The real winner of the Vietnam War.

[Zeno]

God Won.

Good Bye.

-Zeno

[warlockjd]

U.S. Chemical companies for a thousand, please, Alex

[whiskeytown]

the American Military Production Complex -

Big Business wins every time we go to war....

The US Army....making the world safe for financial exploitation.

RB

[Ray Zee]

china won as they found out we were gutless and wouldnt bomb their supply lines leading into the country. we gave them a green light to take whatever they need in asia, knowing it would be mostly talk when push came to shove.
who lost. my friends that died because we didnt go win the war and just let it drag on.

[andyfox]

My friends died not because we went to war not to win. They died because we went to war for a lie, or rather, a number of lies: That we were defending democracy when there was none there. That we were fighting international communism when the Soviets and the Chinese did not help Ho Chi Minh until after we came in. That the comunists were trying to overrun the country of South Vietnam when there was no such country and when the revolt against Diem began in the South. And that victory was always just around the corner when it was ipossible, no matter what we would have done, to win the war.

They died because our so-called leaders were pathological liars, ignorant about the history of Vietnam and filled with a smug hubris that allowed them to murder people for a greater cause, just like the communists did. Perhaps the saddest episode in our entire history. The Vietnamese, BTW, hated the Chinese even more, perhaps, than the French.

[Hamish McBagpipe]

[ QUOTE ]
The Vietnamese, BTW, hated the Chinese even more, perhaps, than the French.


[/ QUOTE ]

Exact quote from The Ten Thousand Day War, I believe.

Of coursethey hated the Chinese more. It was the Chinese who had been been their traditional enemies for a thousand years. And they had no ill-feelings toward the U.S. at all before intervention. Ho Chi Minh never wanted to fight America. He was a nationalist first, a communist second.

[Zeno]

The complexities of war cannot be reduced to a simple metric. Though it feels good to do so.

-Zeno

[Zeno]

Perhaps it would have been better to have our conflict with China then (MacAuthur wanted it during the Korean conflict).

I was lucky I guess, I didn't have to go because the American side of the war was 'ended'. My lottery number was 25.

Much was lost in that war and the wounds are still in the here and now.

-Zeno

[Zeno]

[ QUOTE ]
And that victory was always just around the corner when it was ipossible, no matter what we would have done, to win the war.


[/ QUOTE ]

I do not think that position is entirely correct.

But that is, to me, at this point in time, neither here nor there nor anywhere.

When God wins wars - that is an easy way to say - no one really won at all.

But amongst all this discussion of Vietnam, I often wonder if the wounds will ever heal. Is it that important to reinflate this old conflict? Perhaps it is in some ways for educational purposes. But the war is over. The battles played out. The dead are in Heaven or Hell, or oblivion if you prefer, and the living carrying on. It's the carrying on that gets puzzling. And carrying too much baggage too long brings no healing at all.


Peace is at hand. - RN

-Zeno

[andyfox]

"I often wonder if the wounds will ever heal. Is it that important to reinflate this old conflict?"

I suppose, given enough time, everything heals. As for the reinflation, the fellow who started the other thread felt that even though we might have lost the Vietnam War, it enabled us to win the Cold War, so we were just discussing the issue. Vietnam was the first televions war and a lot of it wasn't very pretty. It was also the first time where we saw that our government can not only be wrong, but be duplicitous. So it upset our black and white picture of Cold War America, always righteous and good and gracious. Sometimes we were evil and bad and vindictive. Just like all human beings.