Walter Cronkite's Ridiculous Spin on the 1968 Tet Offensive in South Vietnam

[Soupnazi630]

Ngo Diem Dinh, who had little support in South Vietnam, refused to hold the elections in South Vietnam, and the United States supported him in that refusal. Eisenhower said that Ho Chi Minh may have won by a natinwide election by as much as 80 percent of the vote.

IIke said no such thing.

He said others told him that

It is also IRRELEVANT,

Minh was never elected.

 

[Hector12]

IIke said no such thing.

He said others told him that

It is also IRRELEVANT,

Minh was never elected.

This page from President Eisenhower's Memoires, Mandate for Change, page 372, shows that he believed Ho Chi Minh would have won any free election in Vietnam in 1954. This is certainly why the U.S. did not permit such an election, though the Geneva Convention of 1954 required it.

I have never talked or corresponded with a person knowledgeable in Indochinese affairs who did not agree that had elections been held as of the time of the fighting, possibly 80 per cent of the populations would have voted for the Communist Ho Chi Minh as their leader rather than Chief of State Bao Dai.

Selection from Eisenhower's Memoires

 

[Soupnazi630]

This page from President Eisenhower's Memoires, Mandate for Change, page 372, shows that he believed Ho Chi Minh would have won any free election in Vietnam in 1954. This is certainly why the U.S. did not permit such an election, though the Geneva Convention of 1954 required it.

I have never talked or corresponded with a person knowledgeable in Indochinese affairs who did not agree that had elections been held as of the time of the fighting, possibly 80 per cent of the populations would have voted for the Communist Ho Chi Minh as their leader rather than Chief of State Bao Dai.

Selection from Eisenhower's Memoires

Wrong.

The US DID permit it they simply did not hold it.

It was not the US responsibility to hold elections it was the vietnamese responsibility

 

[Hector12]

Wrong.

The US DID permit it they simply did not hold it.

It was not the US responsibility to hold elections it was the vietnamese responsibility

What matters is that the overwhelming majority of the Vietnamese supported the Communists, and Vietnam was unimportant to our security and our economy. Right now Vietnam is a trading partner of the United States. We should have left that country alone.

 

[Soupnazi630]

What matters is that the overwhelming majority of the Vietnamese supported the Communists, and Vietnam was unimportant to our security and our economy. Right now Vietnam is a trading partner of the United States. We should have left that country alone.

No they dis not.

There is no evidence of that claim

Vietnam was in fact important and a treaty ally

It was a justified war

 

[Soupnazi630]

The Sage of Main Street is a raving lunatic who makes no sense at all, repeats all the old rightwing lunacy about how the Tet Offensive indicated the Vietnamese were losing the war, and that the U.S. then was “winning.” He also seems to believe that the war was part of a deliberate conspiracy to destroy “the [U.S.] white working class.”

But the U.S. and its working class especially — now as during Vietnam War period — was and remains multiracial. The drafted U.S. soldiers sent to Vietnam, especially the “grunts” doing the fighting in the most dangerous areas, tended disproportionally to be black and minority.

Many officers in the war were actually U.S. middle-class and upper-class “patriots” (most as brainwashed as all Americans were at its beginning). Think flight officer pilot John McCain.

It is also untrue that the deferments of college students remained in force … they were ended in 1968 (iirc), and that was one of the reasons the anti-war movement grew on campuses … just as the later ending of the draft took the wind out of the sails of the student anti-war movement.

The genuine “left” did not call drafted GIs “baby killers” but helped launch Vietnam Veterans Against the War and organized anti-war “coffeehouse” centers outside of military bases across the country. The media, especially the rightwing and pro-war media, exaggerated individual cases where nutty yippies or hippies acted stupidly to create that particular myth.

Finally, both Ho Chi Minh and General Vo Nguyen Gap did not plan and strongly opposed the Tet Offensive. They were at that time sidelined by the impatient Le Duan and Le Duc Tho in nearly all key decision-making positions.

The Tet Offensive was both a successful psychological blow that burst all the lies told by the U.S. media and generals, and also an adventurous move that cost the Vietnamese Liberation Movement dearly. The struggle went on afterwards much as before, however, with the American soldiers based in cities then more fearful and paranoid than ever.

Helpomg to start VVAW is not some admirable achievement. In fact it was a massive slap in the face for veterans,


VVAW was made up overwhelmingly of frauds who never served. They misrepresented veterans most of whom knew that the war was a just cause.

 

[Deadstick]

Yes they were massacred. Re education means forced conditioning and brainwashing.

They were not massacred or Saigon would have been running with blood, it wasn't, and i say again those who sided with foreign aggressors needed re-educating they had become corrupt and had no pride in independence.

 

[Soupnazi630]

They were not massacred or Saigon would have been running with blood, it wasn't, and i say again those who sided with foreign aggressors needed re-educating they had become corrupt and had no pride in independence.

It was in fact

Re education is double speak for imprisonment and torture.

Communists are big on that sort of thing. No independant thought allowed

 

[Deadstick]

No they dis not.

There is no evidence of that claim

Vietnam was in fact important and a treaty ally

It was a justified war

Justfiied my arse, i take it your were not sweating your balls off in the Drang Valley?

 

[Soupnazi630]

Justfiied my arse, i take it your were not sweating your balls off in the Drang Valley?

Neither were you, dont even try some internet war hero crap

and yes it was.

 

[Deadstick]

It was in fact

Re education is double speak for imprisonment and torture.

Communists are big on that sort of thing. No independant thought allowed

Its your double speak and don't lecture others about torture, ever hear of Tiger Gages?

 

[Deadstick]

Neither were you, dont even try some internet war hero crap

and yes it was.

You must be one of the few nutters who still think it was justified, you are out of your tiny mind.

 

[Soupnazi630]

Its your double speak and don't lecture others about torture, ever hear of Tiger Gages?

No it is yours.

Nothing the US did even remotely compares to the horrors of communism

Im not a golf fan

 

[Soupnazi630]

You must be one of the few nutters who still think it was justified, you are out of your tiny mind.

Wrong boy many do including most veterans

 

[Deadstick]

Wrong boy many do including most veterans

Well many vets will say that because they can't admit all that shit was for nothing, and you seem to have a unhealthy fixation with Communism, there is no communism in your Country, fascism maybe so whats your Beef?

 

[Soupnazi630]

Well many vets will say that because they can't admit all that shit was for nothing, and you seem to have a unhealthy fixation with Communism, there is no communism in your Country, fascism maybe so whats your Beef?

Many will say it because they saw the horrors that the communists inflicted on south vietnam

Wrong it is growing here and a massive threat

There is nothing unhealthy about opposing evil

 

[Hector12]

Many will say it because they saw the horrors that the communists inflicted on south vietnam

Wrong it is growing here and a massive threat

There is nothing unhealthy about opposing evil

Worrying about Communism is so twentieth century. Keep up to date.

Even during the twentieth century there was not even a remote chance of a Communist dictatorship in the United States. The danger was of a nuclear war that would end civilization.

 

[Hector12]

Many will say it because they saw the horrors that the communists inflicted on south vietnam

Wrong it is growing here and a massive threat

There is nothing unhealthy about opposing evil

America's policy in the War in Vietnam was evil We devastated Vietnam and killed two million Vietnamese men, women, and children to prevent the ascension of a leader the vast majority of the Vietnamese wanted.

 

[Soupnazi630]

Worrying about Communism is so twentieth century. Keep up to date.

Even during the twentieth century there was not even a remote chance of a Communist dictatorship in the United States. The danger was of a nuclear war that would end civilization.

Unlike you I am up to date . You are out of touch.

There is a pig chance of that in the near future.

They learned from the failures of earlier decades. Now they control all instpotutions of higher learning and the vast majority of schools. In tewnty years every young adult will have been idoctrinated in K through 12

 

[Soupnazi630]

America's policy in the War in Vietnam was evil We devastated Vietnam and killed two million Vietnamese men, women, and children to prevent the ascension of a leader the vast majority of the Vietnamese wanted.

No it was not it was justified and moral policy.

The two million figure is fantasy.

The bvast majority did not want him ANOTHER fantasy.

Most of the devastation wasd caused by HIM