HeyBub wrote:
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.



Defeating a country is easy. Keeping a country is hard.
He who attacks must vanquish. He who is attacked must simply survive.

Any enemy that places a low value on life, or the quality of life for
their peasants, is awful hard to permanently defeat. All they have to do
is lay low and wait, until you get bored and go home. It may take a
generation or three, but the invaders usually leave.

Biggest mistake US made in SEA was not buying off Ho for a few paltry
million in 1945, out of fear of ****ing off DeGaulle. Ho came hat in
hand asking for help as the war wound down, and Truman sent him away. Ho
even based the constitution for his putative country on the US one. (Not
saying he would have followed it, mind you. But he was making a strong
show at being a nice guy.) Buying people off, via noble aid or outright
bribes, is almost always cheaper and easier than invading and killing them.
--
aem sends...