gfulton wrote:
"Hawke" wrote in message

Only if he's consistent, which he's obviously not. Moreover, he's spewing
nothing but revisionist history and outright lies. Claiming that we were
on
the verge of victory or that the North was about to give up in 1968 is
total
nonsense. I was prime for being drafted in 1969 so I know what was really
going on at the time. First off, the North Vietnamese had been fighting
foreign invaders since 1940. They went through the Japanese, the French,
and
then us. Anyone that thinks we had them licked and ready to throw in the
towel after Tet is full of crap. That idea is on par with the Holocaust
deni
ers. The second thing is that by 1968 half of the casualties of the war
had
been inflicted, so instead of the 10,000 figure he uses it was closer to
28,000 dead by then. That was also when general Westmoreland was asking
LBJ
for an increase of troops of 200,000. Which LBJ turned down. Westmoreland
was lying about how the light at the end of the tunnel was in sight right
before Tet. After Tet and the request for more troops was made everyone
with
half a brain knew that we not anywhere near victory of any kind and that
they war was going to continue on and on with no end in sight. That is
when
the political will of the country to continue the war broke. It had
nothing
to do with the media lying or fooling the public. After all the lies told
by
the military and the civilian leadership the public had had enough. Guys
like Gunner can make up all the flat earth lies they want about Vietnam
but
there are too many of us around that know bull**** when we hear it. And so
far everything Gunner has said about Vietnam is 100% bull****.

Hawke



So. You didn't get drafted, didn't go, and now are more qualified than Giap
to tell us what the_real_affect of Tet was on the North. I've read that
interview with Giap before, and Gunner did post what he said. That is not
revisionist history.

That's kind of the way I remember it too. The North Vietnamese could
never defeat the US military on the battle field but they could defeat
us at home in our own public opinion. (with a little help from their
friends in the US media) Of course, in 1968 I wasn't too concerned
about politics because the Marine Corps was taking all my time.
GW