Vietnam and Iraq
- Posted by Beth (Blue Star Chronicles) on November 19th, 2006 filed in Guest Posts, Iraq, Moonbats, Support the Troops, The War
I was watching a special on the History Channel last night. It was about the circumstances surrounding and the aftermath of America leaving Vietnam. The thing is, I remember it well. It just so happened that I was living in the Orient in 1975 and the result of America abandoning Vietnam was felt throughout that part of the world.
I personally felt it. I was a blond in a world of people with black hair, so I stuck out like a sore thumb. People would ask me if I was Spanish (apparently I looked a little Spanish), when I told them I was American their treatment of me changed. Before we abandoned Vietnam they were deferential, afterward they were hostile.
I was flying between Taipei, Taiwan and Bangkok, Thailand the week Saigon fell. Not a wise thing for me to be doing at the time, but I was young and stupid and didn’t have a clue. Things in Thailand got very hostile, to the point that even I realized it wasn’t safe for me to be there. Instead of staying the planned 2 weeks I left to go back to Taiwan after 2 days.
Prior to the fall of Vietnam, Americans were protected. People knew that the strength of America was behind its citizens traveling abroad. American Embassies were a place of refuge and safety. After the fall of Vietnam, we were on our own. American Embassies became impotent. The people there were very angry with Americans.
The people of that area felt we had betrayed them because we had betrayed them.
Watching the History Channel last night brought that back to me. I have had vague thoughts over the last few years of how, in my view, our conduct in leaving Vietnam has contributed to where we are today with the islamic world. Last night as I was watching that show the dynamic between what happened then and what is happening now became very clear to me.
What struck me the most were the interviews with Vietnamese people who were left behind. To a person they said they knew the Americans were going to help them. To a person they said they never believed that America would leave them behind. They did as they were told. They packed their bags and went to pick-up points and waited for the Americans to come and transport them out of the country. They knew the Americans would come for them.
The Americans never showed up.
They felt betrayed. They had put their very lives and the lives of their families on the line with the sure knowledge that they had the backing of the all-powerful American government. Hannibal was at the gate and they knew - they KNEW - the Americans would not let them down.
As they began to realized they had been left, they started making their ways to their homes and preparing for what was coming into the city. South Vietnamese Soldiers began shedding their uniforms, leaving them on the streets and trying to blend into the population. A pathetic few South Vietnamese Soldiers continued to try to build blockades to keep the Viet Cong out of the city. They eventually abandoned their task. It was hopeless.
They couldn’t believe America would leave them. You see, before that, America wouldn’t have left them. America was the great country. America could be depended upon.
That episode is one of the most shameful episodes in American history.
The fall of Saigon was the first chink in the armor of American might.
From that point on the world knew that America could be defeated.
They also knew we couldn’t be trusted.
They can’t beat us on the battlefield. It wasn’t the American Soldiers that lost the Vietnam War. They were fierce warriors who took on a deadly and vicious enemy in dense jungles. They would have continued to fight. They would have won if they had been given the tools to do so. It was the people at home that were defeated. It was the American people that defeated us in that war.
The same people of the same generation that are doing the same things now. A democratic Congress cut funding for the Vietnam War and a democratic Congress is threatening to cut funding for the Global War on Terrorism.
When the Iraqi people look at us in distrust and hedge their bets - just look at what we did in Vietnam to understand why. Our Soldiers are having to deal with the legacy left them by a greatly weakened American image. Thanks to our loss in Vietnam.
A generation later the islamofascists are counting on using the same weakness against us. They have learned the lessons of our history. I wonder if we have.
Where have all our young men gone? Gone for Soldiers every one.
When will we ever learn … When will we ever learn?
Jules Crittenden wonders who was the last man to die for what John Kerry called a ‘mistake’. He points out that the last man to die as a result of our abandonment of Vietnam may not yet be dead. Quitting a worthy fight might be a great mistake.
Thanks to Beth for letting me post at MVRWC while my blog is down!
Jerry K. says:
And don’t forget the thousands of Vietnamese, Thai, Hmong, Cambodians and Laotians who were killed by
the communist dictators after the US said we’d had enough and left.
We never “lost” in Viet Nam. Our liberal politicians used the power of the press to convince
the average voting American that things over there were bad.
Just like today, and in the example of JFrigginK, by the same people.
“Those people” (the libs) just want the political power over the masses. The USA is the latest
endeavor in attempts to limit one party amassing political power, via frequent turn-overs such as we’ve
just had.
But if the USA leaves Iraq, there will be plenty more deaths as the butcher dictators regain
their power.
Vinnie says:
Great post, Martin!!!!!!
:mrgreen:
Beth (Blue Star Chronicles) says:
Hey Vinnie - this is Beth (a different Beth) - but thanks for the compliment!
Beth (Blue Star Chronicles) says:
I agree Kerry - if we leave Iraq there will be hell to pay. Leaving Vietnam the way we did weakened us - leaving Iraq now would weaken us 20 times as much.
Beth says:
That’s just MacStansbury being his troublemaker self, Beth. Long story. :mrgreen:
Beth (Blue Star Chronicles) says:
Okay - I wondered about the :mrgreen: face - and spent a second wondering if he was joking - but thought maybe he was just a little nauseous! lol
Beth says:
This is really, REALLY good. I’m sittin’ here thinking, duh, I never write stuff like this! :oops:
Keep posting! Yay for busting bandwidth at BSC! (Sorry, I’m being selfish!) :mrgreen:
Tom says:
In an attempt to freak out the enemy the US military is coating their bullets with pig fat .
This makes a Muslim unclean. This was started by General Black Jack Purshing . Pigs in the Mosques !
T.Shrake says:
Trully it never ceases to amazing the certain delusions some people live under when they live in the cocoon that is North Amercia. Born in Canada of US/Can parents I started working overseas at a much earlier age due to a econimic downturn in Canada oil was down to 12/barrel(hard to imagine now). But what amazed me what some of posts here that people still beileived that they could have won the Vietnam/Iraq war interchange them at your discretion. The amercian way for better or worse sems to be constantly the attitude of “High Noon” they expect both sides to meet at noon guns blazing then one man is standing. When that doesn’t happen then what??? there is no stomach for the long fight in any country. I have worked with those Vietnamese communists(now good capitialists) described in earlier posts and after a few beers talked to them about the war they had 30-40 year plans in place for the long war with the south would have US gone another 30 years in Vietnam under any series of presidents ..no. Also the other interesting thing i find on these posts the somebody correctly states the thousands of people killed by the communist dictators they are correct about cambodians though wrong numbers it ranked in the millions. The unfornate problem at the time was a wack job of a “communist leader”named Pol Pot which had arms and ammunition supplied to them by china/USA. Yeh sorry to say I understand why the amercians were helping Pol Pot being anti communist(vietnamese) and the chinese didn’t want the Russian communists(allied with Vietnam) to be more powerful in the area so it was a marraige of conveince. If you do not believe me just look up BBC/DFW(german) reports that they found through the freedom of information in the US miltary achieves on that time period.
So I wish the soldiers in Iraq there good luck because there is no “High Noon” just a hard constant grind which will be ended through another either another stalemate for years, then declare a false victory and go home or another helicopter ride off the embasssy roof.
T.S
LANCE says:
BethB, TUVM for writing this & sharing it.
Your clear elucidation of what happened in Vietnam, puts this part of the current democratic/socialist agenda in perspective. More CUT, RUN & LOSE. Anything anti-american/government/military, etc.
Your bottom line of ‘THE SAME PEOPLE OF THE SAME GENERATION ARE DOING THE SAME THINGS NOW, has had the desired impact on me.
This important political antecent to what may happen in Iraq gives me a confident sense of what & who we’re up against. I’ve started calling this ‘THE ENEMY WITHIN’. Now I can start thinking of ways that we can marginalize these people. I greatly appreciate what you’ve done & pleeeeez keep writing. I will be watching/lurking for more great ‘ammunition’.
CHEERS, LANCE
beth says:
Beth - you are too kind! DUH! But thanks for the compliment anyway :)
Tom - bullets coated with pig fat - LOLOLOL
Talmadge East says:
Sorry for being so late getting in on this, but I was in FLA with the Troy basketball team. Anyway there are many similarities between Iraq and Vietnam, but i don’t think the two should or could be ended the same way. I think that you can make a plausible argument that the Vietnam War could have been one although it would have taken many innocent Vietnamese deaths and illegal bombing to pound the north into submission. This can’t be done in Iraq. What needs to be pointed out is that WE are the crux of the problem. Not that I think all is well, but the insurgency is gaining momentum because of our presence. Right or wrong they view themselves much like the French Underground and will NEVER stop. We won’t be able to kill them all because as long as we are there the war in un-winnable. Not to say it will get any better when we leave. I think that our eventual pullout will lead to a massive Civil War and many deaths and chaos, but we are only prolonging the inevitable now. We are currently paying a toll that keeps this Civil War from happening with the blood of American soldiers, but we can’t and won’t pay it forever (which is what it would take).