Originally posted by: CaptnKirk
It's really quite simple - Viet Nam is the first war that the U.S. was not a decisive 'Winner'.
Our politians first involved our 'Advisors' into this conflict under the Eisenhower Administration,
while we were in the act of assisting France hold onto their fiscal investments in the area - the
Lipton Tea Plantations in the Central Highlands, and the Michelan Rubber Plantations in the rest of
the country, the South was the agricultural area of Viet Nam, the North was the Insustrial region,
and whoever controled the production of food (rice) controled that part of the world.
Somewhere along the line we had been supporting Ho Chi Mihn in his countries quest to escape
from the colonialism of France and their domination of Viet Nam, and the extended control of
French Indo-China - which included Siam (Thailand), Laos, Cambodia, Burma, and influence in
the politics and economy of Malaysia.
As we supported Ho & his fighters, we were also burning thd candle at both ends - by supporting
France directly with military advisors in their set peice batles against an enemy that had taken
to the underground, and was fighting the French by using their place in the citizenry to resist.
After a huge defeat of the French in Dien Bien Phu in 1954 - and when the Mobile Group 100
was wiped out to the man at the Yang Mai Pass between Pleiku & An Khe (no survivors) then the
subsequent failure to do what the political agreement with Ho & Co had been, we - the U.S.,
tried to place a puppet government under Diem to stabilize the countey and secure the financial
assets that France had, as they were now in our corporate benefactors best intrest.
When Diem, a corrupt dictator that no longer was as co-operative as our polititians thought he
should be, failed to tow the line that we wanted, a covert assassination by the CIA replace him
with another puppet more to our liking, Ngyuen Kao Ky, he knew which hoop to jump through.
Then Kennedy was assassinated (posible revenge killing by the family of Diem) - and Lyndon
Johnson became the President. Well Mr. Johnson had a pack of liars and manipulators for a
cabinet that he had inherited from Kennedy, and with their internal power struggle to be the most
important people in the world, they never actually told him the truth of the matter, but they manufactured
convenient details such as the 'Domino Theory' - that if Viet Nam went under
Communist Influence, all the other countries in the area would immediately - if not sooner,
fall under Communism - and the world as we know it would come to an end, and everybody in
the United States would become a Russian speaking pawn of the Soviet Union. They went so far
as to fabricate 'The Gulf of Tonkin Incident' where a U.S. ship was attacked by North Viet Nam.
(Never Happened) but Johnson was told by McNamera & his Cabinet that it did happen.
Johnson ordered an escallation of support and commited troops to Viet Nam and the run-away
snow-ball was on the way, more money more troops, but no truth to support what we were doing.
When Johnson found out that what he had been feed as 'The Gospel' was a pack of lies, he refused
to run for re-election, and in effect conceded the Presidency to Nixon. Nixon inherited this mess,
and half-heartedly attempted to disengage us from the war, within ia timefram that would prop
up his presidency so as th give him a second term - but Kissinger brokered a deal that was less
that he could have gotten 4 years - and many GI's lives earlier. Nixon became paranoid, and started
to undermine and plot against the 'Other' party, anyone who might be a threat to his Power Trip.
That brought us to Watergate, and the Executive Office supporting illegal corupt operations against
it's own citizens - and all this looks like the same stuff that Bush is doing today.
There are people that fught in Viet Nam 30 - 35 years ago, and when they go to sleep at night, they -
in their minds - are right back in those rice paddies, seeing their friends and fellow soldiers fighting
and dying again and again - Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. They relive thier personal horror each
and every night, and will until the day that their death sets them free from the memories of war.
It's that simple - and that complicated. Mental and emotional wounds that they cannot forget, mental
trauma and disgust of what they did - and cannot justify or face up to, and get on with in their lives.
They are unwilling to admit to themselves that our forces lost - because the polititians kept meddeling,
and would not allow them to actually fight a fight that they could win - the goals kept being changed by
the asshole pollititians back home that didn't have to die - they sent others to do thier bidding.
And now Iraq is even less justifiable - and again we cover these polititains asses so they don't look bad.
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