Ernst-%2520Larry.pdf

My comment, "One of the events we attended on Veterans Day was the 14th annual Veterans Day celebration in Carefree, Arizona. They had a band, singers, and speakers. The keynote speaker was Navy Captain Larry Ernst Top Gun pilot who was asked to talk about Vietnam. (See attached bio) He gave a speech on details that many in the audience had not heard in the past. I agreed with all of his comments which one was our military did not lose the war.

Defense Secretary Robert McNamara imposed ridiculous ROEs that were the direct cause of military warriors' deaths. As more ROEs evolved American casualty rates increased.

North Vietnam used people and information as propaganda to excite the people of the U.S.A against the war. They used words from the likes of Jane Fonda, (Hanoi Jane) John Kerry (currently U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Climate and former Secretary of State), and Walter Cronkite. (CBS Broadcast Journalist) In February 1968, Cronkite spent two weeks in Vietnam where he left all objectivity based on facts, and gave his opinion on February 27, 1968, that the Vietnam War could not be won. President Johnson told an aide, "If I've lost Cronkite, I've lost middle America."

The surprise Tet offensive of January 1968, saw eighty-five thousand Viet Cong attack Saigon and other major cities in the south. They had dramatic successes, such as the penetration of the U.S. embassy in Saigon and capturing of the old imperial capital Hue. The U.S. military and the South Vietnamese fought back regaining all territory seized. It was estimated that 40 percent of the communist cadres were killed or immobilized. The Viet Cong never recovered.

Later the North Vietnamese leadership wrote that they didn't understand why the Americans didn't push their advantage as the North was on their heels, and defeat was inevitable.

On January 27, 1973, the Paris Peace Accords were signed. On March 29, 1973, the last POWs, and U.S. military unit left Vietnam. By that time the communists and South Vietnamese were already engaged in what journalists labeled the “postwar war.” Both sides alleged, more or less accurately, that the other side was continuously violating the terms of the peace agreements.

Congress passed the War Powers Resolution of 1973, intending to limit the President’s authority to wage war, thereby cutting the funding promised by President Nixon for arms to fight the North Vietnamese. The South ran out of arms and ammunition negating their ability to fight the North.

In April 1975, the North Vietnamese People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN) launched the Spring Offensive into South Vietnam. Without the ability to fight, the South fell to North Vietnam.

Following the end of the war, according to official and non-official estimates, between 200,000 and 300,000 South Vietnamese were sent to re-education camps, where many endured torture, starvation, and disease while they were being forced to do hard labor. Many were killed outright.

The returning military to the United States endured another kind of war. This time, it came from some of the citizens of the U.S.A.

The Vietnam War was a "Military Victory, but a Political Defeat".