Nixon's Secretary of Defense Speaks out on Iraq and Vietnam

[Drake Tungsten]

OMG DANS ENDORSED IT, IT MUST BE WRITTEN BY NAZIS!!!

[Zkribbler]

Laird seems to forget that, after a period of peace, the North Vietnamese Army invaded the south. Financial aid would have been of no use then. The only thing that could have stemmed the tide of the invasion was the re-insertion of American troops, and the US public would not have stood for that.

[The Mad Monk]

Originally posted by GePap
Not a single mention in the entire article about the actual political realities in Iraq, of the competing ethnic and religious tensions that have no Vietnam parallel. NO talk of independent militias, and the pull of neighboring states with all thier own interets....and the same seeming lack of an idea of what victory is, what it looks like....

Yup, wasn't worth my time....

That's because it isn't about Iraq and Vietnam so much as how we handled Iraq and Vietnam, and what it implies about future conflicts.

I'm disappointed, I thought you might have something interesting to say.

[The Mad Monk]

Originally posted by Zkribbler
Laird seems to forget that, after a period of peace, the North Vietnamese Army invaded the south. Financial aid would have been of no use then. The only thing that could have stemmed the tide of the invasion was the re-insertion of American troops, and the US public would not have stood for that.

It didn't escape him, he discusses the funding situation (on both sides) on page two. Perhaps if we had matched what the Soviets were actually sending, the end result would have been different -- or perhaps not, given the puppet government, which he also writes about.

[PLATO]

"DeAmericanization"

Catch word for the 21st century?

Vietnam was poorly conceived and poorly executed. The article is by one of the architects of that war. In it we failed to recognize the motivations and philosophies of the indiginous population...instead trying to impose an American view on the country. Sound familiar?

Now, don't get me wrong. I still support what is being attempted in Iraq. I still believe that any chance at democracy taking hold in the ME is worth fighting for. I just sometimes wonder if we really did "learn the lessons of Vietnam".

[The Mad Monk]

Funny, he seems to agree with you.

[PLATO]

Originally posted by The Mad Monk
Funny, he seems to agree with you.

I guess I really should have read the article then.

...Especially since GePap says it has no value.

[notyoueither]

'The article is by one of the architects of that war.'?

[Patroklos]

How dare you try and shed light on a subject that Gepap has already made arbitrary assumptions about

I believe the point of this article is that the very people who fear another Vietnam are acting in the same manor that made Vietnam what it was, self fulfilling prophecy. And he isn't restricting his criticism to any one side.

[The Mad Monk]

Originally posted by notyoueither
'The article is by one of the architects of that war.'?

I can't figure that out either.

[Arrian]

This is the only bit that *might* point in that direction:

I had already spent seven years on the Defense Subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee listening to McNamara justify the escalation of the war.

He sets himself up, obviously, as the guy who got us OUT of the war.

-Arrian

[Ted Striker]

We've already repeated most of the mistakes of Vietnam, it's a little late for him to chime in now.

[The Mad Monk]

Originally posted by Arrian
This is the only bit that *might* point in that direction:



He sets himself up, obviously, as the guy who got us OUT of the war.

-Arrian

One of the guys, certainly.

[PLATO]

Originally posted by notyoueither
'The article is by one of the architects of that war.'?

MELVIN R. LAIRD was Secretary of Defense from 1969 to 1973

As SecDef under Nixon this would make him responsible for such things as the mining of Haiphong Harbour and the Christmas Bombing Campaign. This makes him one of the architects of the war regardless of his back peddling into saying that he was all about withdrawal. In 1970, the US drafted 191 out of 365 possible birthdate registrations...over half of those elgible to be drafted were called. A true deescalation of the war would have placed more emphasis on "Vietnamization" of the war from 1969 onward. It was, however, the policy of the time to "bomb Hanoi to the peace table"...not provide the South Vietnamese the ability to fight the war themselves.

It was only when Congress threatened to cut funding for the war when the idea of Vietnamization took hold.

[OneFootInTheGrave]

war is good, especially if it happens somewhere else like in Asia, keep up 20:1 kill ratio and soon you will run out of the insurgents too. well done!

sponsor the good guys (tm) and they will do as you say, like Osama.

btw what's up with him, is he in retirement in a luxurious villa somewhere, didn't hear much about him lately.