3 June 13
The Congressional “Tonkin Gulf Resolution” of 7 Aug 1964 was the beginning of our big troop build-up in Vietnam. I didn’t get there until the summer of 1968, four years later.
As it turns out, the Tonkin Gulf Resolution was a fraud. President LBJ insisted that one of our ships had been precipitously fired upon by some nebulous, and never identified, North Vietnamese vessels. It was all a lie! No such exchange of shots had ever taken place. The whole incident had been manufactured as an excuse to get us militarily involved in the area on a big scale.
It did work, however, and the War was on, and it lasted until our cowardly and ignominious pullout in 1973. As had been the case during the Korean War, we had no clear goal (except an ill-defined policy of “containment”) and, thus, no way to tell when our goal had been accomplished. Accordingly, the war went on and on.
The Communists knew we would tire of it all and eventually look for ways to get out, particularly when our casualties started to make their way into the American public consciousness. They also mounted a successful psychological campaign in this country, aimed at eroding support for the war effort within America, all with the enthusiastic complicity of the American news media. They also enlisted the willing support of many entertainment personalities. Hence, we had draft riots and endless protests. It was eventually the undoing of LBJ’s presidency, as well as any chance for a decisive military victory.
The irony was that we had no trouble defeating the Communists militarily. They could never beat us in even the smallest battle. Our equipment, training, and resources were so superior that they were always outclassed. Unfortunately, “Victory” had become a dirty word among the perpetual denizens of Washington. Hence, our politicians wouldn’t let us win. They didn’t want us to win. They put every possible roadblock in our way.
Years after the War ended, an American colonel remarked to his NVA counterpart, “You know, you never defeated us on the battlefield.” The North Vietnamese colonel pondered this remark a moment and then replied, “That may be so, but it is also irrelevant.”
I never again want to fight in a war where unconditional victory is not in the game plan. There’s money and political careers to be made in the activity of war-fighting. It’s thus fiscally and politically desirable for many for it to go on and on, and therefore desirable for it to be neither efficient, nor decisive!
Those of us actually fighting the War didn’t know (at the time) about this dark secret, nor how little our lives meant to most politicians who occasionally found the time to pay us hollow lip-service.
Today, carrying on the tradition, neither HRC, nor BHO, can fathom why those of us who wore our Country’s uniform and actually went forth to physically confront and fight our Country’s enemies are all so upset about those two so nonchalantly abandoning our guys, our comrades, to die alone at Benghazi.
Why am I not surprised?
“All political movements, in a hopeless attempt to perpetuate themselves, unavoidably become reactionary and despotic”
Tito
“As democracy is perfected, the Office of President represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart’s desire at last and the White House will be occupied by a downright fool and complete narcissistic moron.”
HL Mencken, Baltimore Evening Sun, 26 July 1920
/John
