What is a vital U.S. Interest?

[Redfish]

the domino theory was wrong, it did not happen. And, so what if the entire far east went communist? Which part of SE asia (other than Japan) is not today communist or socialist?

Either that, or our countering the domino theory worked until Russia economically collapsed in on itself.

why would Russia or China want a bunch of countries dependent on them for every necessity of life? Russia collapsed because it could not provide for all of its dependents.

 

[kaz]

the domino theory was wrong, it did not happen. And, so what if the entire far east went communist? Which part of SE asia (other than Japan) is not today communist or socialist?

Either that, or our countering the domino theory worked until Russia economically collapsed in on itself.

why would Russia or China want a bunch of countries dependent on them for every necessity of life? Russia collapsed because it could not provide for all of its dependents.

It's the nature of communism. And the financial cost of that was a big part of their collapse. It's also a big part of the Russian mentality in particular.

 

[ScreamingEagle]

what 'vital U.S. interest' did Obama protect in Libya.......?

 

[Mojo2]

No, it did not stop the spread of communism. Viet Nam is now 100% communist. We accomplished nothing but the losss of 58,000 americans and billions of dollars. but idiots like you refuse to learn from it.

I usually give fellow Conservatives and patriots and loyal American loving posters a great deal of latitude.

But don't think that makes you immune to my hostile responses to insults.

It doesn't.

The Domino Theory was that ALL of Asia could become Communist if the spread of Communism wasn't addressed in Viet Nam.

My contention is that the rest of Asia did not become Communist because of our military involvement in Viet Nam.

the domino theory was wrong, it did not happen. And, so what if the entire far east went communist? Which part of SE asia (other than Japan) is not today communist or socialist?

It was dumb, 58,000 good americans died for nothing. it was a terrible chapter in our history-----why can't we learn from it?

Laos and Cambodia became communist dictatorships with Vietnam, but Thailand, India, Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines and Burma did not.

What stopped all of Asia from becoming Communist?

Then ask yourself why has the Middle East been swept with regime change and insurrection, with one government after another being challenged and overturned?

 

[Mojo2]

No, it did not stop the spread of communism. Viet Nam is now 100% communist. We accomplished nothing but the losss of 58,000 americans and billions of dollars. but idiots like you refuse to learn from it.

I usually give fellow Conservatives and patriots and loyal American loving posters a great deal of latitude.

But don't think that makes you immune to my hostile responses to insults.

It doesn't.

The Domino Theory was that ALL of Asia could become Communist if the spread of Communism wasn't addressed in Viet Nam.

My contention is that the rest of Asia did not become Communist because of our military involvement in Viet Nam.

Viet nam was a waste; only a clown would contend otherwise.

Hahahaha!

You love me.

 

[BlindBoo]

what 'vital U.S. interest' did Obama protect in Libya.......?

What else?

U.S. forces seize tanker carrying oil from Libya rebel port | Reuters

 

[Mojo2]

the domino theory was wrong, it did not happen. And, so what if the entire far east went communist? Which part of SE asia (other than Japan) is not today communist or socialist?

Either that, or our countering the domino theory worked until Russia economically collapsed in on itself.

why would Russia or China want a bunch of countries dependent on them for every necessity of life? Russia collapsed because it could not provide for all of its dependents.

They were actively exporting Communism and sponsoring Communist expansion all over the world.

Unlike you, THEY saw it as a good thing for their objective of world domination.

Barack Obama Sr.was a supporter of Communism in Kenya as the answer to British colonialism.

Barack Obama Jr. took his father's dreams and made them his own.

Anyone starting to connect the dots now?

Hmmm?

 

[bluesman]

Either that, or our countering the domino theory worked until Russia economically collapsed in on itself.

why would Russia or China want a bunch of countries dependent on them for every necessity of life? Russia collapsed because it could not provide for all of its dependents.

They were actively exporting Communism and sponsoring Communist expansion all over the world.

Unlike you, THEY saw it as a good thing for their objective of world domination.

Barack Obama Sr.was a supporter of Communism in Kenya as the answer to British colonialism.

Barack Obama Jr. took his father's dreams and made them his own.

Anyone starting to connect the dots now?

Hmmm?

Wow. I can't believe you actually did that.

You went from talking about involvement in Viet Nam and communist expansion and went right into bashing Obama.

Kudos for being a hard-core Obama-hater and not being ashamed to just randomly interject Obama-hate talk. I am sure your people will be very happy with you.

 

[Mojo2]

Treaties need to be upheld. Little else is in our national interests.

Little else???



You say these things to get our goat, don't you?

No; but it's an added bonus.

Admit it, you were tempted to write:

No; but it's an added boner.

 

[jasonnfree]

I usually give fellow Conservatives and patriots and loyal American loving posters a great deal of latitude.

But don't think that makes you immune to my hostile responses to insults.

It doesn't.

The Domino Theory was that ALL of Asia could become Communist if the spread of Communism wasn't addressed in Viet Nam.

My contention is that the rest of Asia did not become Communist because of our military involvement in Viet Nam.

Viet nam was a waste; only a clown would contend otherwise.

Really?

We killed 2 Million Communists.

Hardly a waste.

Too bad we couldn't kill a few hundred million more.

Besides, if you want to blame somebody for Viet Nam, blame JFK and LBJ. Nixon was handed a War we were losing, he won it, and dimocrap scum gave away the victory.....

And between 3 and 4 Million innocent people were murdered by communist scum afterwards.

So you killed commies? Please go into detail. How'd you separate the good ones from the bad ones, or were they all bad? By the way, as many US troops were killed under Nixon's presidency as were killed under LBJ's presidency. Nixon was the guy with the plan to end the war. He actually accelerated it.

 

[jasonnfree]

No, because in the first place after the first energy crisis we should have weaned ourselves off foreign sources of oil.

All foreign oil? Even from Canada, Mexico and Brazil?

How would you accomplish that? Nationalize the oil industry? How very...Communist.

Or how very ..... Norwegian. They use resources like oil to fund health, education, and welfare. In my opinion, we should be doing the same thing.

 

[The2ndAmendment]

The libs here, and their fellow travelling narco-libertarians, maintain that Ukraine is not a vital US interest and we need to stay away.
So what is a vital U.S. interest? Philippines? Cuba? Hawaii? California? At what point is action of any kind a necessity?

The Panama Canal (it was even a United States territory for quite some time, my grandfather was born there). That's about it. Anything on the other side of the world cannot be considered part of our vital interest when we have so many problems in our nation.

That's like a non sequitur. So if we solve every problem in the US we can go about interfering elsewhere?

It's the magnitude of the current situation. Right now our own Government is a more a of threat to us than any foreign nation, even mainstream news polls reflect this opinion.

 

[bluesman]

The Panama Canal (it was even a United States territory for quite some time, my grandfather was born there). That's about it. Anything on the other side of the world cannot be considered part of our vital interest when we have so many problems in our nation.

That's like a non sequitur. So if we solve every problem in the US we can go about interfering elsewhere?

It's the magnitude of the current situation. Right now our own Government is a more a of threat to us than any foreign nation, even mainstream news polls reflect this opinion.

That is crazy talk. But if you truly feel that way I get it why your moniker is the name of the amendment that is about militias.

 

[Sallow]

It's people.

 

[Mojo2]

Viet nam was a waste; only a clown would contend otherwise.

Really?

We killed 2 Million Communists.

Hardly a waste.

Too bad we couldn't kill a few hundred million more.

Besides, if you want to blame somebody for Viet Nam, blame JFK and LBJ. Nixon was handed a War we were losing, he won it, and dimocrap scum gave away the victory.....

And between 3 and 4 Million innocent people were murdered by communist scum afterwards.

You should stay out of things you don't understand.

we are usually on the same page, but I must disagree with you on this.
1. we did not win in viet nam-----we lost
2. yes we killed a lot of vietnamese, our govt lied about how many
3. 58,000 good americans died and we spent billions and what we were trying to prevent happened anyway.

Do you know just HOW CLOSE we were to actually WINNING???

Amazon Exclusive Essay: "New Vietnam War History" by Lewis Sorley, Author of A Better War

For a long time most people thought the long years of American involvement in the Vietnam War were just more of the same--with a bad ending. Now we know that during the latter years, when General Creighton Abrams commanded U.S. forces, almost everything changed, and for the better.

Abrams understood the nature of the war and devised a more availing approach to the conduct of it. Building up South Vietnam's own armed forces got high priority, whereas before they had been neglected and allowed to go into combat outgunned by the enemy.

The covert infrastructure which through terror and coercion kept South Vietnam's rural population under domination was painstakingly rooted out, not ignored as earlier. And combat operations were greatly improved, concentrating on large numbers of patrols and ambushes designed to provide security for the people rather than cumbersome large-unit sweeps through the deep jungle.

Some commentators have called the description of these changes "revisionist" history, but actually it is new history.

Virtually all the better-known earlier books about the war concentrated heavily on the early years, leaving the later period grossly neglected.

New insight came importantly from a collection of hundreds of tape recordings of briefings and staff meetings in General Abrams's headquarters during the four years he commanded in Vietnam. They are filled with human drama, professional debate, successes and frustrations, and ultimately a hard-won triumph, told in the voices of Abrams and his senior associates; such visiting officials as the Secretary of Defense and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; and a succession of often brilliant briefing officers.

Later, of course, what they had won was thrown away by the United States Congress, but the story of their better war is still a dramatic testament to courage, integrity, devotion, and professional competence.--Lewis Sorley

[ame=http://www.amazon.com/Better-War-Unexamined-Victories-Americas/dp/0156013096/?tag=digitalca0daa06-20]A Better War: The Unexamined Victories and Final Tragedy of America's Last Years in Vietnam: Lewis Sorley: 9780156013093: Amazon.com: Books[/ame]

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

136 of 148 people found the following review helpful
Author Sorley Corrects the Record
By Stuart A. Herrington on May 16, 2000
Format: Hardcover

Author Lewis Sorley has done all Americans, especially Vietnam veterans, a service by producing this meticulously researched, balanced study of the Vietnam War's final (post-Westmoreland) years. I served almost four years in Vietnam between January 1971 and the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975.

I rarely review books about the war because too many of them evoke the sentiment, "If that was Vietnam, where was I?" But as one who fought the Vietcong guerrillas and struggled to ferret out their shadow government, who felt the fury of the NVA's 1972 Easter Offensive, and who ultimately left Vietnam on a marine helicopter from the embassy roof, I can say without qualification that author Sorley has got it right.

He is on the mark when he points out the success of Cambodian sanctuary raids in 1970 and the long-overdue, successful emphasis on pacification pushed by General Abrams and Ambassador Bunker.

He is equally correct in his statement that, by late 1972, it was our war to lose as Hanoi's legions faltered in disarray in the wake of the 13-division attack on South Vietnam that had been launched to bolster sagging revolutionary morale in the South.

I served in a province that, under the Westmoreland strategy, was a revolutionary hotbed, where a simple trip to pick up the mail was an invitation to ambush. When Abrams, Colby, Vann, and Bunker got their hands on the throttle, this same province became a different place, with significant increases in security, massive morale problems and defections among the Vietcong cadre who had once ruled the countryside, and a significant economic upturn.

This was the Vietnam of Sorley's "Better War." Sadly, as some of the reviews of this fine work demonstrate, the truth about that tragic war is too painful to some aging, unreconstructed members of the antiwar movement, some of whom cannot, 25 years later, admit that their love affair with the feisty Vietcong was misplaced, or that their country's men and women in arms had sown the seeds of victory under General Abrams. Bravo Sorley!

[ame=http://www.amazon.com/Better-War-Unexamined-Victories-Americas/dp/0156013096/?tag=digitalca0daa06-20]A Better War: The Unexamined Victories and Final Tragedy of America's Last Years in Vietnam: Lewis Sorley: 9780156013093: Amazon.com: Books[/ame]


We snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.

Who's to blame?

Congress.

 

[pvsi]

What is a vital U.S. Interest? The libs here,

That's easy: Crimea, Ukraine and the middle east...

 

[Mojo2]

Viet nam was a waste; only a clown would contend otherwise.

Really?

We killed 2 Million Communists.

Hardly a waste.

Too bad we couldn't kill a few hundred million more.

And just by counting China's population alone, we'd still be outnumbered 2 or 3 to one. Congratulations; you've just learned 1st grade math.

Besides, if you want to blame somebody for Viet Nam, blame JFK and LBJ. Nixon was handed a War we were losing, he won it, and dimocrap scum gave away the victory.....

And between 3 and 4 Million innocent people were murdered by communist scum afterwards.

You should stay out of things you don't understand.

Blame is squarely on LBJ; Nixon expanded it into Cambodia; rather stupidly and for no reason. The 3 or 4 million were going to be slaughtered whether we were there getting our ass kicked or not. Learn something...someday.

We know the "ignorant" label applied to you is accurate.

But are you really a slut?

 

[Two Thumbs]

The libs here, and their fellow travelling narco-libertarians, maintain that Ukraine is not a vital US interest and we need to stay away.
So what is a vital U.S. interest? Philippines? Cuba? Hawaii? California? At what point is action of any kind a necessity?

well since we never ever should have gone to WW1....

but dealing with what dems have turned us into, yes, we should be moving troops to the ukrain to honor our treaty with them, and fight for their freedom.

as a stoopid idea goes, we have to keep our word. and just remember not to promise to go to war for anyone else again

 

[Mojo2]

why would Russia or China want a bunch of countries dependent on them for every necessity of life? Russia collapsed because it could not provide for all of its dependents.

They were actively exporting Communism and sponsoring Communist expansion all over the world.

Unlike you, THEY saw it as a good thing for their objective of world domination.

Barack Obama Sr.was a supporter of Communism in Kenya as the answer to British colonialism.

Barack Obama Jr. took his father's dreams and made them his own.

Anyone starting to connect the dots now?

Hmmm?

Wow. I can't believe you actually did that.

You went from talking about involvement in Viet Nam and communist expansion and went right into bashing Obama.

Kudos for being a hard-core Obama-hater and not being ashamed to just randomly interject Obama-hate talk. I am sure your people will be very happy with you.

Every day more and more people get wise to what Obama is doing to this country. I am doing what I can to tie things in to Obama so they will start thinking about the bigger picture by looking at the small things.

Who knows? Today might be your day to get smart.

 

[The Rabbi]

That's like a non sequitur. So if we solve every problem in the US we can go about interfering elsewhere?

It's the magnitude of the current situation. Right now our own Government is a more a of threat to us than any foreign nation, even mainstream news polls reflect this opinion.

That is crazy talk. But if you truly feel that way I get it why your moniker is the name of the amendment that is about militias.

As bad as our government is, they dont hold a candle to RUssia, Iran, and China.