Hook Dem
12-15-2004, 04:06 PM
For nearly 30 years I.... like many Vietnam veterans....seldom spoke of
Vietnam, except with other veterans, when training soldiers, and in public
speeches. These past five years I have joined the hundreds of thousands
who believe it is high time the truth be told about the Vietnam War and the
people who served there. It's time the American people learn that the
United States military did not lose the War, and that a surprisingly high
number of people who claim to have served there, in fact, DID NOT.
As Americans support the men and women involved in the War on Terrorism,
the mainstream media are once again working tirelessly to undermine their
efforts and force a psychological loss or stalemate for the United States.
We cannot stand by and let the media do to today's warriors what they did
to us 35 years a go.
(Take a good, hard look at how certain MSM stations and Newspapers are doing
all they can to cast the Iraq War in bad light. Once again, they are doing all they
can to undermine the efforts of the President, the Department Of Defense, and
our military forces fighting the war. It is false Vietnam era reporting all over again.
Thank God for FoxNews who at least gives us a Fair and Balanced report!
If you believe the Communist News Network (formerly known as CNN) and the other
MSM’s, you would think they were reporting on a totally different war. Again the
emphasis is on what our troop might have accidentally (or intentionally, in a few cases)
done wrong, and not all the murder and mayhem that Saddam committed, or what is being
committed now in the name of Allah.... Same news tactics as in Vietnam... Different war...)
Below are some assembled some facts most readers will find interesting. It
isn't a long read, but it will....I guarantee....teach you some things you
did not know about the Vietnam War and those who served, fought, or died
there.
Please share it with those with whom you communicate.
Bruce Dwyer
Vietnam War Facts:
Facts, Statistics, Fake Warrior Numbers, and Myths Dispelled
9,087,000 military personnel served on active duty during the official
Vietnam era from August 5, 1964 to May 7, 1975.
2,709,918 Americans served in uniform in Vietnam
Vietnam Veterans represented 9.7% of their generation.
240 men were awarded the Medal of Honor during the Vietnam War
The first man to die in Vietnam was James Davis, in 1958. He was with the
509th Radio Research Station. Davis Station in Saigon was named for him.
58,148 were killed in Vietnam
75,000 were severely disabled
23,214 were 100% disabled
5,283 lost limbs
1,081 sustained multiple amputations
Of those killed, 61% were younger than 21
11,465 of those killed were younger than 20 years old
Of those killed, 17,539 were married
Average age of men killed: 23.1 years
Five men killed in Vietnam were only 16 years old.
The oldest man killed was 62 years old.
As of January 15, 2 004, there are 1,875 Americans still unaccounted for
from the Vietnam War
97% of Vietnam Veterans were honorably discharged
91% of Vietnam Veterans say they are glad they served
74% say they would serve again, even knowing the outcome
Vietnam veterans have a lower unemployment rate than the same non-vet age
groups. (For decades, those with an agenda would have you believe that these vets were not able to get or hold jobs after returning from Vietnam)
Vietnam veterans' personal income exceeds that of our non-veteran age group
by more than 18 percent.
87% of Americans hold Vietnam Veterans in high esteem. (For years, our news media portrayed them as otherwise... Druggies, killers, mal-contents, misfits. That was far from the truth. Some could not adjust, but most did)
There is no difference in drug usage between Vietnam Veterans and
non-Vietnam Veterans of the same age group (Source: Veterans
Administration Study)
Vietnam Veterans are less likely to be in prison - only one-half of one
percent of Vietnam Veterans have been jailed for crimes.
85% of Vietnam Veterans made successful transitions to civilian life. (Most of those with an agenda wouldhave you believe otherwise...)
Interesting Census Stats and "Been There" Wanabees:
1,713,823 of those who served in Vietnam were still alive as of August,
1995 (census figures).
~ During that same Census count, the number of Americans falsely
claiming to have served in-country was: 9,492,958. (If you would like further insight into this, just read the great book by B.G. Burkett and Glenna Whitley, “Stolen Valor, How the Vietnam Generation Was Robbed of it’s Heroes and History”. It details dozens and dozens of people who falsely claimed to be Vietnam vets, and who scammed and still are, the Veterans Administration)
~ As of the current Census taken during August, 2000, the surviving
U.S. Vietnam Veteran population estimate is: 1,002,511. This is hard to
believe, losing nearly 711,000 between '95 and '00. That's 390 per day.
During this Census count, the number of Americans falsely claiming to have
served in-country is: 13,853,027. By this census, FOUR OUT OF FIVE WHO
CLAIM TO BE Vietnam vets are not.
The Department of Defense Vietnam War Service Index officially provided by
The War Library originally reported with errors that 2,709,918 U.S.
military personnel as having served in-country. Corrections and
confirmations to this errored index resulted in the addition of 358 U.S.
military personnel confirmed to have served in Vietnam but not originally
listed by the Department of Defense. (All names are currently on file and
accessible 24/7/365).
Isolated atrocities committed by American Soldiers produced torrents of
outrage from anti-war critics and the news media while Communist atrocities
were so common that they received hardly any media mention at all. The
United States sought to minimize and prevent attacks on civilians while
North Vietnam made attacks on civilians a centerpiece of its strategy.
Americans who deliberately killed civilians received prison sentences while
Communists who did so received commendations. From 1957 to 1973, the
National Liberation Front assassinated 36,725 Vietnamese and abducted
another 58,499. The death squads focused on leaders at the village level
and on anyone who improved the lives of the peasants such as medical
personnel, social workers, and school teachers. - Nixon Presidential Papers
Common Myths Dispelled:
Myth: Common Belief is that most Vietnam veterans were drafted.
Fact: 2/3 of the men who served in Vietnam were volunteers. 2/3 of the men
who served in World War II were drafted. Approximately 70% of those killed
in Vietnam were volunteers.
Myth: The media have reported that suicides among Vietnam veterans range
from 50,000 to 100,000 - 6 to 11 times the non-Vietnam veteran population.
Fact: Mortality studies show that 9,000 is a better estimate. "The CDC
Vietnam Experience Study Mortality Assessment showed that during the first
5 years after discharge, deaths from suicide were 1.7 times more likely
among Vietnam veterans than non-Vietnam veterans. After that initial
post-service period, Vietnam veterans were no more likely to die from
suicide than non-Vietnam veterans. In fact, after the 5-year post-service
period, the rate of suicides is less in the Vietnam veterans' group.
Myth: Common belief is that a disproportionate number of blacks were
killed in the Vietnam War.
Fact: 86% of the men who died in Vietnam were Caucasians, 12.5% were black,
1.2% were other races. Sociologists Charles C. Moskos and John Sibley
Butler, in their recently published book "All That We Can Be," said they
analyzed the claim that blacks were used like cannon fodder during Vietnam
"and can report definitely that this charge is untrue. Black fatalities
amounted to 12 percent of all Americans killed in Southeast Asia - a figure
proportional to the number of blacks in the U.S. population at the time and
slightly lower than the proportion of blacks in the Army at the close of
the war." (For decades, people with an agenda have been saying that the military
used our black and Hispanic soldiers like cannon fodder. It is a common tactic used
during political campaigns and other events. It is FALSE...)
Myth: Common belief is that the war was fought largely by the poor and
uneducated.
Fact: Servicemen who went to Vietnam from well-to-do areas had a slightly
elevated risk of dying because they were more likely to be pilots or
infantry officers. Vietnam Veterans were the best educated forces our
nation had ever sent into combat. 79% had a high school education or
better.
Here are statistics from the Combat Area Casualty File (CACF) as of
November 1993. The CACF is the basis for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial (The
Wall): Average age of 58,148 killed in Vietnam was 23.11 years. (Although
58,169 names are in the Nov. 93 database, only 58,148 have both event date
and birth date. Event date is used instead of declared dead date for some
of those who were listed as missing in action)
Deaths - Average Age
Total: 58,148 23.11 years
Enlisted: 50,274 22.37 years
Officers: 6,598 28.43 years
Warrants: 1,276 24.73 years
E1: 525 20.34 years
11B MOS: 18,465 22.55 years
Myth: The common belief is the average age of an infantryman fighting in
Vietnam was 19.
Fact: Assuming KIAs accurately represented age groups serving in Vietnam,
the average age of an infantryman (MOS 11B) serving in Vietnam to be 19
years old is a myth, it is actually 22. None of the enlisted grades have
an average age of less than 20. The average man who fought in World War II
was 26 years of age.
Myth: The Common belief is that the domino theory was proved false.
Fact: The domino theory was accurate. The ASEAN (Association of Southeast
Asian Nations) countries, Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and
Thailand stayed free of Communism because of the U.S. commitment to
Vietnam. The Indonesians threw the Soviets out in 1966 because of
America's commitment in Vietnam. Without that commitment, Communism would
have swept all the way to the Malacca Straits that is south of Singapore
and of great strategic importance to the free world. If you ask people who
live in these countries that won the war in Vietnam, they have a different
opinion from the American news media. The Vietnam War was the turning
point for Communism.
Myth: The common belief is that the fighting in Vietnam was not as intense
as in World War II.
Fact: The average infantryman in the South Pacific during World War II saw
about 40 days of combat in four years. The average infantryman in Vietnam
saw about 240 days of combat in one year thanks to the mobility of the
helicopter. One out of every 10 Americans who served in Vietnam was a
casualty. 58,148 were killed and 304,000 wounded out of 2.7 million who
served. Although the percent that died is similar to other wars,
amputations or crippling wounds were 300 percent higher than in World War
II ....75,000 Vietnam veterans are severely disabled. MEDEVAC helicopters
flew nearly 500,000 missions. Over 900,000 patients were airlifted (nearly
half were American). The average time lapse between wounding to
hospitalization was less than one hour. As a result, less than one
percent of all Americans wounded, who survived the first 24 hours, died.
The helicopter provided unprecedented mobility. Without the helicopter it
would have taken three times as many troops to secure the 800 mile border
with Cambodia and Laos (the politicians thought the Geneva Conventions of
1954 and the Geneva Accords or 1962 would secure the border).
Myth: Kim Phuc, the little nine year old Vietnamese girl running naked
from the napalm strike near Trang Bang on 8 June 1972.....shown a million
times on American television....was burned by Americans bombing Trang Bang.
Fact: No American had involvement in this incident near Trang Bang that
burned Phan Thi Kim Phuc. The planes doing the bombing near the village
were VNAF (Vietnam Air Force) and were being flown by Vietnamese pilots in
support of South Vietnamese troops on the ground. The Vietnamese pilot who
dropped the napalm in error is currently living in the United States. Even
the AP photographer, Nick Ut, who took the picture, was Vietnamese. The
incident in the photo took place on the second day of a three day battle
between the North Vietnamese Army (NVA) who occupied the village of Trang
Bang and the ARVN (Army of the Republic of Vietnam) who were trying to
force the NVA out of the village. Recent reports in the news media that an
American commander ordered the air strike that burned Kim Phuc are
incorrect. There were no Americans involved in any capacity. "We
(Americans) had nothing to do with controlling VNAF," according to
Lieutenant General (Ret) James F. Hollingsworth, the Commanding General of
TRAC at that time. Also, it has been incorrectly reported that two of Kim
Phuc's brothers were killed in this incident. They were Kim's cousins not
her brothers. (There are still those who use this incident to indict the U.S. For
this event, though we had absolutely nothing to do with it...)
Myth: The United States lost the war in Vietnam.
Fact: The American military was not defeated in Vietnam. The American
military did not lose a battle of any consequence. From a military
standpoint, it was almost an unprecedented performance. General
Westmoreland quoting Douglas Pike, a professor at the University of
California, Berkley a renowned expert on the Vietnam War). This included
Tet 68, which was a major military defeat for the VC and NVA.
THE UNITED STATES DID NOT LOSE THE WAR IN VIETNAM, THE SOUTH VIETNAMESE
DID. Read on........
The fall of Saigon happened 30 April 1975, two years AFTER the American
military left Vietnam. The last American troops departed in their entirety
29 March 1973. (Those with an agenda are still trying to hammer home the point
that we “lost” this war... WE did not...)
How could we lose a war we had already stopped fighting? We fought to an
agreed stalemate. The peace settlement was signed in Paris on 27 January
1973. It called for release of all U.S. prisoners, withdrawal of U.S.
forces, limitation of both sides' forces inside South Vietnam and a
commitment to peaceful reunification. The 140,000 evacuees in April 1975
during the fall of Saigon consisted almost entirely of civilians and
Vietnamese military, NOT American military running for their lives. There
were almost twice as many casualties in Southeast Asia (primarily Cambodia)
the first two years after the fall of Saigon in 1975 then there were during
the ten years the U.S. was involved in Vietnam. Thanks for the perceived
loss and the countless assassinations and torture visited upon Vietnamese,
Laotians, and Cambodians goes mainly to the American media and their
undying support-by-misrepresentation of the anti-War movement in the United
States.
As with much of the Vietnam War, the news media misreported and
misinterpreted the 1968 Tet Offensive. It was reported as an overwhelming
success for the Communist forces and a decided defeat for the U.S. forces.
Nothing could be further from the truth. Despite initial victories by the
Communists forces, the Tet Offensive resulted in a major defeat of those
forces. General Vo Nguyen Giap, the designer of the Tet Offensive, is
considered by some as ranking with Wellington, Grant, Lee and MacArthur as
a great commander. Still, militarily, the Tet Offensive was a total defeat
of the Communist forces on all fronts. It resulted in the death of some
45,000 NVA troops and the complete, if not total destruction of the Viet
Cong elements in South Vietnam. The Organization of the Viet Cong Units in
the South never recovered. The Tet Offensive succeeded on only one front
and that was the News front and the political arena. This was another
example in the Vietnam War of an inaccuracy becoming the perceived truth.
However inaccurately reported, the News Media made the Tet Offensive
famous.
"Vietnam History"
http://4dw.net/jqueen/history.html
VIETNAM REMEMBERED
http://remembervietnam.homestead.com/
Top 100 Vietnam Veterans WebSites
http://www.topsitelists.com/start/vietnamvet/topsites.html
"18th Engineers"
http://4dw.net/jqueen/truth.html
Movie Review: We Were Soldiers (Once.....and Young)
http://remembervietnam.homestead.com/idrrang.html
-----------------------------------------------
Michael Turley
P.O. Box 493
Syracuse, NY 13206
Cell - 1-315-391-1300
e-mail- [email protected]
"It does not take a majority to prevail ... but rather an irate, tireless minority, keen on setting brushfires of freedom in the minds of men." Samuel Adams
Vietnam, except with other veterans, when training soldiers, and in public
speeches. These past five years I have joined the hundreds of thousands
who believe it is high time the truth be told about the Vietnam War and the
people who served there. It's time the American people learn that the
United States military did not lose the War, and that a surprisingly high
number of people who claim to have served there, in fact, DID NOT.
As Americans support the men and women involved in the War on Terrorism,
the mainstream media are once again working tirelessly to undermine their
efforts and force a psychological loss or stalemate for the United States.
We cannot stand by and let the media do to today's warriors what they did
to us 35 years a go.
(Take a good, hard look at how certain MSM stations and Newspapers are doing
all they can to cast the Iraq War in bad light. Once again, they are doing all they
can to undermine the efforts of the President, the Department Of Defense, and
our military forces fighting the war. It is false Vietnam era reporting all over again.
Thank God for FoxNews who at least gives us a Fair and Balanced report!
If you believe the Communist News Network (formerly known as CNN) and the other
MSM’s, you would think they were reporting on a totally different war. Again the
emphasis is on what our troop might have accidentally (or intentionally, in a few cases)
done wrong, and not all the murder and mayhem that Saddam committed, or what is being
committed now in the name of Allah.... Same news tactics as in Vietnam... Different war...)
Below are some assembled some facts most readers will find interesting. It
isn't a long read, but it will....I guarantee....teach you some things you
did not know about the Vietnam War and those who served, fought, or died
there.
Please share it with those with whom you communicate.
Bruce Dwyer
Vietnam War Facts:
Facts, Statistics, Fake Warrior Numbers, and Myths Dispelled
9,087,000 military personnel served on active duty during the official
Vietnam era from August 5, 1964 to May 7, 1975.
2,709,918 Americans served in uniform in Vietnam
Vietnam Veterans represented 9.7% of their generation.
240 men were awarded the Medal of Honor during the Vietnam War
The first man to die in Vietnam was James Davis, in 1958. He was with the
509th Radio Research Station. Davis Station in Saigon was named for him.
58,148 were killed in Vietnam
75,000 were severely disabled
23,214 were 100% disabled
5,283 lost limbs
1,081 sustained multiple amputations
Of those killed, 61% were younger than 21
11,465 of those killed were younger than 20 years old
Of those killed, 17,539 were married
Average age of men killed: 23.1 years
Five men killed in Vietnam were only 16 years old.
The oldest man killed was 62 years old.
As of January 15, 2 004, there are 1,875 Americans still unaccounted for
from the Vietnam War
97% of Vietnam Veterans were honorably discharged
91% of Vietnam Veterans say they are glad they served
74% say they would serve again, even knowing the outcome
Vietnam veterans have a lower unemployment rate than the same non-vet age
groups. (For decades, those with an agenda would have you believe that these vets were not able to get or hold jobs after returning from Vietnam)
Vietnam veterans' personal income exceeds that of our non-veteran age group
by more than 18 percent.
87% of Americans hold Vietnam Veterans in high esteem. (For years, our news media portrayed them as otherwise... Druggies, killers, mal-contents, misfits. That was far from the truth. Some could not adjust, but most did)
There is no difference in drug usage between Vietnam Veterans and
non-Vietnam Veterans of the same age group (Source: Veterans
Administration Study)
Vietnam Veterans are less likely to be in prison - only one-half of one
percent of Vietnam Veterans have been jailed for crimes.
85% of Vietnam Veterans made successful transitions to civilian life. (Most of those with an agenda wouldhave you believe otherwise...)
Interesting Census Stats and "Been There" Wanabees:
1,713,823 of those who served in Vietnam were still alive as of August,
1995 (census figures).
~ During that same Census count, the number of Americans falsely
claiming to have served in-country was: 9,492,958. (If you would like further insight into this, just read the great book by B.G. Burkett and Glenna Whitley, “Stolen Valor, How the Vietnam Generation Was Robbed of it’s Heroes and History”. It details dozens and dozens of people who falsely claimed to be Vietnam vets, and who scammed and still are, the Veterans Administration)
~ As of the current Census taken during August, 2000, the surviving
U.S. Vietnam Veteran population estimate is: 1,002,511. This is hard to
believe, losing nearly 711,000 between '95 and '00. That's 390 per day.
During this Census count, the number of Americans falsely claiming to have
served in-country is: 13,853,027. By this census, FOUR OUT OF FIVE WHO
CLAIM TO BE Vietnam vets are not.
The Department of Defense Vietnam War Service Index officially provided by
The War Library originally reported with errors that 2,709,918 U.S.
military personnel as having served in-country. Corrections and
confirmations to this errored index resulted in the addition of 358 U.S.
military personnel confirmed to have served in Vietnam but not originally
listed by the Department of Defense. (All names are currently on file and
accessible 24/7/365).
Isolated atrocities committed by American Soldiers produced torrents of
outrage from anti-war critics and the news media while Communist atrocities
were so common that they received hardly any media mention at all. The
United States sought to minimize and prevent attacks on civilians while
North Vietnam made attacks on civilians a centerpiece of its strategy.
Americans who deliberately killed civilians received prison sentences while
Communists who did so received commendations. From 1957 to 1973, the
National Liberation Front assassinated 36,725 Vietnamese and abducted
another 58,499. The death squads focused on leaders at the village level
and on anyone who improved the lives of the peasants such as medical
personnel, social workers, and school teachers. - Nixon Presidential Papers
Common Myths Dispelled:
Myth: Common Belief is that most Vietnam veterans were drafted.
Fact: 2/3 of the men who served in Vietnam were volunteers. 2/3 of the men
who served in World War II were drafted. Approximately 70% of those killed
in Vietnam were volunteers.
Myth: The media have reported that suicides among Vietnam veterans range
from 50,000 to 100,000 - 6 to 11 times the non-Vietnam veteran population.
Fact: Mortality studies show that 9,000 is a better estimate. "The CDC
Vietnam Experience Study Mortality Assessment showed that during the first
5 years after discharge, deaths from suicide were 1.7 times more likely
among Vietnam veterans than non-Vietnam veterans. After that initial
post-service period, Vietnam veterans were no more likely to die from
suicide than non-Vietnam veterans. In fact, after the 5-year post-service
period, the rate of suicides is less in the Vietnam veterans' group.
Myth: Common belief is that a disproportionate number of blacks were
killed in the Vietnam War.
Fact: 86% of the men who died in Vietnam were Caucasians, 12.5% were black,
1.2% were other races. Sociologists Charles C. Moskos and John Sibley
Butler, in their recently published book "All That We Can Be," said they
analyzed the claim that blacks were used like cannon fodder during Vietnam
"and can report definitely that this charge is untrue. Black fatalities
amounted to 12 percent of all Americans killed in Southeast Asia - a figure
proportional to the number of blacks in the U.S. population at the time and
slightly lower than the proportion of blacks in the Army at the close of
the war." (For decades, people with an agenda have been saying that the military
used our black and Hispanic soldiers like cannon fodder. It is a common tactic used
during political campaigns and other events. It is FALSE...)
Myth: Common belief is that the war was fought largely by the poor and
uneducated.
Fact: Servicemen who went to Vietnam from well-to-do areas had a slightly
elevated risk of dying because they were more likely to be pilots or
infantry officers. Vietnam Veterans were the best educated forces our
nation had ever sent into combat. 79% had a high school education or
better.
Here are statistics from the Combat Area Casualty File (CACF) as of
November 1993. The CACF is the basis for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial (The
Wall): Average age of 58,148 killed in Vietnam was 23.11 years. (Although
58,169 names are in the Nov. 93 database, only 58,148 have both event date
and birth date. Event date is used instead of declared dead date for some
of those who were listed as missing in action)
Deaths - Average Age
Total: 58,148 23.11 years
Enlisted: 50,274 22.37 years
Officers: 6,598 28.43 years
Warrants: 1,276 24.73 years
E1: 525 20.34 years
11B MOS: 18,465 22.55 years
Myth: The common belief is the average age of an infantryman fighting in
Vietnam was 19.
Fact: Assuming KIAs accurately represented age groups serving in Vietnam,
the average age of an infantryman (MOS 11B) serving in Vietnam to be 19
years old is a myth, it is actually 22. None of the enlisted grades have
an average age of less than 20. The average man who fought in World War II
was 26 years of age.
Myth: The Common belief is that the domino theory was proved false.
Fact: The domino theory was accurate. The ASEAN (Association of Southeast
Asian Nations) countries, Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and
Thailand stayed free of Communism because of the U.S. commitment to
Vietnam. The Indonesians threw the Soviets out in 1966 because of
America's commitment in Vietnam. Without that commitment, Communism would
have swept all the way to the Malacca Straits that is south of Singapore
and of great strategic importance to the free world. If you ask people who
live in these countries that won the war in Vietnam, they have a different
opinion from the American news media. The Vietnam War was the turning
point for Communism.
Myth: The common belief is that the fighting in Vietnam was not as intense
as in World War II.
Fact: The average infantryman in the South Pacific during World War II saw
about 40 days of combat in four years. The average infantryman in Vietnam
saw about 240 days of combat in one year thanks to the mobility of the
helicopter. One out of every 10 Americans who served in Vietnam was a
casualty. 58,148 were killed and 304,000 wounded out of 2.7 million who
served. Although the percent that died is similar to other wars,
amputations or crippling wounds were 300 percent higher than in World War
II ....75,000 Vietnam veterans are severely disabled. MEDEVAC helicopters
flew nearly 500,000 missions. Over 900,000 patients were airlifted (nearly
half were American). The average time lapse between wounding to
hospitalization was less than one hour. As a result, less than one
percent of all Americans wounded, who survived the first 24 hours, died.
The helicopter provided unprecedented mobility. Without the helicopter it
would have taken three times as many troops to secure the 800 mile border
with Cambodia and Laos (the politicians thought the Geneva Conventions of
1954 and the Geneva Accords or 1962 would secure the border).
Myth: Kim Phuc, the little nine year old Vietnamese girl running naked
from the napalm strike near Trang Bang on 8 June 1972.....shown a million
times on American television....was burned by Americans bombing Trang Bang.
Fact: No American had involvement in this incident near Trang Bang that
burned Phan Thi Kim Phuc. The planes doing the bombing near the village
were VNAF (Vietnam Air Force) and were being flown by Vietnamese pilots in
support of South Vietnamese troops on the ground. The Vietnamese pilot who
dropped the napalm in error is currently living in the United States. Even
the AP photographer, Nick Ut, who took the picture, was Vietnamese. The
incident in the photo took place on the second day of a three day battle
between the North Vietnamese Army (NVA) who occupied the village of Trang
Bang and the ARVN (Army of the Republic of Vietnam) who were trying to
force the NVA out of the village. Recent reports in the news media that an
American commander ordered the air strike that burned Kim Phuc are
incorrect. There were no Americans involved in any capacity. "We
(Americans) had nothing to do with controlling VNAF," according to
Lieutenant General (Ret) James F. Hollingsworth, the Commanding General of
TRAC at that time. Also, it has been incorrectly reported that two of Kim
Phuc's brothers were killed in this incident. They were Kim's cousins not
her brothers. (There are still those who use this incident to indict the U.S. For
this event, though we had absolutely nothing to do with it...)
Myth: The United States lost the war in Vietnam.
Fact: The American military was not defeated in Vietnam. The American
military did not lose a battle of any consequence. From a military
standpoint, it was almost an unprecedented performance. General
Westmoreland quoting Douglas Pike, a professor at the University of
California, Berkley a renowned expert on the Vietnam War). This included
Tet 68, which was a major military defeat for the VC and NVA.
THE UNITED STATES DID NOT LOSE THE WAR IN VIETNAM, THE SOUTH VIETNAMESE
DID. Read on........
The fall of Saigon happened 30 April 1975, two years AFTER the American
military left Vietnam. The last American troops departed in their entirety
29 March 1973. (Those with an agenda are still trying to hammer home the point
that we “lost” this war... WE did not...)
How could we lose a war we had already stopped fighting? We fought to an
agreed stalemate. The peace settlement was signed in Paris on 27 January
1973. It called for release of all U.S. prisoners, withdrawal of U.S.
forces, limitation of both sides' forces inside South Vietnam and a
commitment to peaceful reunification. The 140,000 evacuees in April 1975
during the fall of Saigon consisted almost entirely of civilians and
Vietnamese military, NOT American military running for their lives. There
were almost twice as many casualties in Southeast Asia (primarily Cambodia)
the first two years after the fall of Saigon in 1975 then there were during
the ten years the U.S. was involved in Vietnam. Thanks for the perceived
loss and the countless assassinations and torture visited upon Vietnamese,
Laotians, and Cambodians goes mainly to the American media and their
undying support-by-misrepresentation of the anti-War movement in the United
States.
As with much of the Vietnam War, the news media misreported and
misinterpreted the 1968 Tet Offensive. It was reported as an overwhelming
success for the Communist forces and a decided defeat for the U.S. forces.
Nothing could be further from the truth. Despite initial victories by the
Communists forces, the Tet Offensive resulted in a major defeat of those
forces. General Vo Nguyen Giap, the designer of the Tet Offensive, is
considered by some as ranking with Wellington, Grant, Lee and MacArthur as
a great commander. Still, militarily, the Tet Offensive was a total defeat
of the Communist forces on all fronts. It resulted in the death of some
45,000 NVA troops and the complete, if not total destruction of the Viet
Cong elements in South Vietnam. The Organization of the Viet Cong Units in
the South never recovered. The Tet Offensive succeeded on only one front
and that was the News front and the political arena. This was another
example in the Vietnam War of an inaccuracy becoming the perceived truth.
However inaccurately reported, the News Media made the Tet Offensive
famous.
"Vietnam History"
http://4dw.net/jqueen/history.html
VIETNAM REMEMBERED
http://remembervietnam.homestead.com/
Top 100 Vietnam Veterans WebSites
http://www.topsitelists.com/start/vietnamvet/topsites.html
"18th Engineers"
http://4dw.net/jqueen/truth.html
Movie Review: We Were Soldiers (Once.....and Young)
http://remembervietnam.homestead.com/idrrang.html
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Michael Turley
P.O. Box 493
Syracuse, NY 13206
Cell - 1-315-391-1300
e-mail- [email protected]
"It does not take a majority to prevail ... but rather an irate, tireless minority, keen on setting brushfires of freedom in the minds of men." Samuel Adams