View Single Post
  #27  
Old 01-13-2019, 03:50 PM
dragoon500ly dragoon500ly is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: East Tennessee, USA
Posts: 2,873
Default

Just realized part of my last post, didn't post...

IMO the only way Vietnam could have been avoided, was to have not supported France's efforts to reclaim its former colonies. How this would have impacted U.S.-French relations, probably badly, but looking at how sour relations became after the return of de Gaulle to power...

If Kennedy had indeed written his executive order to withdraw advisors, would Johnson have ordered troops into the country? What if the Pentagon had advised Johnson to hurt out of military planning and operations?

In my college days, there was a peace activist attending a round table discussion and he was asked what was the greatest mistake of the peace movement, almost without hesitation, he replied "When we started burning the U.S. flag." When was he was asked to elaborate, "The act of burning the national flag is a call to overthrow the government by any means necessary, That single act drove away all the support that the movement had on both sides, to get our troops out of Vietnam. Did it prolong the war? Yes it did, and the blood on both sides are on our hands."

I grew up a military brat during Vietnam and I remember the staff cars driving into base housing and seeing the chaplain and a officer walking up to a set of quarters. I still have nightmares of the expressions on the faces of kids i knew.
__________________
The reason that the American Army does so well in wartime, is that war is chaos, and the American Army practices chaos on a daily basis.
Reply With Quote