- The territory of Vietnam was colonized by the French many years ago.
The people of Vietnam tried to break away from France. - During WW-II, Japan invaded and took Vietnam away from the French. The Japanese were even more repressive than the French. They became nothing more than slaves. The people of Vietnam turned their efforts for independence towards Japan.
- The U.S. supplied a Vietnamese organizer, Nguyễn Sinh Cung, later known as Ho Chi Minh with war materials to so they could sabotage the Japanese. In return, the U.S. promised Minh that Vietnam would be free from the French after the war. Even though Minh had lived in the USSR and China and had joined (and was educated as) the communist party, he still favored the U.S.
- At the war’s end, the allies decided that France would regain possession of Indochina (Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia). This was done with the approval of Democrat President Truman. This was a policy that supported colonization even though the U.S. was against it.
- France had been decimated by the Japanese and had a very weak military; they were unable to maintain civil control in that area. Riots and anarchy reigned.
- Minh gained an advantage and took control of the city of Hanoi in the north. He declared himself to be the head of a provisional government of all Vietnam. Minh wanted to avoid war. He drew up a rough draft of a document similar to the U.S. Constitution. He even asked France and other governments to help put down the unrest and provide technical and intellectual support. Would he have lived up to these promises? We will never know because of what happened below.
- France dispatched an already wary military force to take control. Because of WW-II aid from the U.S., Minh had a relatively well-equipped force. Of course, Minh could not count on the U.S. since they were France’s ally during the war, but he was able to get support from our enemies, the USSR, and China.
- Minh’s military defeated France’s military, thus, necessitating an international intervention. An agreement called the Geneva Accord was drawn up by foreign countries other than Vietnam. It divided Vietnam at the 17th parallel. North Vietnam signed it, but the South didn’t. The South felt that Minh would never abide by it, and time proved them right. The people of Vietnam were given a choice as to whether they wanted to live in the communist north or the democratic south. They were to be allowed to migrate to the state of their choice freely.
- Minh dishonored the agreement from the start. He blocked, hampered, and harassed those moving into the south. After the required 300 day wait the Accord called for countrywide elections; the goal of which was to reunite Vietnam under one government and one Prime Minister of the people’s choice.
- Ngô Đình Diệ, the candidate in the south, declared victory. Minh declared that the election was rigged and refused to abide by the Geneva Accord. In all honesty, there was much corruption, but it was on both sides. However, the division at the 17th parallel remained. The country was now separated between north and south.
- The U.S. was forced to support a corrupt government in the south for no other reason than to keep the communists from taking control by force. This would keep the people in the South free.
- Democrat President JF Kennedy began escalating the U.S.’s involvement. The Vietnam military informed Kennedy in advance that there was going to be a coupe and the current leaders wouldn’t survive. (It is because of this, that U.S. lawmakers passed a law expressly forbidding the U.S. from taking part in any assassination of a head of state. Ironically, JFK was assassinated a few months later.) JFK, and later, LB Johnson gradually increased the U.S. political and military involvement until there were over 500,000 U.S. troops in country.
- Despite the media’s popular portrayal that the war unpopular, this is wrong. There was a “silent majority” just as the then current President Nixon claimed. Something the media denied, and they are still denying it. But, just as now, the mainstream media silenced it. Americans wanted to WIN the war. Nixon ran on the promise to get us out of the war. He promised conservatives to win; he promised liberals to get out by any way available.
- The war was not being won because of betrayals in the U.S. Conservatives felt that Nixon would correct this. (See below for more details.) Again, the President, Nixon, ignored the advice of the military. His ignorant leadership equaled that of the Democrats and was a failure. He began a policy to reduce our involvement and leave. Officially the war was South Vietnam’s to lose; the U.S. merely withdrew its troops without a win or loss. The world, however, saw it as a U.S. loss. It’s a shame that a very capable military must live with defeats laid at their feet by civilian (inept, corrupt, and traitorous) leadership. President Trump has broken this deficiency and acts with military input.
- The struggle ended with there being a shaky truce separating the North and the South at the 17th parallel as set out by the Geneva Accord.
- Unknown to almost all, Nixon sent Henry Kissinger to China on a mission for peace. Decades later Kissinger admitted that Nixon sent him to China to tell them that the U.S. was getting out of Vietnam. What Nixon wanted was a cessation of attacks so the U.S. could leave with some semblance of honor and not in a military route. (An uncontrolled retreat.) China did not agree. China was very suspicious of Kissinger. Neither they nor Minh ceased the constant attacks as the U.S. retreated. The news videos of people scrambling to get on to aircraft to leave the country as it was overtaken certainly look like a route. THE U.S. LEFT IN DISGRACE. Something conservatives would have never agreed to.
- The war for the U.S. was over. The forces of the South were no match for the onslaught of the communist. They were overrun shortly thereafter. All of Vietnam turned communist. The people in the South that supported the war paid a very dear price. The leaders were killed without due justice. Those in lower positions in the military and government were sent to many years of “re-education.”
Why did the U.S. lose the Vietnam War?
First was Secretary of Defense Robert Strange McNamara. His military background consisted of joining the USAAF as a captain in early 1943, serving most of World War II with its Office of Statistical Control. President LB Johnson had no military experience. But like most politicians, both thought they knew how to lead a military campaign.
Treachery has always had a firm hold in American politics. I won’t go into all the examples here; there are several good books. Dating back to the revolutionary war, George Washington’s Secret Six, by Brian Kilmeade explains spying then.
Examples of limitations placed on the U.S. military during the Vietnam War. There were reasons given for these limitations, but they made no sense. Not even to someone not versed in methods of warfare:
1 When our pilots flew over North Vietnam, they would see ships with surface to air missiles, SAMs, but were not allowed to take them out? Reason: They might be Russian ships, and we don’t want to hurt them.
2 Our pilots saw trucks taking SAMs across the country but were not allowed to strike. Reason: There might be Russians in the trucks.
3 Our pilots saw the missile sites being built but not allowed to strike. Reason: There might be Russian workers.
4 Once the site was up, radars working, missiles loaded, ready for war, and very dangerous, then the pilots could strike. Reason: There is no excuse for this. The civilians in charge were able to influence those making the decisions. This is treason and should be investigated and prosecuted.
5 Many other targets were also off limits. Harbors, oil storage, military barracks, and the list for new pilots to study and memorize was very long. Eventually, when it was too late, most of them were added to the target list.
6 When our B-52s flew missions over the North, they had to fly in a “box” formation, consisting of three or four planes, so their anti-radar capabilities would be at their strongest. The problem was that each “box” flight of four B-52s had to fly one after another, at the same speed, the same course, and the same altitude. This allowed the missile sites several attempts through trial and error to dial in the flight’s correct data and enabled frequent hits. Only treason could explain this.
7 When enemy aircraft were spotted by radar over North Vietnam (a war zone) our pilots could not shoot them down without first making a visual identification. This meant that the enemy would be very close, only a few seconds apart. Under these circumstances, the tiny, nimble MiG was at it’s best, and our heavy planes could not match their maneuvers. In fact, our best fighter planes (F-4 Phantoms) didn’t even have machine guns. They only had missiles. By the time they had a visual identification, they would be too close for missiles. Machine guns were quickly added. The reason: The planes might have Russian pilots.
8 Another example of the treachery in the US military was on Jul 27, 1965, when President Johnson, LBJ, finally allowed air strikes against the SAM (surface to air missiles) sites. Forty-eight, F-105s were launched against two sites. The mission was called Operation Spring High. It was a trap, an ambush by the North. There were no missiles or equipment at the sites. Instead, there were bamboo poles painted to look like missiles and dozens of 23 and 37mm anti-aircraft guns. When the aircraft made their ferocious low-level attack as required by superiors, the air was filled with anti-aircraft shells, later known as “golden bbs,” (because it’s like an inexpensive bb killing a million-dollar aircraft). SIX aircraft were destroyed, and five pilots lost. Afterward, It leaked that “our” intelligence personnel and planning officers knew the day prior to the attack that there were no missiles. Those in charge said that cancelling the mission the day prior to the attack would make us look indecisive and weak in the eyes of the North. Our reconnaissance overflights can read license plates on a car. They certainly could see poles instead of SAMS.
9 Again, early in the conflict, the U.S. developed a jamming system called the QRC-128. It garbled the communications between the North’s MiG fighters and the ground radar that were directing them. MiGs had already shot down several of our aircraft. As soon as our NSA (National Security Agency, an incestuous melding between civilians and military that operate out of Washington DC and directly under the President of the USA) found out about our jamming ability, they ordered the military to stop using it. They gave a lame excuse, but there can be no excuse except that the NSA was filled with communist sympathizers.
20 Each day, the president of the USA, a civilian, picked which targets could be hit. He even chose which bombs were to be used. He decided the time and route of the attack. No doubt that this information was leaked to the North Vietnamese.
This subject has an endless list of stupidity. This article will be updated periodically. There will be another article devoted to the vast amount of spying being done against the USA.