XDA

I was explaining last night to a younger member of my household the truth about the Viet Nam War, namely, that under a Republican Commander in Chief, after the earlier gift of the Tet Offensive had made the Viet Cong combat ineffective for the remainder of the war, we had all but won it. To be specific, we had changed tactics and fought the NVA along lines more like counterinsurgency, pushed them back to the fringes of South Viet Nam, trained and toughened up the ARVN to the point that we could remove almost all our combat troops, but they could still stop a determined invasion (the Easter Offensive in 1972) with our air support. Indeed, we got the Paris Peace Accords in 1973 and pulled out all our combat troops shortly thereafter. By all normal measures, that was victory. We were not supplying combat troops, the other side had signed a peace treaty and our ally's troops were sufficiently strong--all they needed was resupply and our air power. That all smells distinctly like victory. To argue that we had not won because we still had air force bases in and around South Viet Nam and our air support was still necessary is kindof like arguing that we did not win WWII because we maintained military bases in the Philippines, for example, and in Europe, and protected Taiwan et al. and Europe during the Cold War with our nuclear weapons delivered by air, although that's not a perfect analogy. Still, by all normal measures, we won the Viet Nam War.

But then the Democrats in Congress cut off nearly all military aid to our ally South Viet Nam (indeed, we could hardly even sell them any arms) and then, their numbers swelled by the Watergate Scandal, the Democrats in Congress prohibited our using any military force, including the air force, to support our ally if attacked by the North. That last was through the Case-Church Amendment. This legislation was to throw away our hard fought victory and to stab our ally in the back. The North disregarded the treaty and South was overwhelmed by an NVA blitzkrieg in Spring, 1975. Thus, the Democrats chose defeat and dishonor. That's the sad, real history of which so many are completely and, I believe, wilfully ignorant today.

So it is no surprise to see the Obama administration do a similar thing--surrender to the newly aggressive Russians, betray our allies, specifically Poland and the Czech Republic, and chose, yet again, defeat and dishonor.

Nothing new here, but still sad.

Labels: Democratic Defeatism; Viet Nam; Missile Shield Abandonment