vietnam vets, what do you think?

Wars don't last forever

I remember listening in person in NYC to a speech by the German ambassador to the United Nations in 1965.
Sitting in an El Paso bar, 25 years after the war in Europe ended, I watched about ten German soldiers in regular uniform walk into the bar. There for a moment, I thought I was in Rick's Bar in Casablanca.
 
Last year I bought a wheelbarrow at ACE. Brought it home and started putting it together. Found a stamp on the tire that said "made in Viet Nam". Stared at it for a good ten minutes, then went on and finished and moved the dirt.
That was a long time ago. I'm old now and I just don't hate them anymore.
I did for a long time, but everything ends. My WW2 Navy uncle just bought his first japanese truck. If he can do that why not the nation?
Any nation that we can get to DEPEND on our buying their stuff HAS to end up a reliable trading partner in the long run, regardless of the past, or they will be commiting economic suicide.
 
K80Geoff, I know many men who served, and some who had access to the highest level military intelligence.

Those with access--even those who still oppose the VietNam war--have told me that the Tet Offensive was the end of the NVA. We could have won, and not been viewed since then as a "paper tiger."

I've read snippets of the book written by the NVA commander who headed the Tet Offensive. If I understand him correctly, he thought they lost, until Walter Cronkite and others said the US lost.

I'm sorry I didn't go. Then again, I'm not sorry. I don't know. All I did was wait to see what number I pulled in the lottery, and take my chances. My cousin, my high school buddies...they went, and some didn't come home. Those that did said, "don't go."

Twenty-five or so years earlier, things would have been viewed differently.
 
When has the U.S. media not taken the side of the communists/socialists? I'm talking about the main stream media and I'm totally at my wits end. The net and talk radio is about the only place that you can find the truth anymore. Why is the media trying to destroy this nation?
 
True...afyer the Tet offensive the VC were no longer effective as a fighting force. The NVA (North Vietnamese Army) did the fighting after Tet.

Had we continued with the bombing and attrition N. Vietnam would have fallen even with the massive aid from China and USSR.

History will eventually say that the American people lacked the will to produce victory. That we ran out on our allies and welched on our promise to keep S Vietnam free.

You might describe it as a conflict between two yellow countries!

Same thing is happening today. I see the same parallels, massive pressure from the media aimed at a change in the attitudes of the people.

All of the opposition towards the Vietnam War did not happen overnight, it took years of listing the names of the dead on the news every night and a constant barrage of anti war propaganda.

As to today, the media is trying to relive it's heyday during Vietnam, when it changed the whole face of our culture. Glory days for "Journalists".

They will hammer at the people relentlessly, aided by a few members of the Democratic party who want to be back in power. Hammer, Hammer, Hammer...untill they accomplish their goals.

Polls are starting to move......

I feel bad for the GI's, their good work will be for naught. We will pull out and the radicals will be back in power shortly after.

I guess they will put up another wall we can go cry at.
 
It's time for closure...

I am a Tet 68 veteran. I served a total of 25 years in the USAF (15 years enlisted and 10 years commissioned). This included two Vietnam tours. I can identify with most of the posted discussions, but after all these years, I've finally concluded we need to get closure on this political nightmare. My reasons are too numerous to list here but suffice it to say I support President Bush's initiatives in Vietnam.

This is a big admission for me given my total distrust of politicians.

Rick McGinley
 
I served 10 years in the army and air force with tours to Germany, the PI, Korea and Vietnam. I have owned VW's, a Toyota PU and a Datsun sports car over the years. I do what I can to avoid buying Chinese goods but it is hard to do with so much coming in and less alternatives.

Hating the enemy may be OK for awhile but as we get older its hard to hate anyone like before. I don't even hate the petty criminal that attacked me while of vacation in Switzerland last Monday. I may not like him and he is not going to receive a card at Christmas time, but I do not hate him.
 
With Japan's WWII treatment and acts we still found it in our interests to "heal" (and trade) with them in VERY short order. It's a business I know but considering Vietnam's history conpared to Japan's military history....I have a great deal more respect for the Vietamese. I just hope we don't help rebuild there country as we promised to do in the Paris treaty.
 
I don't feel hate however I am concerned with the idea America is the care giver of the world, we have many problems at home and they grow worse
each year, growing population of third world immigrants, exporting of manufacturing jobs, policing the world and bringing "freedom" to other
countries. Can the well run dry, I believe so, how much property tax,
income, state, etc can you pay, how does it affect the quality of your
life. When a country like vietnam comes to your door they come with hand out requesting gifts, each time our government makes an agreement it cost
you the taxpayer, not the wealthy guy, but you the average joe. Yes, there
is some "trickle down" but it is less and less.
I have a strange idea to throw out why not do for America for the next 5 years and see if we can't help our citizens with health care, schools, roads,
oh and yes freedom.
As a side note "most" wars are wrong.

Vietnam 66.
 
vietnam opens up

best way to win the old conflict is to expose these people to capitalism.
let free enterprize and the power of our military industrial complex based economy do what our politicians wouldn't allow and our military was prevented from doing...... thwart communism.:)
 
Nothing wrong with Bush talking to them. The war was a mistake, but is long over. It is time to move on.

I am sure that the VA hospital cannot refuse treatment for any service connected problem, and in general treat vets whether the problem is service connected or not. Those with incomes above a certain level may have to pay some for non-service connected problems.

Jerry
 
The VA is a political entity, much as the rest of the government. When the initial effects of Agent Orange reared it's ugly head, it took literally years for the VA to recognize it as a service related problem. By then, coincidentally I'm sure, the actuarial tables revealed that the worst (read as most expensive) cases had already passed on. The "Gulf War Syndrome" wasn't much better. There are any number of Viet Nam vets with disabilities tied to their service, but which didn't surface for decades, who are having quite a bit of trouble wending their way through the miasma that the VA calls paperwork.

As for Vietnam, I didn't leave anything there, so I needn't go back to look for it. It's a real shame that we couldn't tie any new foreign aid to a comensurate increase in domestic programs that don't deserve the title "Pork-barrel".

The South Vietnamese people deserved better than what we gave them. We fought a war on THEIR backs for over a decade. The way to win was to fight the war in North Vietnam. Take and hold property.

I second the confiscation of Jane Fonda's and John Kerry's holdings, and that amount be allotted as foreign aid to Vietnam. Let them put their money where their mounth's have been, for once.:barf: :barf:
 
JR47 said:
I second the confiscation of Jane Fonda's and John Kerry's holdings, and that amount be allotted as foreign aid to Vietnam. Let them put their money where their mounth's have been, for once.
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By Jove! There is merit to this thread afterall.
 
some of your guys post shows extreme amounts of being narrow-minded. Don't act as if there wasn't a North and a South. Don't act like all of the Vietnamese are all Viet Congs. There was a north and a south. With different ideals in each part.
 
this was a topic on a local radio talk show today. a man called in who said he was a blind vietnam vet and that he had been refused treatment at the VA hospital. this poor guy broke down in tears while he was on the phone, really made me upset.

this country will spend billions and billions to help everyone BUT its own citizens. a damned illegal immigrant would have no trouble getting healthcare here, but someone who put his own ass on the line for his country? shouldnt he be priority number 1 ?
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This type of feces turns my stomach. Illegals from Mexico and all points south get unlimited health care, compliments of Uncle Sugar and paid for by We The People, and a blind combat vet gets dumped on by Uncle Sugar.:barf: :barf: :barf:

I think it was Woodrow Wilson who said, "The nation that forgets its defenders will itself be forgotten."

Sometimes I feel guilty that I served only 4 years in the military. When I hear crap like this, it makes me glad I retired after 4.
 
That was a long time ago. I'm old now and I just don't hate them anymore.
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There it is, brother. It took me thirty years to get there, but that's where I am
now. That war is over and done, and I am past it, finally. There are a lot of
issues more important now, and I would hope we could all work toward
solving those.
The past is done, I will remember it, but I will not let it ruin my future.

Walter
 
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