Another superb account of the Vietnam War:

Stanley Karnow's “Vietnam — A History”

I agree with Senator Kerry, and that is my point. We could have defeated North Vietnam any day of the week except that the second we large scale invaded the North, we would have been at war with China and Russia. Therefore we had to fight the insurgency rather than the source of the insurgency. We failed.

You may want to read two interesting and contrasting views on the Vietnam War and how we should or should not “apply the lessons of Vietnam” to the Afghanistan war, in last week's Newsweek:

“The surprising lessons of Vietnam” by those who believe we “could have won in Vietnam, only if….” and “Beware the Revisionists,” by John Kerry who pretty much says that “insisting we might have won in Vietnam might just lose us Afghanistan.”

Fascinating!

You may be right there, ProfElwood, and the people not “believing” in the war probably affected the morale of our troops, but in my opinion it did not affect the performance and the bravery of those troops. As I mentioned, the fact that our troops continue to fight bravely and competently in face of lack of public support back home for the war, speaks volumes of their loyalty and sense of duty.

We “lost” the war, because our goverment decided to stop the fighting, cut our losses, sign a treaty,whatever you may want to blame it on, but not because of anything our troops did or did not do, in my opinion.

“It's become way too easy for a president to commit us to war…” you get nor argument from me here.

Thanks for your comment

1. I do believe many Americans believe(d) (either because they were misled, or in spite of being misled) in the “cause” for the Iraq war. Most Americans, including yours truly, certainly believed in the “cause” for the war in Afghanistan.

2. “How do you tell someone to fight to the death….” That is exactly the wonder of, a testament to, the dedication, sense of duty, loyalty and courage of our troops

Dorian

I sadly agree with you on how our Vietnam War returnees and veterans were treated during that war. In fact, in the same piece I wrote on the occasion of Veterans Day 2007, I said:

“And so it goes this Veterans Day. Another time, another war, but the same questions about the judgments and policies that produced this war; the same brave troops fighting our battles; and, yes, the same debate–at times accusations–about not supporting the troops and about loyalty and patriotism. But, there is one difference: During the Vietnam War, and for some time thereafter, some Americans, in fact, did not support the troops. I clearly remember the contempt and scorn with which some treated our Vietnam War active duty troops and veterans. I also remember the truly unpatriotic words and actions on the part of some of the hard-core “anti-war protesters.”

Thanks for your comments

That is a good point, FT, and one that is brought up frequently when debating this issue. Of course having all Americans united and in support of fighting a certain war would be of great moral support for our troops actually doing the fighting. And, I know that when our national security or national interests are truly at stake, Americans do exactly that. “Indispensable”? I hope that those doing the fighting in “unpopular wars,” “unjustified wars,” such as the Iraq war is considered by many, know that while Americans do not necessarily approve of the policy, they almost uniformly support them, respect them and honor them—perhaps even more because of the fact that their leaders have placed them in harm's way and in such untenable situations.

I don't know how else to answer your question, except for saying that I personally know how much I respect and support our troops, and that I am glad that some of the clearly despicable reactions by some to our troops who fought in Vietnam ( a war I naively supported), thank God, are clearly an exception, and an aberration, today.

Thanks for your comments,

Dorian