Pompano
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Today in History: 1973 - US withdraws from Vietnam
I think many nomads will remember all too well the following history, but for some younger members, perhaps not?
Anyway, as grim as it gets, here is a refresher on the Vietnam War. A conflict that affected the whole world...including Baja.
We who lived it know...it is worth remembering, in the firm hope that we have learned something..and this kind of history never repeats itself. Hope
and Change?..we'll see. 
Two months after the signing of the Vietnam peace agreement, the last U.S. combat troops leave South Vietnam as Hanoi frees the remaining American
prisoners of war held in North Vietnam. America's direct eight-year intervention in the Vietnam War was at an end. In Saigon, some 7,000 U.S.
Department of Defense civilian employees remained behind to aid South Vietnam in conducting what looked to be a fierce and ongoing war with communist
North Vietnam.
In 1961, after two decades of indirect military aid, U.S. President John F. Kennedy sent the first large force of U.S. military personnel to Vietnam
to bolster the ineffectual autocratic regime of South Vietnam against the communist North. Three years later, with the South Vietnamese government
crumbling, President Lyndon B. Johnson ordered limited bombing raids on North Vietnam, and Congress authorized the use of U.S. troops. By 1965, North
Vietnamese offensives left President Johnson with two choices: escalate U.S. involvement or withdraw. Johnson ordered the former, and troop levels
soon jumped to more than 300,000 as U.S. air forces commenced the largest bombing campaign in history.
During the next few years, the extended length of the war, the high number of U.S. casualties, and the exposure of U.S. involvement in war crimes,
such as the massacre at My Lai, helped turn many in the United States against the Vietnam War. The communists' Tet Offensive of 1968 crushed U.S.
hopes of an imminent end to the conflict and galvanized U.S. opposition to the war. In response, Johnson announced in March 1968 that he would not
seek reelection, citing what he perceived to be his responsibility in creating a perilous national division over Vietnam. He also authorized the
beginning of peace talks.
In the spring of 1969, as protests against the war escalated in the United States, U.S. troop strength in the war-torn country reached its peak at
nearly 550,000 men. Richard Nixon, the new U.S. president, began U.S. troop withdrawal and "Vietnamization" of the war effort that year, but he
intensified bombing. Large U.S. troop withdrawals continued in the early 1970s as President Nixon expanded air and ground operations into Cambodia and
Laos in attempts to block enemy supply routes along Vietnam's borders. This expansion of the war, which accomplished few positive results, led to new
waves of protests in the United States and elsewhere.
Finally, in January 1973, representatives of the United States, North and South Vietnam, and the Vietcong signed a peace agreement in Paris, ending
the direct U.S. military involvement in the Vietnam War. Its key provisions included a cease-fire throughout Vietnam, the withdrawal of U.S. forces,
the release of prisoners of war, and the reunification of North and South Vietnam through peaceful means. The South Vietnamese government was to
remain in place until new elections were held, and North Vietnamese forces in the South were not to advance further nor be reinforced.
In reality, however, the agreement was little more than a face-saving gesture by the U.S. government. Even before the last American troops departed on
March 29, the communists violated the cease-fire, and by early 1974 full-scale war had resumed. At the end of 1974, South Vietnamese authorities
reported that 80,000 of their soldiers and civilians had been killed in fighting during the year, making it the most costly of the Vietnam War.
On April 30, 1975, the last few Americans still in South Vietnam were airlifted out of the country as Saigon fell to communist forces. North
Vietnamese Colonel Bui Tin, accepting the surrender of South Vietnam later in the day, remarked, "You have nothing to fear; between Vietnamese
there are no victors and no vanquished. Only the Americans have been defeated."
The Vietnam War was the longest and most unpopular foreign war in U.S. history and cost 58,000 American lives. As many as two million Vietnamese
soldiers and civilians were killed.
Some different greetings for our cadets heading for war....
...and for our troops returning home to families.
.
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"If history repeats itself, and the unexpected always happens, how incapable must Man be of learning from experience."
George Bernard Shaw
[Edited on 3-29-2012 by Pompano]
I do what the voices in my tackle box tell me.
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watizname
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Nam----------------------------------------------------------------------------
I yam what I yam and that\'s all what I yam.
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Bob H
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"The Vietnam War was the longest and most unpopular foreign war in U.S. history and cost 58,000 American lives. As many as two million Vietnamese
soldiers and civilians were killed."
This really sums it all up. How sad!
The SAME boiling water that softens the potato hardens the egg. It's about what you are made of NOT the circumstance.
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David K
Honored Nomad
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Communism kills... when ever it is forced upon free people. Say no to BIG government!
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grizzlyfsh95
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I find it interesting that the most "loved" president (Kennedy) started it, and the most hated (reviled) president (Nixon) ended it. (And Jane Fonda
extended it)
The harder I work, the luckier I get
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Pompano
Elite Nomad
Posts: 8194
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Location: Bay of Conception and Up North
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| Quote: | Originally posted by grizzlyfsh95
I find it interesting that the most "loved" president (Kennedy) started it, and the most hated (reviled) president (Nixon) ended it. (And Jane Fonda
extended it) |
Ahh..who could ever forget 'Jane'...?
I do what the voices in my tackle box tell me.
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motoged
Elite Nomad
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My respect to to those that served.
Don't believe everything you think....
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wessongroup
Platinum Nomad
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Mood: Suicide Hot line ... please hold
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| Quote: | Originally posted by motoged
My respect to to those that served. |
Ditto's...
"The Vietnamese became independent from Imperial China in 938 AD, following the Battle of Bạch Đằng River. Successive Vietnamese
royal dynasties flourished as the nation expanded geographically and politically into Southeast Asia, until the Indochina Peninsula was colonized by
the French in the mid-19th century. The First Indochina War eventually led to their expulsion from the country in 1954 leaving Vietnam divided
politically into two countries. Fighting between the two sides continued, with heavy foreign intervention, during the Vietnam War, which ended with a
North Vietnamese victory in 1975.
Emerging from this prolonged military engagement, the war-ravaged Communist nation was politically isolated. In 1986, the government instituted
economic and political reforms and began a path towards international reintegration.[9] By 2000, it had established diplomatic relations with most
nations. Its economic growth has been among the highest in the world since 2000,[10] and according to Citigroup, such high growth is set to continue.
Vietnam has the highest Global Growth Generators Index among 11 major economies,[11] and its successful economic reforms resulted in it joining the
World Trade Organization in 2007. However, the country still suffers from relatively high levels of income inequality, disparities in healthcare
provision, and poor gender equality.[12][13][14][15][16]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vietnam
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