How we won the war in Vietnam

[catman]

Some of you may have seen this on the alternate site, thought it was worth reading and bring over to our site.

Trav

Thought some here may appreciate this take on the over all effects of the Vietnam war and the place some us fit in history. Found this at the American Thinker blog.

How we won the war in Vietnam.
May 4th, 2005


I can just hear the sneers at this headline. Won? The senseless Vietnam War, which killed people for no reason at all? The answer is yes. We won the real war in Vietnam; that war was called the Cold War. It was fought to defend free peoples against the hyper-aggressive Soviet Empire. And I am not the only one who thinks so.

Vietnam was a battle in the Cold War --- which wasn't all cold by any means.
The United States fought two major proxy wars against the Soviet Empire and its allies, like Mao Tse Tung's China. One war was fought in Korea, and cost 34,000 American lives. The other was Vietnam, and cost 58,000 American lives. Thousands and thousands of Koreans and Vietnamese died along with us, fighting as allies and friends.

Those wars were pure hell, as General Sherman said. All wars are hell.

Suppose we had not fought in Korea and Vietnam. The "Cold" War would have been lost. What would have happened? When America became involved in Vietnam, the Soviets and Chinese Communists were a single block, although tensions between China and the Soviet Union were rising. Eastern Europe was one great concentration camp. Soviet imperialism was on the march in Asia, Africa, South America, and Western Europe. Korea and Vietnam were bloody holding actions that allowed democracies to grow strong enough to outlast the enemy.

Consider just how many people were killed domestically by the Soviet Empire and its allies over seventy years --- not in wars, but in tyrannical campaigns to control their own peoples. According to an authoritative team of French historians, Marxist regimes exterminated 100 million human beings in the 20th century. That is not even counting wars fought by those regimes against other countries.

Just a reminder: Even in the last few years probably more than a million North Koreans have died from starvation and persecution, all because of their fat and paranoid Marxist dictator Kim Jong Il's economic blunders and refusal to open his country sifficiently to international aid. Communist Vietnam has killed tens of thousands of its people in "re-education camps" since the Vietnam War.

We forget the relentless killing machines of Marxist tyrannies, their determination to wipe out entire classes of human beings, small capitalists, rich peasants, farmers who refused to be corralled into communes, dissidents. In Cambodia, Pol Pot killed people simply for wearing glasses; they might have been dissidents. We must not forget the biggest threat of the 20th century.

In the fantasy world of the American Left, Vietnam was not worth fighting because the Cold War was only a fiction whipped up by the military- industrial complex. If only those 100 million dead souls could answer that lie. The American victory in the Cold War was dearly bought, but if the Soviet Union had not been stopped, its victims might now number --- how many? 200 million? 300 million? An endless number, as the Soviet Empire went from victory to victory?

In truth, we should have parades celebrating the sacrifice of Americans and our Vietnamese allies in the Vietnam War. It was an agonizing battle. But it was thrust upon us, and there was no other way. Don't let the Left get away with lying about it.

To really understand the last hundred years, we need to remember only two
numbers: six million and 100 million. Six million Jews, Gypsies, homosexuals, Christians and handicapped people were deliberately exterminated by the Right Fascist ideology of the Nazis.

But Hitler had only thirteen years in power. Over a period of seventy years, Left Fascism was able to destroy 100 million human beings.

Left or Right, Fascism is Fascism.

The next time you see a Vietnam vet, thank him or her from the bottom of your heart for winning the longest war of the 20th century.



James Lewis

[exlrrp]

Think Democrats and liberals weren't in their fighting it? I won the war by coming home all in one piece
Fck all the rest of this conservative bullshit and the guy who wrote it. If he isn't a Vietnam Vet, he can kiss my ass!

James

[DMZ-LT]

James quit beating around the bush and tell us how you really feel !!

[SuperScout]

Dang those phantom authors again, for writing secret codes about Democrats and liberals being the scourge of the world, and the cause of every malady from ingrown toenails to dysentery. For the life of me, I failed to read how the author mentioned either group, unless the allegedly offended parties want to ally themselves with the "Left", a term used by Lewis. AS the old phrase goes, "If the shoe fits...."

And so what if he is or isn't a Vietnam vet? Did he write the truth? For heavens sake, are we so narrowly focused that only a Vietnam vet is duly anointed to convey truth, decency, and happy thoughts? Personally, I thought the article was well written, factually correct, and worthy of being read by all, especially Vietnam veterans. I take great pride in being a Vietnam vet, and having made my contribution to the destruction of the Evil Empire.

[Bill Farnie]

I?m also proud of my Vietnam service and we may have won the Cold War but as far as VN goes, I don?t see the RVN flag flying over the Presidential Palace in Ho Chi Minn City. Both the ?left? and ?right? were to blame for the loss of the RVN. Some argue that because we were willing to fight a limited war against communism in SEA it showed the Soviet?s and Red Chinese that we were willing to heat up the Cold War and risk the chance of WW III to defeat them, and that may be true but the end result in VN was we abandoned them and I?m sorry but I can?t see how the fall of RVN helped win the Cold War.

[catman]

If you all would put your political emotions aside and read the article, what it is trying to state is that by fighting the Vietnam War, we stood in the face of Moscow and Beijing and let them know that we would not stand by and watch the world fall to communism one domino at a time. In essence, that is how we won the war in Vietnam and thus the cold war.

Crying Goddamn shame that everything anyone posts on this website has to turn into political bullshit. There is a forum for that, keep it there!

Trav

[Bill Farnie]

Trav,
I did try and stay away from the political aspect of this article in my post, but to say it wasn't political? What part of these two sentences isn't political..........

In the fantasy world of the American Left , Vietnam was not worth fighting because the Cold War was only a fiction whipped up by the military- industrial complex.

In truth, we should have parades celebrating the sacrifice of Americans and our Vietnamese allies in the Vietnam War. It was an agonizing battle. But it was thrust upon us, and there was no other way. Don't let the Left get away with lying about it.

Those two excerpts, to me, make it clear where the author was coming from.

[MontanaKid]

The article was hardly an objective examination of the war. When this guy says "left," he probably means everyone but the right wing of the Republican Party. Remember that many Republicans were also opponents of the War in Vietnam, Sen. Mark Hatfield, R-Oregon, comes to mind. No one ever accused this proponent of the "flat tax" of being a leftist, though this writer probably would.

The Republicans for the most part (not Hatfield) only got strongly behind the war when Nixon was running it. Likewise many Democrats who supported the war out of loyalty to Johnson turned into doves when Nixon was running it. I'm sorry, but there is very little integrity in politics, right or left.

Reasonable men can disagree about any aspect of the Vietnam War, but this guy is doing more than that, he's targeting one side of the American political spectrum.

[Packo]

Thanks for the article Trav....it was good reading and truly believe that the author was just trying to give us a "well done". As you can see, there is still a bunch of unresolved anger about this war. I focused more on when he discusses fascism, be it left or right, is still fascism. I also believe when he uses the term American Left he is more describing those that supported the NVA who could not see that Communism and fascism were the same. Not necessarily Democrats. But then again, I've also resolved most of my anger.

Thanks Trav!

Pack

[catman]

Paco...You are 100% correct. I read Left as commie supporters, i.e...Jane Fonda and her ilk, but than again that is just what I read.

Take care brother!

Trav