Jim Yanik wrote:

OK. I think we are pretty much agreed. Even the most pessimistic
view of the last 8 years does not get it near the list of worst
periods in US history. It probably doesn't even compete with ca.
1970. 50,000 dead in a nasty war. Losing that war.

We did NOT "lose" the Vietnam War,we GAVE UP.

Even the NVN acknowledge we had won militarily,but gave up
politically. And that was after fighting with one arm tied behind our
backs.

Not exactly. We signed a peace treaty with North Vietnam (for which Henry
Kissinger won a Nobel Prize).

Then we left.

A year after the last American troops exited Viet Nam, the North Vietnamese
overwhelmed the South and entered Saigon.