suggestion.
That event brought on by the democrats of the day defunding the war and abandoning those left to die and succumb to communist rule changed many people to become conservatives. Like myself.
I admire what you did for DanO. It brought me to tears. Thanks.
Sgt Tyree
I don't think about it anymore. I don't talk about it anymore. What a damn tragedy. When I do allow myself to think about VN and those days of the late 60s I get this horrible melancholy feeling. I play with that feeling in my mind for awhile then let it go.
To all my Brothers that served in VN and are still alive, God bless you.
Strength and Honor.
On 28 Apr 1967 was arrived Nakhon Phanom (Naked Phanny) along the Mekong with 56th Air Commando Wg.
I served 3 years there.
The biggest kick in the nuts, was Peter Jennings all bubbly, and like a schoolgirl presenting that news to every TV in America, without one mention of America’s part in all of that. It was a giant “ahemblessum you”.
All of Vietnam, north and south is a little over 1000 miles.
A friend of mine, drove most of the length of the country in a Ford truck for Ford back and forth from Hanoi to Saigon delivering parts when the French ran the place.
She was 4'11" tall, from Berlin, New Hampshire.
On the bombing, I wonder where the 20,000 tons of bombs I helped load for Linebacker II fell, then?
On December 13, 1972 peace talks between the United States and North Vietnam collapsed. The North Vietnamese and American negotiators traded charges and countercharges as to who was to blame.
Infuriated, President Nixon ordered plans drawn up for retaliatory bombings of North Vietnam. Linebacker II was the result.
Beginning on December 18, American B-52s and fighter-bombers dropped over 20,000 tons of bombs on the cities of Hanoi and Haiphong.
Between 1965 and 1975, the United States and its allies dropped more than 7.5 million tons of bombs on Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia—double the amount dropped on Europe and Asia during World War II.
Pound for pound, it remains the largest aerial bombardment in human history.
thats how Biden won his first election...his promise to cut all funding to Vietnam...i guess after 30 years of funding and 52,000 American lives lost, and the country was still that fragile, people here were just tired of it all. It was mostly a peasant society over there and it seemed they just didnt care one way or the other. Its still shocking how stupidly that war was fought...chasing em around in Asian jungles...
most of those bombs were dropped in the South i think...Nixon showed by going after the North, it would have been a much shorter war....the “Christmas bombing” of 1972 scared the hell out of all of em over there, including the Soviets...few weeks after the bombing, presto, war over....
Well, we didn't want to hurt anyone's feelings..
See my post above. We dropped "a few" bombs on North Vietnam.
The problem was the democrat congress and LBJ micro managed the bombing and wouldn't let us bomb a lot of targets that mattered.
Plus, the "smart bomb" hadn't been developed yet, so a lot of the bombs fell in the jungle with no effect.
One target the USAF wanted to hit was a power dam that provided most of the electricity for North Vietnam.
Congress wouldn't let us hit it unless the USAF could guarantee hitting only the generators, not the dam.
It was above Hanoi, and congresscritters didn't want to flood the city.
The good news is, that was one of the major reasons the USAF developed smart bombs, which have served us well since.<
If I recall right, congress wouldn't let us hit the docks at Haiphong harbor, where all of the supplied from the USSR were off loaded, as we might hit a Soviet ship.
The South Vietnamese lost five times as many troops and many civilians; when you see them streaming onto helicopters and boats at the end, you realize how many of them cared - they just ran out of ammo.
I understand why Americans wouldn’t want US boots on the ground; Biden and company simply deserted an ally after our troops had been gone for two years.
This was before I was in the USAF:
On 31 December 1967, the Department of Defense announced that 864,000 tons of American bombs had been dropped on North Vietnam during Rolling Thunder, compared with 653,000 tons dropped during the entire Korean War and 503,000 tons in the Pacific theater during the Second World War.
How the liberals demanded we NOT fight the war was why all of my wife’s WWII veteran family decided never to allow their sons to go their. We were not allowed to go into North Vietnam, bomb them, or harm their ports or cities in any way as to not hurt Russia or China. It wasn’t a war that could ever be won that way. Why die for a losing battle.
Thank you all who served.I am old enough to remember,but not old enough to have gone.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PCJ_ywoqdbs
Charlie Daniels- Still in Saigon
I lived in Saigon from 69 till it fell. My parents were missionaries and I ran all over that city and Ton Sa Nhut airbase on my 50 cc Honda. I was away in the PI when it fell.
My father had sent my mom to the states and was assisting in evacuations.
He eventually was airlifted off of BOQ1 out the USS Coral Sea I believe then on to Subic.
I flew back to the states alone without knowing where anybody was. Wild times for a 14 year old.
THAT would make a great movie!
You should write a book!............
I honor the men that went to Vietnam and fought.
After the war, when so many came home and were treated as pariahs or psychopaths in entertainment, media, and society, and those of us who felt differently, to our shame, stayed silent...well, I vowed I would never allow that to happen within my eyesight or earshot again to any of our servicemen.
I make a pointed effort to say to every single Vietnam Vet I meet and shake their hand: “Thank you, and Welcome Home.”
And I mean it.
and Rolling Thunder simply didnt work...the flow of men and supplies increased year after year when RT was started, culminating in the massive TET offensive in 68...bombing the same bridges year after year...bombing camp fires in the jungle...Johnson actually picking the targets from the Oval Office..the whole thing was just nuts...
def an “historic war” and for probably all the wrong reasons...my older sisters “generation” fought that war, and when i see films or reports and see the young men from that era...man, they paid for that war both here and over there. Those guys fought like fkn tigers over there...under horrible leadership, and yet they still went and did the job. Nothing but respect and admiration for Vietnam Vets....
I have deep respect for all that had served, and the loss was a tragedy for the South Vietnamese.
For America leaving has proven to be the correct choice. In the last 46 years Vietnam may be a communist dictorship, but they have caused us no problems.
That is a bit more than my coming home after my hitch on a tow boat for a month to find everyone had gone on vacation for two weeks just before I arrived back home at 18.
So it goes.
A friend came home from college only to find his house sold and the family moved from Oklahoma to Alaska. Never told him. He had to figure out where they had gone.
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