Debunking the Vietnam War - History of Vietnam & Ho Chi Minh

I want to know.

anon; this is indeed a difficult topic i am sure for many of us, there is a lot of varying perspectives depending on one's historical circumstances, i was just another grunt in the mud so to speak, whereas others-officers-pilots-behind the lines staff-folks back home etc etc etc.have a totaly different understanding, i came back very angry and very bitter mostly because i felt betrayed and seriously lied to and that, my friend, has deeply effected my attitude about government in general and war in particular. i don't think i could come up with any shred of non-biased information, perhaps others can do better than i.

I am here to learn. I protested the war most vigorously as I will continue to do until my dying day. Nevertheless, I do not know everything and so I will mostly read along unless I see the need to jump in.

Dys:

No one said your input has to be unbiased, just civil

Fortunately, I was not a grunt in the mud.

I actually was stationed in Hawaii at Ft. Shafter. It was great duty until the powers that be decided I needed to pull a six month TDY in Nam to upgrade a group of computer trailers, bringing in new equipment and installing new software. I was there a whole two weeks when the group was hit by rocket fire, killing several of my friends and leaving me with one mangled leg, and one severly damaged leg. Sent back to Oahu and spent the next three months in Tripler going through surgeries, and trying to learn how to walk over the next 3 months beyond that.

It wasn't my idea of how to spend a summer vacation !!!

Welcome to the topic. Tell me why you THOUGHT you were sent, and what you thought the point was.

Anon

Edgar:

At least you were in the other topic, so you know what has been said so far. I'm going to see if a few more people show up and then we can ramp up again!

Anon

i think that Viet Nam was an accident of history; it was Eisenhower-JFK and if JFK had not been killed there would have been no war in Viet Nam, he would have backed out of that mess but Johnson felt stuck with it and did not know how to get out.

Hey Little_K:

Truly happy to see you! Pull up a seat and join the discussion. Talk, listen, learn, it should be eye-opening! Always a joy to see you!!

Anon

Dys:

The vietnam vets gave everything, and came back to incredible treatment. The people blamed the vets for the failures of the government. They were vilified, shunned, and continually mistreated by the government that used them a cannon fodder.

I don't blame you for your anger, I share it!!! I also don't blame you for your mistrust of government, which continues on a daily basis to show us just WHY we shouldn't trust them!!

"Expletive Deleted" !!!!

Anon

My perspective is, we did not have a mandate to go in after France lost their war. I know JFK saw it as a war between us and the USSR, but, the Vietnamese people were in the middle. It does not matter to me that Ho Chi Minh was a communist. His mission was to get Vietnam away from the occupation it suffered. There was bound to be much destruction and death, no matter what course the US took. Our forces in the final analysis did not care if the entire population were wiped out so long as our side could prevail. "It was necessary to destroy the village to liberate it" became the mindset. I believe we had achieved our goal (those against fighting there) with LBJ. I truly believed the war would quickly end after LBJ stopped the bombing. I had not counted on Nixon's treachery. He expanded the war and brought on the needless deaths of countless Americans and others. He destabilized other governments there and brought on the Killing Fields.

Pulling up a hassock near littlek. My perspective is probably unique to the group, as I was a teenage girl in Canada at the end of the war. I lived in a military community, met several of the men who went in when the Americans were leaving. I met a lot of former helicopter pilots in the mid to late 70's, living in isolated communities in the North. I want to hear more.

I served during peace time during the late fifties, and when Viet Nam rolled around, I was somewhat disinterested in that war, because it didn't make any sense with all the protests, government lies, civilian killings at Kent State, Jane Fonda and her stupid support for the enemy, draft card burnings, and some kids running away to Canada to dodge the draft. It was a BIG mess! Even back then, I admired Mohammed Ali for fighting the draft. When I met some of the Viet Nam vets after the war, they told me some gorry stories of what they did. It was no wonder many of those vets went insane, and couldn't establish a normal life after that war. Our government also failed them, and failed to provide the necessary support for all their physical and mental needs. My brother in law flew fighter jets in Nam, and he has a chestful of medals. After all these years, my biggest criticism of our government was their attempts to direct that war from Washington. It was a stupid war to begin with, and the administration in Washington made it much harder to fight that battle. c.i.

Dys:

I've heard it both ways about JFK, that is one of the items I'de like to get straightened out! I've heard both that he was against it, and that he was for it!

I have always personally thought that he was against it, and was going to put the skids on. I personally feel it was a combination of the right wing, and our very own government that assassinated JFK!! The right wing thought he was soft on communism, and the Military Industrial Complex owned a sufficient part of the government (as they do right now) to pull it off. The security lapses during that parade he was shot in, was horrifying.

I think it was convenient indeed that the assassination was in Texas, and the next in line was ... from Texas!! I think LJB was probably a hawk at the time. I would like to know that one also!!

I would like to get some hot references on what his true position was!

Anon

as i said from the git go i have zero objectivity- i see Viet Nam as a mantra for the the U.S. at the time and no one should die for a mantra.

Anon, They were some expert sharpshooters too! The military sounds like a very good guess. c.i.

Edgar:

Agree about Nixon. More right wing control and Military Industrial Complex (MIC from now on, too long to type all the time) shenanigans. Nixon = Military = MIC = Big Business. Nothing generates cash like killing people.

I like you, demostrated, me in Oakland, Cal. Ended getting gassed by the local police services.

They drafted me about 10 minutes after my divorce. I had two kids and a $130.00 per month child support payment. Try doing that on a draftees pay!!

Luckily, I already had four years experience in Computers and Programming, so I pulled an MOS (74G30, Systems Analyst) as a civilian aquired skill and never even went to AIT.

None the less, I ended up in Vietnam, and a purple heart winner!!

Anon

LBJ was very gung ho in the beginning. "Let's tack that coonskin to the wall" was one of his pronouncements as they began the escalation. Barry Goldwater told of a meeting between he and LBJ during the 64 campaign. "You know, we are going to lose 40,000 men over there," Barry said. "I know," LBJ, who was campaigning as the peace candidate was said to have replied, "but I have an election to win." It was only after the war began to bog down and the protestors got to him he stopped being such a hawk.

<Hiya Beth, sit on down buddy>

Good to see you too Anon - as always. Still listening.

EHBETH!!!!!

You viewpoints are welcome for sure!! Pull up, get comfortable, and we're moving on!

Anon

The Navy ship I served on went to Vietnam to relieve the ships involved in the Gulf of Tonken business not so many months after I left her for good. I protested some in the LA area, but moved to Brooklyn because that put me nearer the nation's power center. I did the rest in NY and DC. I was tear gassed once, but generally came through unscathed. I consciously avoided violence in my activities even if it meant forgoing some of the events. I never mistreated returning vets, reasoning that most went because their sense of duty to obey the government was too strong to resist and the ones who put them there were to blame. The ones who committed crimes, like Calley (the scapegoat) were put in the situation by the higher ups - In short, I blamed the generals and the politicians for it all.