Thursday, August 11, 2011
This Day in the History of the Beginning of Ends
On this day in 1972, the last American combat troops (Third Battalion of the 21st Division) depart from their duty station guarding the Da Nang air base and come back to the Big PX (to lapse into 1972 Viet Nam parlance for a second). Vietnamization of the war effort against the NVA (the Vet Cong had become combat ineffective and an absolute non-factor after their failed Tet offensive years before) was complete regarding ground troops, and victory was within the grasp of the U.S. and South Viet Nam alliance.
Then, in a response to Watergate, Democrats took over huge numbers of seats in the House and Senate and proceeded to stab our former allies (and Cambodia) in the back, as Democrats are wont to do. Not counting the navy personnel off the coast in the 7th Fleet, and the airmen of the 8th Air Force, the departure of the last ground troops left less than 50,000 American military types--advisors, airmen and the like--but that was enough, more or less, with American naval and air support, for the ARVN to have defeated a determined invasion by the NVA in the Easter 1972 invasion, killing up to 100,000 NVA soldiers.
Then, in a response to Watergate, Democrats took over huge numbers of seats in the House and Senate and proceeded to stab our former allies (and Cambodia) in the back, as Democrats are wont to do. Not counting the navy personnel off the coast in the 7th Fleet, and the airmen of the 8th Air Force, the departure of the last ground troops left less than 50,000 American military types--advisors, airmen and the like--but that was enough, more or less, with American naval and air support, for the ARVN to have defeated a determined invasion by the NVA in the Easter 1972 invasion, killing up to 100,000 NVA soldiers.
Labels: Viet Nam War History; The Beginning of the End
# posted by Roger Fraley @ 7:04 AM 
