This post was originally written in early September 2021, but I am now just getting a chance to post it. Newspapers’ headlines triumph fully paraded that announcement in large, bold letters last week at the top of the front page. However, our enemy, radical Islamic terrorism, has a vote in that boastful declaration. The war […]
Kabul 2021 -A Saigon 1975 Redux?
Any surviving Vietnam veteran must be experiencing flashbacks of the hurried rooftop evacuations in Saigon as the North Vietnamese stormed that capitol city in 1975. Having served as USAF flight surgeon flying air evac’s in South Vietnam in the mid ‘60’s, I quickly saw the parallel, the significance of failed policy and strategic planning for […]
The Vietnam War Revisited – Part XXVIII – The Ten Thousand Day War
The Vietnam War polarized American politics for many reasons, some warranted, others not. The rancor has persisted for three generations among the diehards, revisionist historians, and the actual veteran survivors. The conflict was poorly understood and reported back then and now. There was plenty of blame to go around including the lack of accurate accounts by the media. […]
The Vietnam War Revisited- Part XII – Why Revisit?
A close friend, a Vietnam combat veteran, asked me why I was taking the time to “revisit” such a controversial war, one that divided our nation politically? Why spend time writing blogs about it? Why not just move on? Get it behind us? That reminded me of Richard M. Nixon’s famous quote. One thing he […]
The Vietnam War Revisited- Part XI – Two Earthshaking Events
1963 – A pivotal year hallmarked by two earthshaking events affecting the outcome of the Vietnam War. Diem never enjoyed a popular mandate to govern South Vietnam. That background set the stage for the first event. The CIA operative, Edward Lansdale propped up his rule thoughout most of the Fifties. Diem’s presidency favored Catholics, not […]
The Vietnam War Revisited- Part X – No Easy Answers
In my last blog I recounted JFK’s Vietnam dilemma in 1962 – How to get out of Vietnam without jeopardizing his chances of re-election one and a half years away? His options were limited to “fish or cut bait.” Buoyed by his confrontational victory over USSR’s Khrushchev in the Cuban missile crisis, his administration’s prestige […]
