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LTC Orlando Illi
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The sad legacy is that over 50,000 of our brothers and sisters died, thousands more were wounded; some crippled for life, and over 2000 are still MIA fighting a war that they were never allowed to win. Many people believe that General Westmoreland lost the Vietnam War. To the uniformed that believe that scapegoating a General for losing Vietnam; you are WRONG. Specifically, Westmoreland was not a supreme commander like Dwight D. Eisenhower in World War II or Douglas MacArthur in Korea. He was a subordinate unified commander under U.S. Pacific Command. America’s failure in Vietnam was a consequence of BAD and UNINFORMED policy decisions made in a self induced vacuum in Washington by McNamara and Johnson; in particular allowing the enemy to maintain base areas in Laos and Cambodia (not to mention North Vietnam itself) and restricting any attempt at the use of Air-power to bring North Vietnam to its knees. Those decisions coupled with Communists’ ability to hold the military and political initiative throughout most of the war led to the inevitable conclusion that, despite overwhelming U.S. Military power, we would lose the Vietnam War. In the end, the North Vietnamese strategy, conceived by General Giap , was arguably like no other in history: a combination of large main force NVA units, a well-entrenched guerrilla (VC) movement with deep roots and the support of two powerful sponsors - China and the Soviet Union. So in the end, the US military could not win the war by themselves and regardless of the number of battlefield successes by the Army and Marines, as long as the government and people of South Vietnam did not buy into the campaign to defeat the VC and NVA the US could not win.
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SFC William Farrell
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SMSgt Thor Merich
SMSgt Thor Merich
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Outstanding analysis.
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LTC Orlando Illi
LTC Orlando Illi
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SMSgt Thor Merich - What pisses me off the most was that that Arrogant, Narcissistic McNamara WILLINGLY SACRIFICED Pilots and Aircrews in his misguided bombing campaign in North Vietnam. Hundreds died, were MIA or taken captive while he continued to sacrifice them without once allowing them to destroy enemy airfields or the SAM sites around Hanoi and Haiphong. He, and not those he sent into impossible high threat areas to bomb targets that HE SELECTED, should have been a POW in the Hanoi Hilton. To say I hold him in contempt would be a compliment. His tenure was one of the most glaring example of incompetence and criminally negligent behavior ever exhibited by a Secretary of Defense and one for which he should be eternally condemned.
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SP5 Mark Kuzinski
SP5 Mark Kuzinski
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LTC Orlando Illi - Thank you for the great comments - you are so very much spot on!
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SP5 Mark Kuzinski
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SSG David Andrews
SSG David Andrews
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Thanks for the mention Mark.
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