The Vietnam War by Ken Burns

Bajabob said:
I always thought that Kennedy sending troops into Vietnam was because of bad advice he was getting. I believe that advice was based largely on what happened hears earlier, the Bay of Pigs. In effect, we chickened out there. We sort of half-heartedly tried to overthrow Castro, but allowed the undertaking to fail, because of our timidity. And then, with an opportunity to "stand tall" against Communism in Vietnam, the advisors told Kennedy that we just had to get involved. Many people think that our involvement was strictly LBJ's fault, but I blame JFK, based on my incomplete recall of events then.
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You're probably fairly correct....that Vietnam mess was mostly just a total Fiasco. I think some of it was the US having to show France how to fight a war after France got its butt kicked. I worked with a guy who claimed to be on the USS Maddox when the Vietnamese "supposedly" attacked....he told a story that was a bit different from what our government and media was trying to feed the nation. Plus, in the mid 60's, our economy was going into a slowdown after the post WWII boom, and what better way for the government to "jumpstart" our industries than to engage in another war???
 

TonyK said:
"I landed in Vietnam in early 1990 and spent 14 months there."

oldman: I think your time frame is off.
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Yeah, my bad. I got there in 1970 and like I said, I was there for 14 months.
 

I've been watching this Ken Burns series that is now on Netflix for free. It is one of his best documentaries. The interviews with soldiers are priceless. Fifty years ago, in the month of May of 1968, more than 2,400 US soldiers died in Vietnam!

I'd forgotten the graphic tapes on the evening news programs, and the fabulous footage taken by photographers assigned to front line units. Plus, the footage of North Vietnamese and Viet Cong units is incredible.
 
please excuse me for asking this as living in a country that took no part in the Vietnam conflict I know very little about it but my question is Did anyone win this war? The reason I ask is that around three or four years ago an American Air Force Major who was involved in the Vietnam war said "If it were not for the B52 bomber we would have lost the Vietnam war" I was under the impression that there were no winners in this conflict.
 
Don M. said:
You're probably fairly correct....that Vietnam mess was mostly just a total Fiasco. I think some of it was the US having to show France how to fight a war after France got its butt kicked. I worked with a guy who claimed to be on the USS Maddox when the Vietnamese "supposedly" attacked....he told a story that was a bit different from what our government and media was trying to feed the nation. Plus, in the mid 60's, our economy was going into a slowdown after the post WWII boom, and what better way for the government to "jumpstart" our industries than to engage in another war???
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I was 16 when the Maddox was "attacked" and LBJ had his "Pearl Harbor" moment. I wasn't the smartest or wisest kid in my class but I turned to my parents and asked "do they REALLY expect us to BELIEVE this BS? I was lucky. I didn't get drafted until I was 24 and the war ended while I was in basic training. I lost half a dozen friends in Vietnam. I've attended another half dozen funerals of friends who were taken by Agent Orange. I have a wife who is a very rare case: She was an American civilian in Vietnam working as an administrative assistant in Long Binh for 18 months. Agent Orange was used all over the area in which she lived and worked. She has the entire laundry list of A.O. ailments safe cancer (knock wood). Had she been in the military she'd be 100% disabled. Vietnam was a total disaster, a total waste of good lives and a disgrace. Look at what the A.O. is doing to the Vietnamese today. It's horrible. As said earlier; Ho Chi Minh loved the USA and wanted us to help him rid his country of the French. I have no problem with ANYONE who wants to rid their country of the French.
 
I have a problem with a little of what you said, my first wife was half Vietnamese,half French she died when I was wounded, the vietcong seemed to want to kill all the catholics, the leadership in the North wanted the seaports , we use to talk about these things around the campfire.
DGM said:
I was 16 when the Maddox was "attacked" and LBJ had his "Pearl Harbor" moment. I wasn't the smartest or wisest kid in my class but I turned to my parents and asked "do they REALLY expect us to BELIEVE this BS? I was lucky. I didn't get drafted until I was 24 and the war ended while I was in basic training. I lost half a dozen friends in Vietnam. I've attended another half dozen funerals of friends who were taken by Agent Orange. I have a wife who is a very rare case: She was an American civilian in Vietnam working as an administrative assistant in Long Binh for 18 months. Agent Orange was used all over the area in which she lived and worked. She has the entire laundry list of A.O. ailments safe cancer (knock wood). Had she been in the military be 100% disabled. Vietnam was a total disaster, a total waste of good lives and a disgrace. Look at what the A.O. is doing to the Vietnamese today. It's horrible. As said earlier; Ho Chi Minh loved the USA and wanted us to help him rid his country of the French. I have no problem with ANYONE who wants to rid their country of the French.
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john19485 said:
I have a problem with a little of what you said, my first wife was half Vietnamese,half French she died when I was wounded, the vietcong seemed to want to kill all the catholics, the leadership in the North wanted the seaports , we use to talk about these things around the campfire.
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Sorry for your loss and sorry for your wounds. Glad you made it back and thank you for your service. Sorry too if you don't agree with my point of view. I'm an opinionated old fart but have an open mind.
Are you saying we should have gotten involved in Vietnam's Civil War because they were killing Catholics or are you upset with my distain for the French? (oops, sorry if this is political)

Hope you enjoy a long happy healthy retirement.
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I thank we should have backed Ho Chi Minh in the 1950's, he loss control of the military in the late 60's , The U.S. Military had the war won in late 1969, it was hard for the North to field an army after then, this is just what I think. I've got to go to bed
DGM said:
Sorry for your loss and sorry for your wounds. Glad you made it back and thank you for your service. Sorry too if you don't agree with my point of view. I'm an opinionated old fart but have an open mind.
Are you saying we should have gotten involved in Vietnam's Civil War because they were killing Catholics or are you upset with my distain for the French? (oops, sorry if this is political)

Hope you enjoy a long happy healthy retirement.
.
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in the late 60's
 
An idea cannot be defeated a lesson America still has not learned. We are brainwashed from post WWII propaganda. It is not that the North beat us rather, how they fought the war and all their previous wars. We never intended to defeat the North only to keep them out of South Vietnam. One stand out example of the hideous American rhetoric was Nixon's PLAN to exit. Well, if I was a patriot and had the solution why then not offer it up to the current administration so lives could be spared? Add to the military generals lying about the progress they were making year after year after year. Only after Walter Cronkite told America the war is lost did we see our leaders roll up in a ball and blame everyone but themselves for this disaster and finally exit. I worked with a Vietnamese who told me he had a college deferment during the war so he did not have to fight. So he hid out in college while out people were forced over there to fight for him.
 


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