SwiftVets.com

[baldeagle]

New York Post Online
By THOMAS H. LIPSCOMB
April 30, 2005

April 30, 2005 -- THE spectacular fall of Saigon on April 30, 1975, 30 years ago, had Americans glued to their television sets. Millions watched as long lines snaked up stairs at the American Embassy waiting to be rescued by the U.S. military.
It had been barely 10 years since the first U.S. Marine combat troops arrived in Vietnam at Danang. That decade had been punctuated by premature proclamations of victory, promises of "light at the end of the tunnel" and a Tet offensive that effectively destroyed the Viet Cong, but remained a potent Communist propaganda coup in Western media.

"Vietnamization" finally removed almost all America combat troops from Vietnam more than a year before the fall of Saigon. But by then many Americans felt so whip lashed by media accounts of a war they didn't understand they accepted the fall of Saigon as the final humiliating proof of an American defeat.

As the years passed, a collection of myths accrued that today are regarded by many as historical fact. It is time to reexamine them.

There may be good reason to do so since Edward Kennedy, John Kerry and others repeatedly warn there is an imminent danger that America's attempt to liberate Iraq may become "another Vietnam."

The rest of it is here;
http://www.nypost.com/postopinion/opedcolumnists/45575.htm
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"In a word, I want an American character, that the powers of Europe may be convinced we act for ourselves and not for others; this, in my judgment, is the only way to be respected abroad and happy at home." --George Washington

[LewWaters]

Good article. I only hope many read it and let it sink in. However, there is one part I have to take exception too:

[BuffaloJack]

You're right Lew. It is a good article.
My wife and I were glued to the TV during that time watching the progress of the NVA and VC into areas where my wife's family lived. All this happened just weeks after my wife became a US citizen. The years after this were especially trying on my war bride. With no postal service between the US and Viet Nam, we did not hear from her family during most this entire period. We finally began getting letters by a very circuitous method in which my wife's letters were mailed in a plain envelope to a friend in Scotland. This friend would then open the outer envelope place new postage on the letter inside and then re-post it to continue its journey to Viet Nam. Replies came the same route back with our friend receiving letters and then shipping them on in another envelope. We kept up this double drop method for about 5 years until direct postal service was restored between the US and VN.
Many of my wife's relatives served time in the re-education camps after the fall of Saigon.
This was a very worrisome and emotional time for our family.
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Swift Boats - Qui Nhon (12/69-4/70), Cat Lo (4/70-5/70), Vung Tau (5/70-12/71)