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Democrats killing each other and 57,000 soldiers


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7 minutes ago, XCR1250 said:

Tell that to the families of 57,000 dead service members.

You gonna blame that on Democrats? That war was a fucking disgrace and I dont know why every American isnt outraged over it, or any of the illegitimate wars we have sent our sons and daughters to die in needlessly. And since some on here claim to be Christians.. the 2 million vietnamese and the millions of middle easterners we killed, maimed or displaced in those illegitimate endeavors. Crimes against humanity and nothing any self proclaimed christian should be beating their chest over. 

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7 minutes ago, Nazipigdog said:

Probably because Kennedy (the democrat) didnt want us in Vietnam...

Kennedy made enough remarks to certainly indicate that.

Quote

 

His book's thesis is that Kennedy "would never have placed American combat troops in Vietnam" and that he was preparing for the withdrawal of the military advisers by the end of 1965. The Joint Chiefs of Staff began urging the commitment of combat units, Mr. Newman shows, as early as three months after Kennedy's inauguration. The Chiefs' wretched performance in endorsing the Bay of Pigs invasion and in proposing military intervention in Laos had fortunately disillusioned the President, and he rejected this advice then and thereafter. In the autumn of 1961, when Gen. Maxwell Taylor, a White House military adviser, and Walt Rostow returned from Vietnam recommending a commitment of 8,000 combat troops, Kennedy again rejected the proposal. As Mr. Newman writes: "There Kennedy drew the line. He would not go beyond it at any time during the rest of his Presidency."

I must declare an interest in this argument. I well remember the President's reaction to the Taylor-Rostow report. "They want a force of American troops," he told me. "The troops will march in; the bands will play; the crowds will cheer; and in four days everyone will have forgotten. Then we will be told we have to send in more troops. It's like taking a drink. The effect wears off and you have to take another."

Mr. Newman is, I think, essentially right about Kennedy. Whether Kennedy was right is a question Mr. Newman does not face. Would the outcome have been better had the President sent an American expeditionary force in 1961? I doubt it -- for reasons much on Kennedy's mind. Mr. Newman does not mention Kennedy's reaction, when he visited Vietnam as a young Congressman in 1951, to the French colonial army; but this was crucial in his skepticism about American military intervention. The war in Vietnam, he used to say, could be won only so long as it was a Vietnamese war. If we converted it into a white man's war, we would lose as the French had lost a decade earlier. (This is not latter-day recollection; I wrote it all nearly 30 years ago in "A Thousand Days.")

Nor does Mr. Newman mention Kennedy's relish in citing Gen. Douglas MacArthur's statement to him that it would be "a mistake" to fight in Southeast Asia. Kennedy recorded this statement in an aide-memoire, something he rarely did, and, as General Taylor later recalled, "whenever he'd get this military advice from the Joint Chiefs or from me or anyone else, he'd say, 'Well, now, you gentlemen, you go back and convince General MacArthur, then I'll be convinced.' " Kennedy's private remarks to Senator Mike Mansfield, the majority leader, to Senator Wayne Morse, to Roger Hilsman, to Michael Forrestal, the National Security Council man on Vietnam, to Kenneth O'Donnell, his appointments secretary, and to Lester Pearson, the Canadian Prime Minister, further confirm his desire to withdraw.

https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/00/11/26/specials/schlesinger-newman.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

 

 

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