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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 10,997 Likes: 3
Campfire Outfitter
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Campfire Outfitter
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 10,997 Likes: 3 |
While not all were “true patriots”, they were all soldiers that faced the same horrors of war. They should have all been treated with respect....then and now! I know several that served, and are very “bitter” toward our government. Sadly, they have justified anger! memtb
You should not use a rifle that will kill an animal when everything goes right; you should use one that will do the job when everything goes wrong." -Bob Hagel
“I’d like to be a good rifleman…..but, I prefer to be a good hunter”! memtb 2024
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Campfire Outfitter
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Campfire Outfitter
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T R U T H............ That title says it all. Excellent well written piece. I wish that I were that articulate. I was scheduled to arrive in Nam in the spring of 1970. My orders were cancelled ( along with a ton of other guys) about Feb. 1970. Nobody knew why; until months later, summer of '70 IIRC, that Pres. Nixon announced troop reductions. So I and a bunch of other guys didn't go. But of course, that didn't stop us from getting called "Baby Killers", by our wonderful civilian contemporaries of our own age bracket. Back then if you were in a marine or army uniform, or possibly any branch uniform, you automatically qualified as a "Baby Killer". I was brought up in a pretty conservative environment around lots of WW2 / Korean vets including my dad and uncles, teachers, scoutmasters, etc. and this hate filled crap given to so many members of our military back then was my first real world taste of liberalism courtesy of our oh-so tolerant, diverse, left wing, faction of the political spectrum. Today, they'd probably fit descriptions like "snowflakes", "social justice warriors", or maybe even Antifa members. They were alive and well even in the Vietnam era; just under different names.
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Joined: Jan 2015
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Campfire Regular
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Campfire Regular
Joined: Jan 2015
Posts: 2,693 Likes: 1 |
I hope they are turning up the heat on LBJ Amen. Between Viet Nam and the Great Society, he was the president who did the most and longest-lasting damage to this country.
The biggest problem our country has is not systemic racism, it's systemic stupidity.
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Joined: Feb 2019
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New Member
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New Member
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MACV, 34th Aviation Group, US Army. 65-66
Well said. I have no guilt whatsoever.
If you follow Joe Galloway on Facebook you might be surprised at what a Liberal POS he has become.
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 10,997 Likes: 3
Campfire Outfitter
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Campfire Outfitter
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 10,997 Likes: 3 |
I hope they are turning up the heat on LBJ Amen. Between Viet Nam and the Great Society, he was the president who did the most and longest-lasting damage to this country. 👍 memtb
You should not use a rifle that will kill an animal when everything goes right; you should use one that will do the job when everything goes wrong." -Bob Hagel
“I’d like to be a good rifleman…..but, I prefer to be a good hunter”! memtb 2024
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Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 26,337
Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
Joined: Aug 2005
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we've all got our own perspectives no matter how old, or what role or peripheral role we might have had in that war.
there's no winning or losing it now, for sure.
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Joined: Jan 2012
Posts: 26,577 Likes: 3
Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
Joined: Jan 2012
Posts: 26,577 Likes: 3 |
Thanks to ALL of you that served there and ALL others that serve.
FJB & FJT
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Joined: Aug 2003
Posts: 10,262
Campfire Outfitter
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Campfire Outfitter
Joined: Aug 2003
Posts: 10,262 |
I left there in 1970.. I was in a HQ for a while ( I can't tell you which one) but I could plainely see we were winning the war and if we had stayed about 6 more months from the time we pulled out it would of been a different story.. I was really shocked when they decided to pull out. I couldent believe it....I wanted to go back and kick some more azz...
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Joined: Dec 2002
Posts: 25,954 Likes: 9
Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
Joined: Dec 2002
Posts: 25,954 Likes: 9 |
I have never understood why so many of the great singers and great songs they wrote...got it so wrong. That is not hard to understand. Those songs were written and performed by Communists. The forerunners to what the Democrats have become today.
People who choose to brew up their own storms bitch loudest about the rain.
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Joined: May 2003
Posts: 13,402 Likes: 4
Campfire Outfitter
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Campfire Outfitter
Joined: May 2003
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MACV, 34th Aviation Group, US Army. 65-66
Well said. I have no guilt whatsoever.
If you follow Joe Galloway on Facebook you might be surprised at what a Liberal POS he has become. I don't do Facebook. What is Galloway saying that indicates he's turned liberal?? L.W.
"Always go straight forward, and if you meet the devil, cut him in two and go between the pieces." (William Sturgis, clipper ship captain, 1830s.)
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Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
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Posts: 23,319 |
. . . Back then if you were in a marine or army uniform, or possibly any branch uniform, you automatically qualified as a "Baby Killer.". . . Ironic, that these same long-haired, dope smoking hippies, who are the leaders of the Demonrat Party today, were crying "baby killers" back then, but support real baby killing since 1974 in Roe v Wade.
"All that the South has ever desired was that the Union, as established by our forefathers, should be preserved, and that the government, as originally organized, should be administered in purity and truth." – Robert E. Lee
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Campfire Tracker
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Campfire Tracker
Joined: Dec 2005
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Padded VA Hospital Rooms for $1000 Alex My ignoree,s will never be Rock Stars on 24 hr campfire.....Like me!!!! What are psychotic puppet hunters?
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Campfire Oracle
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Campfire Oracle
Joined: Jan 2016
Posts: 95,788 Likes: 4 |
We could have won that war if our military had been allowed to take off the soft gloves, but it went on far too long with no end in sight, mismanaged to a fare-thee-well by the White House and became America’s misery. Through it all, even the betrayals from home, we fought well and never lost one significant battle. Good write up, but the best paragraph is above. miles And that is why there was shame associatedcwith that war, the loss of which most normal Americans were reminded was due to them and their lack of support and the Govts lack of support and not due to the great American boys sent there and hung out to dry. Returning troops reminded most Americans of that unhappy fact. The msm did their best to focus on the antiwar bums as right minded people in their never ending antiAmerican efforts. Those who have an accident and kill or cripple innocents are reminded of their error any time they see the friends and relatives of those they hurt. I never heard of any normal folks ashamed of our troops in that effort, though the msm so successfully portrayed it.
Ecc 10:2 The heart of the wise inclines to the right, but that of a fool to the left.
A Nation which leaves God behind is soon left behind.
"The Lord never asked anyone to be a tax collector, lowyer, or Redskins fan".
I Dindo Nuffin
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Campfire Kahuna
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Campfire Kahuna
Joined: May 2004
Posts: 56,174 Likes: 16 |
Anyone know why this bish visited the north instead of the south? 'Cause she wouldn't have survived 5 minutes in the south.
I am..........disturbed.
Concerning the difference between man and the jackass: some observers hold that there isn't any. But this wrongs the jackass. -Twain
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Joined: Feb 2019
Posts: 7
New Member
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New Member
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MACV, 34th Aviation Group, US Army. 65-66
Well said. I have no guilt whatsoever.
If you follow Joe Galloway on Facebook you might be surprised at what a Liberal POS he has become. I don't do Facebook. What is Galloway saying that indicates he's turned liberal?? L.W. I was Facebook friends with him as I was in the area when that battle was going on, but he has blocked me from commenting anymore. He is vicious in his comments on Trump and the Republicans. I don't mean critical, Vicious! Just another typical liberal journalist.
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Joined: May 2003
Posts: 13,402 Likes: 4
Campfire Outfitter
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Campfire Outfitter
Joined: May 2003
Posts: 13,402 Likes: 4 |
MACV, 34th Aviation Group, US Army. 65-66
Well said. I have no guilt whatsoever.
If you follow Joe Galloway on Facebook you might be surprised at what a Liberal POS he has become. I don't do Facebook. What is Galloway saying that indicates he's turned liberal?? L.W. I was Facebook friends with him as I was in the area when that battle was going on, but he has blocked me from commenting anymore. He is vicious in his comments on Trump and the Republicans. I don't mean critical, Vicious! Just another typical liberal journalist. Thanks for the information. I never figured Galloway for a left winger. L.W.
"Always go straight forward, and if you meet the devil, cut him in two and go between the pieces." (William Sturgis, clipper ship captain, 1830s.)
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Posts: 5,682
Campfire Tracker
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Campfire Tracker
Joined: Feb 2004
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A friend sent me this.
T R U T H
The Vietnam War
by Terry Garlock, Peachtree City, GA
Well into the autumn of my life, I am occasionally reminded the end is not too far over the horizon. Mortality puts thoughts in my head, like “What have I done to leave this world a better place?”
There actually are a few things that I think made my existence worthwhile. I will tell you just one of them, because so many of you need to hear it.
No matter how much this rubs the wrong way, I am quite proud to have served my Country in The Vietnam War. Yes, I know, most of you were taught there is shame attached to any role in the war that America lost, an unfortunate mistake, an immoral war, an unwise intrusion into a civil war, a racist war, a war in which American troops committed widespread atrocities, where America had no strategic interest, and that our North Vietnamese enemy was innocently striving to re-unite Vietnam.
The problem is, none of those things are true. That didn’t stop America over the last 50 years lapping up this Kool-Aid concocted by the anti-war machine, a loose confederation of protesting activists, the mainstream news media and academia. They opposed the war with loud noise, half-truths and fabrications. They are the ones who still write their version in our schoolbooks, and their account of history conveniently excuses themselves for cowardly encouraging our enemy while we were at war. You see, having the right to protest does not necessarily make it the right or honorable thing to do.
So, yes, I am defiantly proud to have been among those who raised our right hand swearing to do our duty for our country while so many others yelled and screamed and marched, burned their draft cards, declared, ”Hell no! I won’t go!” and some fled to Canada. In that period of uncomfortable controversy, even patriots tended to look the other way when activists heartily insulted American troops as they returned through California airports from doing the country’s hardest work in Vietnam. War correspondent Joe Galloway summed it up nicely in a column about Vietnam vets in the Chicago Tribune long ago; “They were the best you had, America, and you turned your back on them.”
To be sure, there were lots of warts and wrinkles in the war. We were fighting a tough Communist enemy, defending South Vietnam’s right to remain free. At the same time we were betrayed by our own leadership in the White House with their incompetent micromanagement and idiotic war-fighting limitations that got thousands of us killed while preventing victory. And we were betrayed by fellow citizens encouraging our enemy.
I was trained to be an Army Cobra helicopter pilot. I remember many times, with no regrets, shooting up the enemy to protect our ground troops, firing to cover fellow pilots, and firing to keep the brutal enemy away from South Vietnamese civilians. A high school student asked me last year how I deal with the guilt. I answered that I don’t have any guilt, that I was doing my duty and would proudly do it again.
When John Lennon turned the Beatles into a protest band, his song “Give Peace a Chance” was hailed as genius. Look up the inane lyrics and judge for yourself At protest rallies, crowds of tens of thousands would raise their arms to wave in unison while chanting in ecstasy, “All we are asking, is give peace a chance!” over and over. Luminaries like Tom Smothers, presidential candidate George McGovern, writer and self-acclaimed intellectual Gore Vidal and a host of others lauded Lennon’s song and observed “Who wouldn’t prefer peace to war?”
What self-indulgent, naive stupidity!
My friend Anh Nguyen was 12 years old in 1968, living in the city of Hue, the cultural center of Vietnam. One morning when he opened the shutters to his bedroom window, a shot was fired over his head, the first he knew the enemy’s Tet Offensive had begun. The Communists had negotiated a cease fire for their New Year holiday of Tet, then in treachery attacked on that holiday in about 100 locations all over South Vietnam.
The enemy was well prepared, and they took the city of Hue. They had lists of names and addresses provided by spies, and they went from street to street, dragging from their homes political leaders, business owners, teachers, doctors, nurses and other “enemies of the people.” The battle raged four weeks before our Marines retook the city. In the aftermath, mass graves with nearly 5,000 bodies were found, executed by the Communists, many tied together and buried alive.
Anh and his family had evacuated to an American compound for protection. Anh says when the battle was over and they walked Highway 1 back to their home, the most beautiful sight his family had ever seen was US Marines lining the road, standing guard over South Vietnamese civilians. To follow John Lennon’s plea, Anh’s family and countrymen could “Give peace a chance” by surrendering to the Communist invaders, but even a mush-head like Lennon should know there are some things you don’t give up without a fight. I doubt Lennon would have understood the best way to ensure peace is to carry the biggest stick.
Want to know what causes me shame?
In 1973, when we basically had the war won, the US gave it away in a peace agreement when escape from Vietnam was the only politically acceptable option. In the peace agreement, the US pledged our ongoing financial support to South Vietnam’s defense, and pledged US direct military intervention if the North Vietnamese ever broke their pledge not to attack South Vietnam. In the 1974 elections, in the aftermath of the Watergate scandal and President Nixon’s resignation, Democrats were swept into Congress and promptly cut off all funding to South Vietnam in violation of the US pledge.
Of course North Vietnam was watching.
In early 1975 when the North Vietnamese attacked South Vietnam, President Ford literally begged Congress to fund the US pledge to intervene, and Congress refused.
The same news media, protesters and academia who had screamed against the war, firmly turned their back in 1975 and refused to notice the slaughter and inhumanity as the Communists overwhelmed the ally America had thrown under the bus. Even today, few on the anti-war side know or care there were roughly 75,000 executions, that a panicked million fled in over-packed rickety boats and died at sea by the tens of thousands, that a million were sent to brutal re-education camps for decades and also died by the tens of thousands, or that South Vietnamese who fought to remain free - and their descendants - are still persecuted to this day. Abandoning our ally to that fate is America’s everlasting shame.
We could have won that war if our military had been allowed to take off the soft gloves, but it went on far too long with no end in sight, mismanaged to a fare-thee-well by the White House and became America’s misery. Through it all, even the betrayals from home, we fought well and never lost one significant battle.
Leftists think they know all about the war and the Americans who fought it. They don’t know didley.
At the 334th Attack Helicopter Company in Bien Hoa, we Cobra pilots were 19 to 25 years old with very rough edges. We thought of ourselves as gunslingers and might have swaggered a bit. We drank too much at the end of a sweat-stained day, for fun or escape or both. We laughed off close calls with the bravado of gallows humor. We toasted our dead and hid the pain of personal loss deep inside. We swore a lot and told foul jokes. We pushed away the worry of how long our luck would hold, and the next day we would bet our life again to protect the South Vietnamese people and each other.
To properly characterize my fellow Vietnam vets, I need to borrow words from John Steinbeck as he wrote about the inhabitants of Cannery Row, and ask you to look from my angle, past their flaws, to see them as I often do, “ . . saints and angels, martyrs and holy men.” America’s best.
I am proud to be one of them because we faced evil together in a valiant effort to keep the South Vietnamese people free, doing God’s work for a little while, even though it failed by the hand of our own countrymen working against us from safety at home.
More than any other class of people, I trust and admire the American men and women who served in Vietnam and met the test of their mettle, even the ones I don’t know. I wouldn’t trade a single one of them for a thousand leftist anti-war elites
Everyone deserves a second chance But for the naval-gazing flower children who remain unrepentant about encouraging the enemy we were fighting, who still smugly know all the wrong answers about us and the Vietnam War, who have never known mortal danger and didn’t give a fig when Saigon fell, and the Commies made South Vietnamese streets run red with the blood of innocent people.
I want to be sure to deliver this invitation before I get too old and feeble:
Kiss me where the sun don’t shine! -------------------------
Terry Garlock lives in Peachtree City, GA.
Published on Wed Jan 30, 2019 in The Citizen, a Fayette County GA newspaper.
Exactly. We didn't lose that war. The protestors and politicians quit that war while we were still kicking ass. I was there in 1972 during the Easter Campaign. We sent the best they had (NVA Regulars) to hell. That offensive cost them dearly. General Giap (Commander in Chief of the NVA) said himself they were defeated and ready to surrender more than once but thanks to American protestors and all associated they continued on knowing the Americaqn people didn't have the balls for what was happening. All they had to do was wait us out. Terry is 100% correct. We won that GD war. The American protestors and Government quit too soon. I am proud to have served and have no regrets. Semper Fi to all my Brothers. Jim
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Campfire Outfitter
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Campfire Outfitter
Joined: May 2002
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All of '71 for me. And also damn proud of it.
As I said back then, I was unsure if I understood even the tiniest lower left-hand corner of the big picture, but I knew beyond doubt that I was doing my country's bidding in an honorable cause.
I have claimed for the past couple of decades that we did in fact win that war. Full-fledged Communism lasted for less than 10 years in Vietnam before even the most entrenched leaders recognized that their system wouldn't work, but the glimpse of capitalism we gave them would. They gave in and began to allow private entrepreneurship until today, Vietnam has a thriving economy and a hotbed of global business. Look around and note well how many things you own say "Made in Vietnam." Those three words spell victory, my fellow warriors.
And if I could, I'd throw poop at those who did the same to me when I stepped off my Freedom Bird. Because it was they who were the disgrace. Also well written! Many thanks to you all.
Lunatic fringe....we all know you're out there.
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Joined: May 2003
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Campfire 'Bwana
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Campfire 'Bwana
Joined: May 2003
Posts: 31,285 Likes: 9 |
Oh hell, FreeMe, the Vietnam War was like a woman on a deserted island: It may have been ugly, but it was the only one we had.
Cleverly disguised as a responsible adult.
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Joined: Aug 2005
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Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
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pres. ford said the war was finished.
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