I mean, I've done the research and sometimes I think the only reason this nation dug into that tiny, battered nation is pure stubborness. How dare they try to force out our troops?
"They" (the South Vietnamese) were not trying to force out our troops. North Vietnam was trying to drive us out of South Vietnam so that North Vietnam could conquer South Vietnam.
The reason why we "dug into" South Vietnam was to prevent its conquest. In the end, we won the military part of the war, got a peace treaty -- and then, when North Vietnam violated the treaty, the Democrats in Congress forbade our intervention in defense of our ally.
In consequence, South Vietnam fell, half a million or more South Vietnamese were directly murdered by the Communists, and armed aggression was seen to be successful in the eyes of the rest of the world. It took years for the West to recover from this defeat.
May we never learn the lesson that we should abandon our allies to armed aggression without putting up a fight in their defense. The day that we properly learn that lesson, world peace will die as a dozen tinpot dictators decide that The Day has finally come to begin their marches of conquest.
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I wondered, when I saw the lyric you quoted, how many people even still know what that was about. And it is a chilling song.
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"They" (the South Vietnamese) were not trying to force out our troops. North Vietnam was trying to drive us out of South Vietnam so that North Vietnam could conquer South Vietnam.
The reason why we "dug into" South Vietnam was to prevent its conquest. In the end, we won the military part of the war, got a peace treaty -- and then, when North Vietnam violated the treaty, the Democrats in Congress forbade our intervention in defense of our ally.
In consequence, South Vietnam fell, half a million or more South Vietnamese were directly murdered by the Communists, and armed aggression was seen to be successful in the eyes of the rest of the world. It took years for the West to recover from this defeat.
Reply
May we never learn the lesson that we should abandon our allies to armed aggression without putting up a fight in their defense. The day that we properly learn that lesson, world peace will die as a dozen tinpot dictators decide that The Day has finally come to begin their marches of conquest.
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