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Spent 13 months there, did not take take me long to come to the conclusion that the situation was a waste of blood and treasure.

Thank you and all the other Vietnam vets Craigster.

LBJ didn't even try.
They were afraid China would jump in like Korea.
The plan was to bleed Vietnam just enough to force them to
agree to a Korean like split.

That's why we didn't bomb obviously strategic targets.
Why, we didn't take out their Migs immediately.
Why our guys were fighting with handcuffs.


LBJ is to blame for so much that's went wrong.
He is largely to blame for the shape we are in today, for the [bleep] up thing they
call a Democratic Party. For the socialist universities...

Mostly, that goes back to the Anti-War hippies.
Which he is largely to be blamed for.

I would encourage all to read General Smedley Butler's book "War is a Racket". It comes from a speech he gave in the 1920's.

First may the stench of urine mark the area around lbj's and McNamara's graves.
jane to go on to her own private hell.
No telling the truths and facts that got us there, I just wish there had been a more satisfying ending.

Some damn beautiful country I will have to say!

Google Earth visit to Duc Pho and Chu Lai show a remarkable change in landscape.

Hey Rock, I read Your Book, thanks for the copy, a good read.

My son hangs out with the Nam vets at the VA says they are the only group of guys that relate to him and his experiences, good, but very sad, in that we as a country did not learn shat.

War is all out, you either do or you do not.

Thanks, Rapier. I think my books have two messages: That the Vietnam War was confusing, contradictory, and crazy; and that no matter how more or less sane you were went you went there, you came home less so.

With all due respect for all that were there and especially those who were unable to return to their loved ones. It wasn't our job to critique the reason why or how wars are fought. And it's to easy to be an armchair quarterback after 1/2 century.

That seemed to be the forte of college students and dropouts and stay at home moms, mostly on the left.

Seems like the more things change the more they stay the same.

Unfortunately whether we should have been there or not isn't the real issue. Many of the surviving ones who served are now being diagnosed with illnesses relating to Agent Orange exposure. The real tragedy is they weren't protected.

The only reason they were communist backed is because the USA wouldn’t help liberate them from French Imperialism from the evidence I’ve seen.

The Warpigs seem to set things up for a conflict in banana regions against certain players but never screwed with the British or French empires. Like a good ole boy plan.

The first trip I got there just in time for Tet.

I came away dead certain that there was no way in hell that the Vietnamese were goingto get on their bicycles and come over here to do us harm. We had no need to do what we did to convince them not to try.

When, where, and for how long did you serve? Unless you've
"been there- - - -done that" while wearing your country's uniform,- - - - -STFU!

The cats could be a hassle when trying to recover the dead and wounded in some areas.

Hot rod, 69-70 45th Scout dog platoon. Walked point on patrols.Good enough? What about you?

There for portions of 1968 and 69. Also just in time for Tet. Navy aviation out of DaNang doing night flights with what at that time was cutting edge infra-red gear for troop and equipment detection. With sightings, our planes (Douglas A-3 Skywarriors) would kick out flares and death and destruction would rain down from higher altitudes.

One cannot win when fighting on only half of the battlefield. Defense does not do it. I've heard claims that if we had continued to bomb the north for about another two weeks, they would have given up.

To win such a conflict, one must hammer the enemy until they beg for an unconditional surrender. Discharged, discouraged with our effort, and in college when we vacated Saigon with our tails between our legs.

Upside - GI Bill payed for 1 and 1/2 degrees.

We promised Ho that if he helped us beat on the Japanese in WW2, we would let them have their country at the conclusion. We stabbed him in the back by letting the French continue their reign instead.

Took 10 years or so exhaust avenues of resolve then a few more for us to get into it.

I had a lot of family over there on both sides. I was born in 1966 so a lot of the SR. Guys when I was in the Navy had lots of valuable opinions.

Johnson, McNamara are among the greatest POS humans that the US has had in my lifetime, though Zero and Biden are trying real hard to get that high up the list

MIC is a real thing for sure. The greatest men of the Baby Boom Generation were scarred or killed in their prime while Bill Gates, Clinton and Ayers prevailed instead. That is the worst part. I have always believed the Vietnam Vets are/were awesome.

My CC in Boot Camp was a Gunners Mate Chief on the New Jersey right before he got saddled with us. As a pup in the Navy he was a GM on the river boats.

70-72 B-52 electronic maintenance- - - -on flying status. Arc Light, Rolling Thunder, etc. 74-75 Thailand (classified C-130 outfit)- - - -we were "officially" at Clark AB Philippines for paperwork purposes.

thank you for your service. nuff said.

It all wound down my senior year in high school, so my perspective is much more distant than many.

It seems to me that "winning wars" is something that's really hard to define. Rocky's take, above, serves as an example to compare and contrast against how things have worked out in Iraq. As things stand right now, Iraq does not look like a win even though we destroyed Saddam's regime completely. Things may stay in a state of flux over there for the region to stabilize and civilize...but who knows. It's almost as if the undertaking is like carving a statue out of stone and the shape and form of the statue is already defined, and we have no idea what it's going to look like once we've chiseled away all the stone that can be removed...and then what you see is what you get. It's a curious thing, these unintended consequences.

I still remember when LBJ said we would not be sending American boys to Vietnam to do for Asian boys what they should be doing for themselves. The right words, followed by completely different actions. What would have happened had we not intervened? Who the hell knows?

One conclusion I have reached for myself after having witnessed from afar the results of our involvement in the Middle East: you can't win freedom for people who don't want it for themselves. They'll piss it away in less than a generation. We're finding out how hard keeping freedom is for our own selves and not doing such a great job of it. I just wonder if we really want it bad enough to win it back and keep it for ourselves. It's a crying shame, very literally, that so many are so willing to piss away what so many others sacrificed so much for.

Believe it or not there used to be an actual stated, taught, and learned definition of winning a war, terrorism, and vaccination.

The deep state has changed all three.