I had Bret Baier’s show on yesterday and he apparently has done a documentary on the Viet Nam war……..Some of the survivors of that war, American soldiers, insist that war was winnable, and could have, should have, been won. They want their dead friends and other soldiers honored for having lost their lives there. The Viet Nam Wall is THE most visited monument in all of D.C.
SOMETHING INTERESTING OCCURRED TO ME: We often talk about what went wrong in America here at Geeez. I’ve frequently suggested it was the sudden onset of DRUG USE with young folks. (Rockers in suits and ties suddenly dressing like Woodstock slobs, etc….I just mentioned it the other day) A lot of people I knew who’d never done drugs started doing drugs in Vietnam.
While I haven’t seen Bret’s whole documentary, the ‘teaser’ says some interesting things…one thing being what I said above about how so many survivors felt it was winnable….(I’m personally not sure what that would have meant…)…and they mean it. And they were THERE.
I think of Walter Cronkite, who even some Republicans believe was politically unbiased…It’s said that he talked Americans out of Viet Nam. Most of us know how popular ol’ Walter was, and what an impact his statements made during his news broadcasts.
Another thing said in Bret’s narrative was how much havoc that war caused in our country, and how WRONG America was deemed to be at the time, and how (this got me, big time), suddenly, “…even the enemy wasn’t so bad” in our zeal to condemn our soldiers and ourselves. Remember our soldiers were spit on at airports, etc? “…even the enemy wasn’t so bad” Remember the awful picture of that little boy running from (I think?) Napalm? It was probably THE most famous picture from that war. It REALLY got Americans upset, maybe even added to the fuel of how wrong WE were.
I believe some of you have weighed in here on how wrong Viet Nam was……Are our elderly soldiers today so wrong in saying we could have won? Are they only wishing that was true because so many friends died in the effort?
“Even our enemy wasn’t so bad” sounds SO Leftwing…. Considering that Cronkite wasn’t biased, seems Leftwing to me, too. I found this interesting article that deals with what I just wrote…check it out. From it is this paragraph…
CRONKITE: “When he’d visited Vietnam on a reporting trip early in the war, he’d been annoyed by the attitude of the young reporters who seemed to be “engaged in a contest among themselves to determine who was the most cynical,” he wrote in his autobiography.” ‘cynical,’ yes….America BECAME CYNICAL. Exactly my point about a loss of faith in ourselves, questioning our behavior, etc.
THOUGHTS? Was THIS the thing (or a BIG part of) that started our demise? The Viet Nam War?
geeez2014
GeeeZ .... 
Yeah, well . . . not a good idea to start this discussion with guys in my age group. Basically, my take on it is that we were well on our way to outright winning that little set-to until Uncle Walt and the rest of the US mainstream media went into red alert and sucker-punched us.
Even Vo Nguyen Giap, the supreme CinC of Vietnamese forces, said, “We were elated to see your media helping us . . . causing more disruption in America than we could ever do on teh battlefield. We were ready to surrender . . . you had won!” [until the US media joined our cause]
Not really worth talkin about any more . . . most of us who were there are in our 89s or beyond now, and the issue is China, with GropyJoe’s insidious connections thereto.
Aid and comfort, mes amis . . . aid and comfort.
Given the plans, the attitudes, the policies of our gummint these past 400 or so days, my advice is to lay in a goodly stock of canned goods, bottled water, MREs, sippin whiskey, and ammo.
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Uh, make that “in our 80s” . . . m’kay?
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No I believe our downfall began with the ACLU in the late 40s. After that prayer was not allowed to be recited even personally I. Public schools after 1963-64. The drug use is probably why the Boomers in DC have pickled brains and raised a moronic generation and it’s still on going. Our country is destroying itself. As to Vietnam being winnable-I was young and impressionable but I remember I respected our soldiers and abhorred the idiot pinkos and the lot that disrespected and spat on our soldiers. So sad. Seems the media always tries to find something to distract us and something or someone to blame. Pathetic.
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That period was the massive escalation of communist activism in the US. Drugs were a part of that but only a part. Tune in, Turn On, Drop Out [of American society]
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The wars in Indochina were events that are unsuitable for simple explanations. There was nothing “simple” about it. Chronologically, the disaster began long before most people in the U.S. knew where Vietnam was. Almost everyone involved in the war effort, from its earliest days to the very last day, were out of their depth. It was, as described by Neil Sheehan, “A Bright and Shining Lie.” The failure was epic, the disillusionment real, and America’s enemy took advantage of the chaos to work their magic.
People tend to pooh-pooh any notion that there was a communist effort inside the United States designed to destroy the morale of the nation and of our combat troops in Vietnam. Some percentage of those who downplay the role of the American communist movement were themselves part of that movement; what would you expect them to say about it? Some of these communists infiltrated the armed forces, as well. I know this for a fact. The infiltration of our armed forces began as an offshoot of the anti-war movements on college campuses and picked up steam alongside the racial problems in the mid-60s and early 70s.
In the mid-1950s, even after the Korean War (an unmitigated disaster caused in large measure by the incompetence of the Truman administration), the American people had learned nothing about their government’s inadequacies. The Vietnam War didn’t just suddenly ignite twelve years after the end of the Korean War (which technically, never ended), it had been “in the hopper” since before the end of the Pacific War. So, when the official mantra became “defend South Vietnam from the aggression of its northern neighbor,” American guppies did slack-jaw nodding — prepared, as they were, to believe every scrap of BS their government told them about Vietnam. In fact, it was the US and South Vietnam that started the armed conflict, and it was the American president who lied about an attack on 4 August 1964 that never happened.
There was no moral imperative for going to war in Vietnam. There was no justification for the loss of so many lives (theirs or ours). What the war taught Americans was that their government was untrustworthy. As for drug use, yes — it did happen, but let’s be clear: drug use was already pandemic before the outset of the Vietnam War. It just got worse during the war as everyone in the U.S. seemed hell-bent on demonstrating what low creatures they were.
We’ve learned nothing since then. The people who today are waiting for Bret Baier to tell them what Mr. Baier wants them to know about the Vietnam War period are the same kinds of people (and in some cases, the exact same people) in the 1960s who were waiting for the government to tell them what the government wanted them to know. I have written extensively about the Vietnam War at Fix Bayonets; very few people are interested enough in what happened to actually read about it. They want all their information in an hour-long TV presentation with commercial breaks. Slack jaw Americans are still with us, and they’re still voting. It’s how we found ourselves enmeshed in the Middle Eastern Wars and I can say with certitude that we haven’t learned our lessons yet.
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I listened to Goldwater’s idea on how to end the Vietnam war and he was right. He suggested to start dropping nuclear weapons at the Chinese/North Vietnam border and work our way south until all fighting ends. His thought was the Chinese and North Vietnamese would give up before major death happened, and we would not lose any people or spend heavy amounts of money for arms. It was a solid plan killed by TV marketing by LBJ that let the war go on as is. Ultimately MSM ruined the war for the USA.
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Mustang
If those of our generation haven’t been interested enough to educate themselves as best we can these past 50 plus years since buddies of ours were shipped off with not all coming home then maybe they will enjoy the fat free version presented by a guy who surely did a crash course with Cliff’s Notes on this money making version. Maybe I’m being a jerk characterizing Baier in this light but I might assume many of us have already made it our business to educate ourselves; maybe not.
As an aside: Since finding out in 1992 the details of my father’s service in WW II I continue to this day searching out details of the European theater in that war. Although busy lately and neglecting Fix Bayonets the site is a flowing fount of knowledge from which anyone interested in this country’s military history may draw their fill.
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BOCOPRO “Even Vo Nguyen Giap, the supreme CinC of Vietnamese forces, said, “We were elated to see your media helping us . . . causing more disruption in America than we could ever do on teh battlefield. We were ready to surrender . . . you had won!” [until the US media joined our cause]”
See, that’s one reason so many soldiers still alive today feel it was a winnable war….why else would the Supreme CinC even say that, really?
Yes, the ‘disruption in America” had started.
As for bringing goods in, my sisters are FINALLY following my months-old advice to BUY CANNED GOODS , and some that you can eat without heating….a lot of them. We may need them.
LAYLA, I was in high school and I, too, would always stand by our military; still do..
Drugs were not at all as popular as after Viet Nam…. Sure, ‘Beatniks” were known to be ‘weird’ and did stuff, and crazy people did heroin; but heroin became more popular, and it’s REALLY popular now; unbelievable. I hate to say this, but Orson Bean’s beautiful, intelligent collage student granddaughter just died from heroin overdose…. ‘normal’ young people do heroin now.
You mention the ’40’s…..yes, some of this started then but not in the general public…..Also, there were groups like the John Birch Society which came to live largely to fight that leftwing crap….but the media immediately maligned that BIG TIME (admittedly with a little help from the society thru errors, missteps, etc.)..I have friends whose parents were in early groups of that…and they were NOT racist, NOT anything bad, just pro America, saw what was happening and had the guts and money to fight….
KID! I’d forgotten this “Tune in, Turn On, Drop Out ” EXACTLY. My high school was extremely upper middle class, mostly (not my family, not ‘extremely’), and those are the kids with $$ for drugs…..I never saw it…but I SURE SAW it after VIETNAM…sure did.
MUSTANG….Thanks for your viewpoints…they’re important to ponder. It’s fascinating to look back and see the mistakes made from what they had then to work with….really is. Hopefully, we could learn from those mistakes, but it doesn’t seem so, does it. And, even back then (before immigrants were doing pretty much nothing but hoping to live OFF of us, when they still came to work and succeed) we were the country the world found the best…..from ALL countries, immigrants fled and many did SO well……..and then got soft! Not them, but their grandchildren. SOFT…….very sad. How do we toughen Americans up? Not by giving every child the award so nobody feels bad!
PETER….thanks. I don’t think anyone was ‘disinterested’…I think an error of MANY AMericans, many TODAY, frankly, is that America is AMERICA…it will always survive, it will always thrive….and raising kids, going to work, voting for whoever they feel is the best guy, getting on with lives, is that they’re about, what they’re busy doing……we became fat and happy……. Lots don’t have time to read long articles, don’t have time to even see much news….. that’s only one reason why the leftwing media dominance is hurting our country so much…it’s all some see.
JG: THAT is news to me and fascinating…..BUT, maybe I’ve only forgotten because I DO remember people suddenly having anti-Goldwater ads with children picking daisies…remember? That kind of ‘counter’ to nukes? Interesting. THanks for this reminder.
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I remember all our guys complaining saying let go in and finish the job, but were constantly told to pull back, then they’d have to retake the same area over and over again, losing men each time they did. It actually started in 1950 with the Korean War when we crossed the 38th Parallel into North Korea, but it ended with a truce and as we know, a country that is still divided.
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Mal, I don’t believe the Korea’s ever declared a truce. They are still officially at war.
Democrats taking America to war then turning it into a cluster. It’s job 1 for democrats. Add in GW Bush. GHWBush got in, got out (Iraq), probably the only pres since WWII to do so. I don’t count things like Grenada as wars.
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RE KOREA: “The Korean War never ended. On July 27, 1953, American Lieutenant General William Harrison, Jr. and North Korean General Nam Il signed the Korean Armistice Agreement, ending “all acts of armed force” in Korea, until both sides were able to find a “final peaceful settlement.” The agreement was notably not a peace treaty, but rather, a ceasefire.”
Kind of a truce, but not a peace treaty, for sure.!
KID, …No, Grenada doesn’t really count!!
I don’t have the amount of interest to be better schooled on WWII, but we had to do something after Pearl Harbor, that was for sure.
“the only pres since WWII* to do WHAT??
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ANYBODY WONDER HOW ENGLAND CAN COUNT 35 MILLION VOTES OVERNIGHT (WHICH WE USED TO DO) AND PENNSYLVANIA WILL TAKE A WEEK TO DO THE RECOUNT?
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Well, the only pres since WWII to put Americans in harms way in the Interest of America. None of what went on after WWII was a threat to America or even in our national interest.
FDR engineered Pearl Harbor to happen by turning off Japan’s oil. It was done to garner Americans to sign up for WWII. Still Hitler had to be stopped. And heck we got the bomb. Which is a good thing imo.
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KID….FDR was the worst, yet he’s taught in schools as THE HERO ….certainly the hero of the Left….sickening. He did believe Japan and Europe had become grave dangers to us…..who knows what went on inside his head?
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The Vietnam War was fought for one “strategic” reason. Containment. And once Kissinger had split China from the USSR in ’72, the global Communist insurgency was essentially “contained”…. and eventually self-destructed onto Poi Pot in the Sino-Vietnamese War in the late 70’s.
Strategically, Vietnam WAS a victory.
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America “outsourced” its’ end to China.
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Our “strategic” problem today is that with Ukraine and NATO, we’re driving Russia and China into a second world anti-US bloc. Even Kissinger is shaking his head.
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What Layla said and EVERYTHING Mustang said.
Vietnam did not start our demise. It sent a clear signal of its progress. It cracked open the box so the rot was visible. Our demise was underway when school children in the 1920’s opened their classroom every day saying “Every day and in every way I am getting better and better” all out of context of what made you better. This aphorism was another way of saying “hath God said?” and we know where we heard THAT before.
Hubris over our monumental defeat of the Axis powers fed our self-importance and success apart from our creator despite lip service to him. Life was great. We were fat and rich. Sometimes “winning” is losing. I personally believe that the dust bowls of the 1930’s were a ‘warning’ from God. A little something to make us look up and repent. That did not happen. Isaiah could sympathize.
VIETNAM RANT.
It’s entirely possible that an armed victory could have been achieved against the invaders from the north. But as we’ve learned in Afghanistan “pacifying” a county by force of arms only, layered on from the outside, is insufficient. The “pacification” of island Japan under MacArthur is a better but far rarer example. Since you hold ground by either complete brute force or some level of buy-in (consent if you will) of the governed, a mere “victory” is insufficient. And you certainly don’t work energetically (thank you idiot Averell Harriman) to secure an adjacent sanctuary state that continuously feeds unrest in your nation.
It’s widely accepted that the northern invaders “won” at the conference table more than in the field. I could see it at the time.
I believe there is good evidence to demonstrate that Diem was the best man for that time. Too bad he didn’t stick around.
Many in our government wanted the country run “their way.” (Not all. Not Rusk.) What hubris! We do this all the time – ’nation building.’ They had reason to know that Diem was a man of integrity, a proven district chief of energy and skill who did not seek governance to have power and privilege (unlike maybe his SIL), not given to corruption (shocking anywhere, but especially the in 3rd world), and a damn sight better than his predecessor, the last emperor in the Nguyen dynasty who lived in comfortable exile in France. Diem was descended from one of the great patrician families of Vietnam and embued with a strong Confucian sense of duty. But the libs were ready to throw out the better because he wasn’t the best. They knew of no ‘best’ of course. See Geoffrey Shaw’s The Lost Mandate of Heaven for a thorough workup of this idea.
The war was indeed “in the hopper” since before the end of the Pacific War. Just look at post war pictures of another famous Nguyen (the one who renamed himself Ho Chi Minh) standing with American OSS personnel after Japan was defeated.
We were deep into it supplying the French before their 1953 defeat. Pilots (well paid as independent contractors), advisors (God knows what “advice” they offered*), and equipment. It’s easy to note that people will be more reckless with other peoples’ resources than with their own (the U.S. financed 78% of the French effort) – but then I remember Afghanistan. This dependence on American resources led to a lack of discipline and a degree of recklessness in French strategic decision-making. The cake was already in the oven when Americans came along ready to make some of the same mistakes they made in Korea.
The French had good intel but an outrageous estimation of their own worth. They lost Gaul to Caesar the same way. Some things don’t change.
* We do know one “advice” was to roll into Dien Bien Phu as American troops had 7 years earlier across Europe — on existing roads. Right. Just build a highway deep through impassable enemy suffused countryside from Hanoi to Dien Bien Phu – to make a 200-mile rescue dash – and defend it! Next idea?
Bernard Fall’s excellent books Street Without Joy and Hell in a Very Small Place present more than most Americans have a clue about. Just to lift out one key subtlety: The north could look back with pride on their valor fighting the French. After the DBP defeat, the ARVN in the south were made to turn their back on 80 years of military association with France. In their proud association with the French past they had air aces, their own valiants at Verdun, and heroism and victory on 3 continents. A great price was paid in loss of fighting spirit that stands and staunchly defends. Much less becomes a bulwark in the security of the new state.
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Okay. Truce or cease fire, the bloody war stopped! (SHEEESH!)
:o)
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When I was in Basic Training in March, 1951 I remember the guys correcting anyone calling it a war because it was referred to as a ‘POLICE ACTION”, then the guys would say “then why don’t they call the police?”
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FJ…what YOU said is absolutely right…thanks for that.
BAYSIDER… I don’t agree with all that anybody’s said above, but I absolutely do believe Viet Nam, as I said in my post, was a BIG PART of the ‘demise’ we often discuss here.
It suddenly was OK to hate America, to do drugs and be proud of it, to dress like total slobs, to insult our military…..THAT, my friends, had NOT happened beforehand…not in any “LOUD” way…Remember how shocked America was at the spitting on our soldiers as they got back from ‘Nam, at the airports?
I remember so much that seemed to go so far south due to Viet Nam….
On the other hand, I have NEVER SAID EVERYTHING STARTED IN VIET NAM.
For example, a small one; I remember seeing films from the THirties where socialism was CLEARLY promoted…mainstream films that, seen as an adult, I saw clear as day.
I remember reading an article in the LA Times about the McCarthy Hearings….some Hollywood children from that day wrote that their parent HAD been a Communist! THey admitted it, they discussed it, the L.A. Times article was to be ‘continued next Sunday’……..it wasn’t. It died. The future articles never appeared. But this stuff was happening…clearly…back then. way before ‘Nam.
POWERFUL STUFF, some of the evil in our country! I’m FAR less naive than some seem to think……
Yes, Viet Nam DID create, or maybe expose, a feeling in America we’d never had. I stand by that. Firmly.
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“why don’t they call the police?” I LOVE it! When the army’s letterhead said “peace is our business” one enterprising clerk typist appended on 100 sheets “War is Just a Hobby.”
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Mal, You still owe me 25 cents.
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HA! THAT WAS A GOOD RETORT, TOO, BAY!
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SO SUE ME, KID!
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Kid, have you ever heard the song “I owe it all to my attorney Bernie”? Its was an oldie that went something like this:
“I owe it all, to my attorney Bernie. When he says sue, I sue; When he says sign, I sign.”
A novelty tune back around the ’60’s or ’70’s.
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I have not Mal. I hope I never need one of those critters also.
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“It” did not happen, but the groundwork was laid for it. Hippies and drugs came from homes and a culture that ignored what God, or true belief in a higher power you’d obey, said, and they had their souls swept clean. Just as we had the groundwork laid in maybe the 90’s for the Gender Cool project discussed yesterday. I would not discount the cause and effect of the music that came with it either. The last great good thing in our culture came about through the dying embers of the impetus of Christian rectitude – the civil rights movement of King’s era. Certainly not what’s afoot now.
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True, Bay. I don’t know if it’ll ever be normal in our country because too many people make a living from perpetuating it, like Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson have. Also too many of them use it as a crutch to get freebies. As a kid from Georgia once told our son in college, there are two classes of Blacks: Niggers and People of Color. The latter group are like you and me; they don’t want a handout, just a chance to work hard and make it happen. We’re seeing more and more of the 2nd group as time goes on, but I’d be surprised if we ever completely eliminate the 1st group.
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BAYSIDER, not only the music but the musicians….Beatles LSD Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds…etc etc….sex, drugs and rock ‘n roll. Odd, those songs were throughout the world; we embraced them more completely… far more.
“The last great good thing in our culture…” Wow.
I see more in America’s people, too many times I’ve said here how grand young Black podcasters are…conservative, FED UP with the Dems….smart, too. Hispanics, too.
I’ll never ever stop hoping; and I think I take too heart the bad stuff probably even more to heart than some of my readers, believe it or not 😦 It ain’t easy!
And now I go to the doc and can barely walk because of the hip …”this close” to requesting a chair but bad enough I need a walking stick :=( Wish me luck, all!
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LUCK, Z!
Hey! When I get old like you, I’ll probably get the same way!
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FJ wrote, “Strategically, Vietnam WAS a victory.” If he’s talking about a strategic victory for China, he’s right. Chou Enlai believed that if the U.S. could be tied up in SEAsia, they wouldn’t be in a position to disrupt China’s internal purges and mischief elsewhere. Kissinger had nothing to do with the Sino-Soviet split. That began in the 50s when Khrushchev denounced Stalin and Mao believed that Stalin was the poster child for commie orthodoxy.
Ngo Dinh Diem drove more people into the arms of Vietnamese communists than did the French Foreign Legion. Anyone who knows the story of Diem and his struggle to put a country together appreciates his scuffle and understands why he exhibited ruthlessness. He knew the stakes. And he knew, better than anyone, that Ho Chi Minh’s success within the DRV came from having assassinated EVERYONE who was standing in his way. Diem knew that if he did not demonstrate that he was as ruthless as Ho, his chance of survival following the withdrawal of France would be nil. Please also note we are not discussing the “same people” in the North as in the South. They are culturally different from one another and substantially so in some aspects of culture.
Having made the above argument, the aspirations of Diem and Ho were identical. They were both culturally Northern (Annam or Tonkin) Vietnamese. Both wanted the unification of Vietnam — each wanted to be the president of the unified nation. That would never happen for Diem because he wouldn’t do as the US CIA/State Department told him. Diem had to be eliminated if the U.S. would orchestrate the acceptance of two Vietnams (down from three cultural regions). No surprise, Diem was eliminated. It was a very botched CIA operation, too. By the way (culturally Cochin), Thieu had no aspirations for a unified Vietnam, which made him very popular with the criminals at the CIA.
So how would Vietnam look today if the “US” had won the war? It would look like it did in 1974: North Vietnam, South Vietnam, and a DMZ in the center. But the U.S. was never going to win the war. Why? Because the U.S. had no moral imperative to succeed in Vietnam. God would not allow the immoral bastards running Washington to achieve victory there. Now ask yourself, what’s wrong with our country today? My personal belief is that God is more than just a little disappointed with us, and yet He realizes that most of us are captives in a sea of filth, but He will not allow the U.S. to succeed in immoral endeavors.
And guess what? We haven’t learned anything, and I’m guessing — we never will learn anything. Z keeps asking, “What’s happened to our country?” For starters, too many people with too little interest in knowing anything of substance about our not-so-long-past wars. It’s just something to blog about. Drugs, for example, do not change a moral person. The way it works is that a person first becomes immoral, and then they turn to drugs, alcohol, and other forms of decadence. No one who loves America should be content to be led around by the nose by any Fox personality.
Here’s a little secret about Memorial Day. If you honestly appreciate the past sacrifices of our young men and women, stop sending them off to die in stupid, stupid wars.
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Kid, I agree about attorneys. They’re only interested in what’s in it for them, not you.
There aughta be a bounty on ’em all!
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Containment as US strategy began in 1946 with George Kennan’s long telegram. Korea and Vietnam were both crucial tests of that ultimately successful US strategic foreign policy…. many years before Kruschev ever “dissed” Mao. Take the win, Mustang.
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The success of containment and subsequent Soviet defeat was based in their moral failings, not ours, despite the fact that we’ve recently become much more like them. For as Nietzsche said, ““Beware that, when fighting monsters, you yourself do not become a monster… for when you gaze long into the abyss. The abyss gazes also into you.” Modern neo-cons, take note as to what you’ve become.
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Once the door to China was opened and the Societ bloc split in twain, there was no longer a strategic US need for US troops to support Vietnam. And so we left.
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Mal, They’ve sued our country into an incredibly expensive feeding ground for themselves with us hauling the load. We get to pay 5 times a much for everything now because some imbecile hurt themsleves using whatever product it was. Drugs and all things health care at the top of that evil monstrosity.
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🙂
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AMEN, KID!
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MUSTANG…” No one who loves America should be content to be led around by the nose by any Fox personality.”
and who does that? Because some of us admire and respect the opinions of some FOX personalities, you feel that’s LEADING US AROUND BY THE NOSE? No, not at all.
And Z keeps asking that only as a rhetorical question; a discussion I feel worthwhile. At the minimum. “it’s just something to blog about?” wow. We got some good input here today; glad I blogged it.
Something happened, there’s a very sad tone on the blogs, especially here, perhaps I haven’t fallen into the abyss; I believe, in some ways, the Biden ‘win’ set a lot of us off in varying degrees…..I guess I think America’s done some pretty great stuff, too…and that no huge country like this will ever meet the perfection some expect?
KID and MAL….lawyers have REALLY screwed us up…..SO SO much higher bills for so many things due to their input with corporate clients, etc……Obviously, there are lawyers who can help from time to time, but the whole ATTITUDE of LAW SUITS for every little thing is NUTS!
I SWEAR that in Germany, for example, Mr. Z showed me a file cabinet…”ALL the precedents for everything were in that one file cabinet…” Unlike ours, which are ROOMS of information…..shocking.
France, too…very few lawsuits.
Near our apartment, there was a big hole in the sidewalk, NOTHING around it..no tape, nothing….The French, apparently, KNOW not to fall down a hole!
A very famous bistro has a TRULY steep stairway to the bathrooms….I told our party when I came back to the table about it and added “…if this was America, there’d be a lawyer at a table at the bottom of the stairs in case anybody falls!” True story.
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I Had HIGH hopes for Durham finally nailing Clinton (and that takes a LOT of hope, considering how much she’s done and got away with)……then we hear the jury is so Left that Legal analyst Jonathan Turley says “You might as well have got a jury from the DNC”….3 who’d given money to the Clinton campaign, one supporter of AOC, and one who’s is associated with Sussman’s child! The freakin ‘ fun never quits, does it.
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Don’t get me started attorneys and waste. Health insurance is the BIGGEST waste. We even have to have “supplemental insurance” (i.e., insurance on your insurance). SO STUPID. It was so much cheaper before Medicare, etc. Very affordable. Who do folks think is paying for all their salaries and benefits, the buildings, executive salaries, bonuses, corporate profits, etc?
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The Biden ‘win’ was only the culmination of a very public and nasty 4-year ‘set-off’ campaign to tell us to eff off: The Russia hoax accepted and repeated as truth (the only gospel the MSM knew for years); total capture of our intelligence agencies by the political left revealed; the overt effort to put middle America out of business with unscrupulous lockdowns (reading Dr. Atlas’ book now – WORSE than we ever imagined) designed to inaugurate a formal surveillance state; and of course massive election fraud sufficient to usher “Bernie” into office; who then proceeded to throw 12,000 people out of work on day 1 and cut America’s energy independence. Yeah. That set me off for sure.
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Check out this Medicare reality:
As a 55 year veteran of Type I diabetes afforded me a 4-F draft classification during the height of the Vietnam War Type l diabetes is responsible for a panoply of killer conditions. I wear the Omni-pod a device which allows you to dose insulin remotely into your body eliminating daily injections and Dexcom G6 which allows you to read your blood sugar levels without taking a switchblade to your fingertips. Both medical devices are blue-tooth controlled through your cell phone or separate devices. Now comes the Medicare insanity about which I’m not complaining. A 30 day supply of each device has a co-pay of $44.00-so far so good, right? With a 90 day supply which is three times the 30 day supply, the co-pay is Zero, nothing, nada, goose egg, 0. Who but bureaucrats could conceive of such a system.
PS: Don’t cry for me Argentina since at 71 years old as an avocation I’m still officiating high school basketball, soccer, baseball and softball. as well as travel ball in all four sports. Remember that rest rusts!
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And prayers for you today Z with that hip. Mr. B in same shape, but likely not same cause. But it certainly reminds me to pray for you!
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The population is a farm to be harvested. If you’re a politician or a federal employee you are very likely in ‘the big club’ and reap the benefits of feeding frenzy theft on the working patsy middle class. Steal from the working class, give to the losers to buy their votes with the majority of cash being laundered, stolen, and used for supreme gratification activities of all those in the big club.
I posted some stuff on it a while back. In 10 words or less, the government knows how much ‘extra money’ the population (middle class) has on average, stats on personal savings, debt, mortgage debts etc ad infinitum. When the herd is fat, is is harvested. Higher gas prices, taxes, gas taxes, taxes on taxes, etc etc, etc, etc. If you get an abnormal amount of money you better hide it best you can if you’re not in the club.
Yippppeeeee ! But what the heck, I am mostly having fun. Let’s see what happens with shortages of everything and even higher inflation over the next few or duration potentially,
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Best wishes Z. If you’re not feeling well, life isn’t any fun at all.
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PETER!….”A 30 day supply of each device has a co-pay of $44.00-so far so good, right? With a 90 day supply which is three times the 30 day supply, the co-pay is Zero, ” SAY WHAT?!!!! Unreal!!
KID, I’ll be thrilled to get the replacement done…found a guy I’m considering using; meeting him Wednesday and can’t WAIT 🙂
BAYSIDER, You’d be surprised how positive and pro America all my readers were…….until the Biden election; something snapped.
But yes, all that stuff before it didn’t help.
MAL: You think health insurance is a waste of time? I could rarely go to the doc if I didn’t have it…
But, MAN…anybody who thinks Medicare is FREE is NUTS…and yes, PLUS supplemental, plus a bit more for pharmaceutical!…..people actually think German health care is free, too…always have thought it; ABSOLUTELY not true!
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No such thing as free healthcare. Health ins plus lawyers resulted in astronomical increases in medical costs. Not even in the same galaxy as being tied to some inflation measure.
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KID, that’s for sure.
BY the way, have you seen a TV commercial for some special Oprah’s doing on how Blacks don’t get healthcare like we do? She features, in the ad, a Black man who was turned away from 3 hospitals and went home and died. Obviously, it’s a sad story…but it got me curious so I’ve googled extensively on it, because I knew it couldn’t be quite true, and it appears that not having some insurance isn’t a good thing when being checked into a hospital, but almost no hospital, particularly a county hospital, can turn someone away.
Do you know anything about this?
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BAYSIDER…thank the Lord for HEATING PADS, it really cuts down on the pain. Maybe that would work for Mr. B? I hope so. Thanks so much for your prayers.
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I don’t even watch commercials and very little TV anyway.
But I will say when I had my cataract surgery done, my doc does a tremendous amount of free eye care, donating his time. His waiting area near downtown Cincy was always very full and mostly black, so maybe there is something to that.
I’ve always heard poor people having to go to ‘County’ to get care and the doctors there are not first in their class.
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KID…. I still don’t think hospitals can turn people away, especially since the guy in the ad was quite ill, but what you observed must mean at least some can….if someone’s donating time like that …. Yes, the poor often go to what we call “County”…Not sure how the doctors are, but you could be right. I wouldn’t think a poor White person would get any better help than a poor Black person….I hope they all do, nothing like being so sick and not feeling like anybody’ll help you.
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My money is on lots of sad stories out there.
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