General @ Friday April 29, 2005 08:52 am by WunderKraut
The above picture should have never been taken because it should never have happened.
Today and tomorrow mark the 30th anniversary of the fall of Saigon, which to me, is one of the blackest stains on our country. We tucked our tail between our legs and fled, leaving thousands upon thousands to be slaughtered by the Communists. Some 60,000 of our men and women gave their lives, for this?
There are many of you that will say that the Vietnam War was evil and that the U.S. deserved what happened. But I disagree. For various geo-political reasons and in the name of containment, the war had to be fought. That being said, the war could have been won. It could have been won if the politicians let the generals fight and if the generals allowed their junior officers to take initiative.
I am partial to the later point of view due to my father having served in Vietnam. He was a crew chief/door gunner on a Huey gunship. His unit was A Troop, 1st Squadron, 9th Calvary Regiment, 1st Calvary Division. As I have learned, his particular unit was the tip of the spear for the 1st Cav. This was due to the fact that the 9th Calvary Regiment was the scout/recon arm of the 1st Cav. and the 1st Squadron and A Troop in particular was the main scout/recon arm of the regiment. He served February of 1966 to February 1967.
If the U.S. makes a commitment to a country, Iraq comes to mind, then we have to see it through no matter how bloody it gets. I have a question for you Liberals out there that think we need to pull out right now: What do you suppose will happen to all the Iraqi people who have helped us these past few years if we leave and the “insurgents” take over? If Vietnam is our guide, and according to you guys it is, then they will all be rounded up and slaughtered. Every last one, male and female. Then their families will be killed and then large chunks of ordinary people will be killed just to send a message.
That is something to think about. You anti-war types from the 1960’s who fought to end the war were probably high-fiving each other when the U.S. pulled out. Did you ever stop to think that partly due to your actions, THOUSANDS of innocent people were killed. You protested that the carpet bombing of the North was evil, yet your actions led to an equal number of deaths, maybe more. Are you still proud?
Remember that 60,000 of our people died over there, that many thousands of South Vietnamese soldiers died as well and that thousands of innocent people died after we left. War is a tough thing, but it was necessary. If we never intervened, then the Communists would have taken the South and killed many thousands of people anyway. At least we could have stopped that. It seems odd to me that wherever Communists take control, there seems to be thousands (or millions in some places) who are rounded up and killed. Explain again why you have the poster of Che on your dorm wall or why you have old Soviet art in your house or why you have that t-shirt with Mao or Stalin on it? Don’t you realize how many innocent people (not Batista stooges) were killed for no reason other than for the Communists to consolidate their power?
Anyway, I have wandered away from my main point. Just remember when you watch the news this weekend that you will probably be hearing a lot about how much Vietnam has opened up in recent years. Don’t buy it. You will also hear about lots of American “atrocities” yet I am very doubtful that you will hear anything about the real atrocities carried out by the Communists or about how many people where actually murdered after we left.
We must NEVER allow this to happen again. We need to stand with the Iraqi people until they can stand on their own and then be willing to step in and help if need be.
17 Responses to “The Black Stain”
Amen brother. So many people who think they are somehow ‘enlightened’ are just too lazy to think things through for themselves. Your reference to Che, for example. I detest ‘Che art’, simply because most of the geeks wearing it think he was some kind of freedom fighter instead of realizing what he really was. Castro’s henchman. All they need to do is read a little history and THINK. The liberals want so badly for the Iraqi War to turn into another Vietnam, and the ironic thing is, if we follow their suggestions that is exactly what it will become. With the small exception that the loss of American lives has been MUCH LOWER this time. Anyway, thank God that WILL NOT HAPPEN.
Very strong writing.
I spent much of my life condemning our government for getting us into vietnam, now I realizee that our main mistake was in the way we got out of it.
I think the American people get that and I think that had a lot to do with Heinz-Kerry going down in flames. “Reporting for duty”, my a$#.
I think that if you are rational about it, one can sit down and have serious discussions as to whether or not we should have been in the war to begin with. I can see both sides of it, honestly. But like reelcobra wrote, once you are in the thing, you cant just turn tail and run. Right or wrong we were in the war. Now the appropriate question should have been what we need to do to finish this thing. We still could have pulled out, but only after we sent STRONG statements to the North Vietnamese government that if they started attacking, we would begin bombing again. But we did not do that. We gave the NVA a blank check. While feigning fidelity to the South, we really winked at the NVA as if to say “If you attack, we will not stand in your way” That was not only wrong, it was immoral and by doing so we signed the death warrant of thousands of people
THIRTY YEARS AGO: SAIGON
This weekend will mark the 30th anniversary of the fall of Saigon. Wunderkraut remembers and his post also explains why with time and events (Iraq) we have started to look differently at the Vietnam War….
When I see that famous photograph, I feel sadness and anger but not shame. Sadness at the sacrifice of people like your father and so many other Americans, Aussies, South Koreans, South Vietnamese and others. Sadness for those still on the ladder when the last chopper lifted off. And anger at the anti-war leftist who worked so long and hard to ensure our defeat in that conflict. But not shame. Because while we lost the “battle” of Vietnam, we won the larger and more meaningful war against Communism. There is not shame in that, any more than there is shame in our losses at Baatan, Dieppe or in the 1944 Bridge Too Far gamble in the Arnhem. We lost those battles too, but they needed to be fought. Sometimes defeat tells you more about a people than victory. In 2005, when I compare the Americans flying that helicopter to the North Vietnamese invaders, I know who won that war.
Yeah, I watched that one on the evening news and remember being in a “funk” for quite a few days after that. Then the idiot Carter got elected… things just got worse for those of us still in uniform during the 70s. It was finally Reagan that gave us some self-respect and you started feeling like you weren’t a loser or a blight on American society.
Jon,
I agree with you about Vietnam being one battle in the Cold War. But at least the guys fighting the other battles that Americans have lost were not being undermined by their government or their fellow countryman. A loss I can handle, it is that we fought with one hand behind our back. If we had pulled out all the stops and still got our butts kicked, then it would be easier.
You are also right that the greater good was the fall of the Soviet Union. I just wish our South Vietnamese buddies did not have to be rounded up and executed because of our loss. But such is war. You try to win as many as you can, but every now and then you lose one and it sucks.
The raid at Dieppe was a terrible defeat and I hope that the guys who survived were able to take some consolation that their defeat taught us enough to win in Normandy two years later. The thing is, I am not sure my dad can take any consolation that Vietnam was just another battle leading to the ultimate triumph of the Cold War. He lost too many buddies and was never thanked for his or their sacrifice.
Thank you, from a Vietnamese-American. Please see my blog for more thoughts on the Vietnam War.
WunderKraut,
Please convey my deepest thanks to your farther for his noble service in Vietnam. Just in case he has not read it, I posted my thanks here.
WunderKraut,
Great followup points, thanks. And after taking my first look around, thanks for your site as well. Fun and thoughful. Finally, regarding comment #9, I’m with VietPundit on that one.
There has never been a day that pass that I don’t thank God for this country. I was a 5 year old boy when Saigon fell. I was lucky in that my parents were able to get the immediate family out before the Communists took over. In time, we became naturalized citizens of this great country. And I thank God this country exists, for all the men and women who made and continue to make this country great.
And everyday I curse the lying ‘liberal’ lunatics like john kerry, ted kennedy, jane fonda, and her ilk. Because of these delusional, deranged degenerates, the Republic of Vietnam fell. As a result of this, 2 of my uncles were sent to “re-education” camps but only 1 came out. My father never found out what happened to his younger brother and it bothered him until he passed away. I hold the ‘democratic’ party responsible for this and I will hate them until the day I die. They are evil, selfish and unprincipled - only focused on returning to power. It is my fear that one of these days, they will betray this country - just as they betrayed the people of South Vietnam.
Hey LB, great post! Do you have a blog? If not, start one!
Well said and informative too. I think you only omitted to mention that in excess of a million people tried to escape on small boats. Desperate straights.
This is becomming a very rocking blog.
Or “becoming” if you use the Queen’s English.
I’m from Manhattan.
Did not the United States kill roughly two million people in Vietnam before that last helicopter left?
This really was a heartbreaking time. I was 19 years old and stationed on Guam when this happened. We got word of the fall of Saigon and were told to be ready to accept refugees. I, along with many other Navy personal, was given a temporary assignment to begin assembling a refugee holding area. The moral was very low, especially among many of the Marines. Within a few days the Navy ships arrived and the people where helicoptered into the holding area. It was such a depressing time for all the people there.
This is a good reason for having only 1 exit strategy. Victory. If Ted Kennedy or Barbara Boxer keep insisting on pulling troops out of Iraq, we will be repeating this event again.