U.S. Military Defeated in Vietnam

Jim C should have toured Khe Sanh three months after Tet. God, it was a great place for American tourists back then. Got you in shape very quickly as one had to run everywhere he went. Don't know how many times Jim C danced with the NVA; but they were monster dancing partners. Could dance all night and we American boys had such a wonderful and busy time learning all the new steps.

As for never losing a war - horsepucky. Americans rarely consider the fact that it could have been the five hundred North Vietnamese battalions added in 1970 which eventually ended our festivities there. We often credit the "protesters" (afraid of their own shadows), the politicians (kinda like they are today, clueless and corrupt as the American generals ran circles around them as far as getting what they wanted) and anything else you could come up with as an excuse. The truth of the matter is the NVA were excellent fighters, committed and well supplied, willing to risk their lives. We wound up having lots of respect for them. One has to give them their due. It's exactly this attitude which insures our military of having a difficult time during the next war. Acknowledge errors so they can be corrected - it's shockingly absent from our training manuals and we are currently paying the price.

And the Korean War? Silverback had better reread some histories concerning that war. I suggest, among others, Clay Blair's The Forgotten War and you'll see exactly how much 'interference' there was from congress and others.

The U.S Military has NEVER lost a war. The U.S. Military knows how to conduct a war. In the neighborhood of Korea, the management of wars was taken out of the hands of the Pentagon and put into the hand of Congress. A bunch of people, many of whom never served and only hold position because of family name and wealth, with no idea or concept of death, destruction or human suffering. Until the legislators get out of the war business, we won't win another.

Our congress is as competent at running a war as they are at running our economy and handling our social issues. Via con Dios!

The U.S. Military was NOT defeated in Vietnam. The famed TET offensive failed, costing North Vietnam the lives of thousands of irreplaceable Viet Cong.

I arrived in Vietnam three months after TET, 1968, and had no safety concerns about freely moving around the major cities of the South: Can Tho, Ca Mau, etc. Whatever remained of the VC were relegated to what strongholds remained for them. They were no longer a serious threat. The North had shot it's wad.

The media played up the attack, brought the war home to televison, and the Govt lost support. Had the media been as technologically advance in 1941, Roosevelt would have had to sue for peace with the Emperor of Japan after Iwo Jima and Guadalcanal.