August 5th 1974 Congress cuts military aid to South Vietnam

[David]

Congress places a $1 billion ceiling on military aid to South Vietnam for fiscal year 1974. This figure was trimmed further to $700 million by August 11. Military aid to South Vietnam in fiscal year 1973 was $2.8 billion; in 1975 it would be cut to $300 million. Once aid was cut, it took the North Vietnamese only 55 days to defeat the South Vietnamese forces when they launched their final offensive in 1975.

The way we left the Gulf War ended up producing similar results for the Kurds and Shi'a in 1991.

Does anyone have any thoughts on this?

[Bill Farnie]

My thoughts are besides the money cuts and then the end of the aid we also stopped all military assistance with one example being air support and that was what caused the fall of the Republic of South Vietnam. The United States broke its promise, to come to the RVN's aid if the north began a full out offensive, plain and simple.

[1CAVCCO15MED]

Personally, I don't think we ever intended to support the South after the peace treaty was signed. It was just a way to get the hell out.

[SuperScout]

[As a sidebar, this could get political, but I'll try to confine my comments to historical perspectives.]

The re-invasion of South Vietnam by the North Vietnamese army was aided and abetted by our gutless abandonment of the agreement we had with the Theiu regime. By the time that the North Vietnamese aggressors had regained sufficient personnel strength after suffering calamitous losses during the Tet'68 fighting, American will to continue the fight to help provide freedoms and liberties to South Vietnam had evaporated. As Doc said so accurately, we just wanted to sweep the entire period of history under the convenient rug of obscurity, and pretend that it never happened. This same ethos of denial is what has plagued so many Vietnam vets for so long, with the results we read about daily.

Similarly, we didn't deal with the post-Gulf War geopolitics very well either. Due to a lack of hard intelligence (caused in no small part by a lack of HUMINT sources, thank you Standfield Turner), we didn't appreciate the full depth of despair in either the Kurd or the Shi'ia folds, or how any perceived opposition would be dealt with by Saddam and his henchmen.

It is my belief that today's senior military commanders and civilian decision-makers are fully cognizant of the disaster that would befall Iraq, should any unwarranted pullout of Coalition forces occur. History can be a cruel teacher, but the lessons it teaches are not automatically repeated by those that are aware.

May God continue to bless our leaders, protect our warriors, and make us better stewards of the blessings we have received.

[Packo]

Scout et al,

No politics....just pure HIS-STOR-RY! Same same Iraq. Our troops are not only doing a good job....they are kickin' ass but you wouldn't know it for the defeatist attitudes of the media and others. History does repeat itself......Americans don't have the guts to sustain a war when it's fighting or helping the "colored" people of this world. If we were fighting to save France or England, which actually we are, there would be no problem. But to die for Gooks, Slopes, Wogs, or whatever.....nah, not my son. It sickens me.

Pack