Does anyone else remember General Westmorland addressing Congress during the Vietnam war?

Question

As I remember it, General Westmorland, commanding our armed forces in Vietnam, went before congress in 1968 and gave his expert assessment of how we were making significant progress, the VC were starving, and it was only a matter of time until North Vietnam surrendered.

A few days later, the North Vietnamese/VC launched the Tet Offensive which nearly took Saigon.

It took six more years and 21,000+ additional American lives before we left.

How many American lives will it take this time before we leave?

Answer 1

Wasn't he considered the Expert, not to be questioned warrior. Wasn't it un-American , un-Patriotic, to question his honesty, sincerity and truthfulness. It seems now that a lot of what he said was politically motivated including the skewed body counts that were being fed to the well meaning, but very gullible patriotic Americans.

Answer 2

He did not evade the draft. Draft evasion is illegal. He was legally deferred from the draft because he was attending college and then because he was asked to serve a mission. You know less than a third of the people who served in Vietnam were actually drafted right? You know that of the 16 million eligible men in that time period 96% were exempted or deferred or disqualified for one reason or another right? A guy going to college not being drafted was pretty normal of the time period. This preconceived notion about him being a rich kid or having a well connected family and thus getting out of the draft is a bunch of bullshit. And that's why Vietnam veterans who lived in that time period like John McCain can support Romney while someone who learned everything they know about Vietnam from TV think he's a coward. Hey Temple Clothes 88% of those who served in Vietnam were Caucasian and 86% who died were Caucasian. So the idea that black men couldn't get draft deferments because they had jobs or school and that they were used as cannon fodder on the front lines is a bunch of bullshit too.

Answer 3

Next time do your homework. The enemy lost more troops during TET than America did during the entire Vietnam conflict. Some raiders made deep encursions, but they were repulsed and killed. Tet was a huge victory for our side but the loopy left turned it into a defeat. I know, I was there.

The NVA leaders later admitted that, after Tet, they decided to start sending peace overatures because they knew that they were beaten, then along came the American Liberals who SNATCHED DEFEAT FROM THE JAWS OF VICTORY and the result was that over 2 million people who trusted us lost their lives because of the cut & run cowards.

Now, here we go again. Utter fools like Reid and Pelosi and that loser Murtha are going to wind up getting millions more murdered with their same cowardice. When will you learn?

Answer 4

yes,i am a vietnam veteran and former combat marine,after he had been fired as commanding officer of m.a.c.v., he did some desk duty for the army until shortly after president nixon resigned, then when the ford administration cut all funding to the south vietnam in 1973 and all american forces were gone(not even a division left at the dmz), the south viets had no fuel for their 3rd largest air force in the world,no medicine,no food,no parts,no ammo and the general pleaded with congress to help stabilize the south viets,instead, when it all fell at night time on television,president ford came out of the situation room,smiling and said the american veterans lost the war.

Answer 5

Good point. I think Westmoreland, Colin Powell and Patraeus are all of the same suit----ambitious men who would lie to remain in power, or if not liars (let's give them the benefit of a doubt) then so blinded by power that they delude themselves in concocting the most outrageous fantasies about reality on the ground.

I think any bright young junior officer could be sent to Iraq and within a few weeks come up with a far more accurate assessment that Patraeus's fairy tale.

I don't like being lied to, so blatantly. I mean, at least tell me a plausible lie if you have to lie.

Answer 6

your distorting the facts
westmoreland stated as well that
the hippy dippy anti war campaign did nothing more than divide the resolve of a nation ,
the tet offensive was shut down and the tide was turning
but obviously the clouds of pot smoke have blurred that fact

Answer 7

Uh, yeah, we do. And you can bet that Gen. Petraeus does too.

Bottom line, who do you think is a more expert student of military history? You or a four star general. Like any liberal, I bet you think it's you. There in lay part of the problem.

Answer 8

Lies then, lies now.

We never seem to learn...