Maggie's Farm

Sgtbob, may i suggest you take a look at Bruce Herschensohn's "AN AMERICAN AMNESIA: How the U.S. Congress Forced the Surrenders of South Vietnam & Cambodia" - you'll find your initial remark flawed.

- There was never any question of sending in American troops into Southeast Asia... nor was there a need for this, since after the 73 peace accords, the ARVN had proven they could stand up for themselves against northern and communist aggression. But only if they had the weapons and materiel, which we had promised them we would do. The democrat majority, post Watergate Congress refused to honor that committment.

As for stopping the bloodshed in Cambodia, I like to think that a South Vietnam capable of defending itself and in the Pro-US camp would have been a strong deterrent to the khmer rouge. Certainly would have given the Cambodians a better chance than they had historically. We'll never know...

But this canard that floats around, that nobody or nothing could have stopped them and using the still-visceral imagery of 58,000 dead GIs to support that premise?

Saying and repeating such a falsity is fundamentally no different from Hollywood rolling out movies about war, and the Vietnam war in particular - which they nearly always use to diminish America, the Right, or excuse the left. No different in general, for example, from the power of imagery used in the ubiquitous scene showing the American helo evacuating personnel from the Saigon embassy rooftop. A powerful and moving visual that one; which again reinforces the defeatist and unspoken meme -- that our military was defeated in SVN; ie... that America "lost" the Vietnam War.

This is a Lie. It is a false meme, which must be confronted with the truth.

Look at the record, SgtBob: the following from [url]http://www.fordlibrarymuseum.gov/library/speeches/750179.asp [/url]

"A vast human tragedy has befallen our friends in Vietnam and Cambodia. Tonight I shall not talk only of obligations arising from legal documents. Who can forget the enormous sacrifices of blood, dedication, and treasure that we made in Vietnam?

Under five Presidents and 12 Congresses, the United States was engaged in Indochina. Millions of Americans served, thousands died, and many more were wounded, imprisoned, or lost. Over $150 billion have been appropriated for that war by the Congress of the United States. And after years of effort, we negotiated, under the most difficult circumstances, a settlement which made it possible for us to remove our military forces and bring home with pride our American prisoners. This settlement, if its terms had been adhered to, would have permitted our South Vietnamese ally, with our material and moral support, to maintain its security and rebuild after two decades of war.

The chances for an enduring peace after the last American fighting man left Vietnam in 1973 rested on two publicly stated premises: first, that if necessary, the United States would help sustain the terms of the Paris accords it signed 2 years ago, and second, that the United States would provide adequate economic and military assistance to South Vietnam.

Let us refresh our memories for just a moment. The universal consensus in the United States at that time, late 1972, was that if we could end our own involvement and obtain the release of our prisoners, we would provide adequate material support to South Vietnam. The North Vietnamese, from the moment they signed the Paris accords, systematically violated the cease-fire and other provisions of that agreement. Flagrantly disregarding the ban on the infiltration of troops, the North Vietnamese illegally introduced over 350,000 men into the South. In direct violation of the agreement, they sent in the most modern equipment in massive amounts. Meanwhile, they continued to receive large quantities of supplies and arms from their friends.

In the face of this situation, the United States-torn as it was by the emotions of a decade of war-was unable to respond. We deprived ourselves by law of the ability to enforce the agreement, thus giving North Vietnam assurance. that it could violate that agreement with impunity. Next, we reduced our economic and arms aid to South Vietnam. Finally, we signaled our increasing reluctance to give any support to that nation struggling for its survival."

It was the democrat controlled Congress, sgtBob, that heaped this betrayal upon our ally... and there was nothing said or requested about sending in more American troops.

All our government needed to do was...

Keep.
Our.
Word.