Post by MARIO on Apr 30, 2005 11:42:33 GMT -8
'NAM: WHAT WE WON
By THOMAS H. LIPSCOMB
April 30, 2005 -- THE spectacular fall of Saigon on April 30, 1975, 30 years ago, had Americans glued to their television sets. Millions watched as long lines snaked up stairs at the American Embassy waiting to be rescued by the U.S. military.
It had been barely 10 years since the first U.S. Marine combat troops arrived in Vietnam at Danang. That decade had been punctuated by premature proclamations of victory, promises of "light at the end of the tunnel" and a Tet offensive that effectively destroyed the Viet Cong, but remained a potent Communist propaganda coup in Western media.
"Vietnamization" finally removed almost all America combat troops from Vietnam more than a year before the fall of Saigon. But by then many Americans felt so whip lashed by media accounts of a war they didn't understand they accepted the fall of Saigon as the final humiliating proof of an American defeat.
As the years passed, a collection of myths accrued that today are regarded by many as historical fact. It is time to reexamine them.
READ THE REST:
www.nypost.com/postopinion/opedcolumnists/45575.htm
By THOMAS H. LIPSCOMB
April 30, 2005 -- THE spectacular fall of Saigon on April 30, 1975, 30 years ago, had Americans glued to their television sets. Millions watched as long lines snaked up stairs at the American Embassy waiting to be rescued by the U.S. military.
It had been barely 10 years since the first U.S. Marine combat troops arrived in Vietnam at Danang. That decade had been punctuated by premature proclamations of victory, promises of "light at the end of the tunnel" and a Tet offensive that effectively destroyed the Viet Cong, but remained a potent Communist propaganda coup in Western media.
"Vietnamization" finally removed almost all America combat troops from Vietnam more than a year before the fall of Saigon. But by then many Americans felt so whip lashed by media accounts of a war they didn't understand they accepted the fall of Saigon as the final humiliating proof of an American defeat.
As the years passed, a collection of myths accrued that today are regarded by many as historical fact. It is time to reexamine them.
READ THE REST:
www.nypost.com/postopinion/opedcolumnists/45575.htm