The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Vietnam War

The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Vietnam War - Phillip JenningsWith a title like this, you might expect a lot of crazy, outlandish, baseless claims. But that is not what this book is. It does have some information that goes against what the Vietnamese communists and the American anti-war people would want you to believe, but it is all based on fact. There are other books that give the same views.People would have you believe that Vietnam was always a single unified country but it was divided since at least the 16th century. (location 131)People like to ridicule the domino theory, but it was a real thing in the 50’s when decisions were made to oppose the communists in Vietnam. “It is difficult to see how Thailand, Burma and Indonesia could be kept out of Communist hands.” (location 235) Even Japan could have settled for some sort of ac-commodation with Communism. The United States was conflicted – we wanted colonies around the world to become independent of the European powers, but we wanted to contain Communism. Con-taining Communism was imperative. Nikita Khrushchev had announced that the “Soviet Union would support wars of national liberation.” (location 566) John Kennedy supported the domino theory. In 1956, he said “Vietnam represents the cornerstone of the Free World in Southeast Asia, the keystone to the arch, the finger in the dike.” (location 671)People say that we should have supported nation-wide elections in 1954. The South would have lost for two reasons. One, there were more people in the North. Two, the Communists would control the outcome in the North, it would have been about 100% for Communism. (location 347, 494) The Communists in the North had already killed or imprisoned the landowners, the educated, and the wealthy.Jennings singles out two American reporters who were dishonest and promoted views that were contra-ry to facts – David Halberstam and Neil Sheehan. President Diem was more successful than Hal-berstam, Sheehan, and Henry Cabot Lodge would admit. In 1957 and 1958, according to Communist sources, Diem had destroyed the Communist party in the South. (location 535) So, in 1959, the Com-munists launched their insurrection. Not long before Diem was murdered, Sheehan wrote “The Diem government’s war against the Viet Cong rebels cannot be won unless the Diem regime is replaced with a more liberal group that can win the support of the whole population” (location 952) But in fact, the Diem government was winning the war.Soon after Diem was murdered, the U.S. started sending more troops and aircraft to Vietnam. West-moreland was the commander and supported a strategy of attrition, which had no chance in succeeding. It is widely believed that enemy body counts were inflated. Jennings claims that they were understated. (location 1346)It is widely agreed today that the 1968 Tet offensive was a disastrous defeat for the Viet Cong. Walter Cronkite concluded that the U.S. and the South Vietnam Government could not win. I believe that the reason for the contrasting views is that, in the months before Tet, Westmoreland and others were paint-ing a rosy picture. With just a few thousand more American troops, the Communists will be licked. Then the Communists overran Hue and some other cities, and there was intense fighting to win them back. The media largely ignored the discovery of thousands of citizens buried in mass graves, mur-dered by the VC and NVA. (location 1536) Jennings suggests that the war could have been won in 1968, after the VC were defeated, by mining Haiphong Harbor and bombing Hanoi, as it was done lat-er in 1972.There is a famous photo taken during Tet, a photo of General Loan executing an enemy soldier in civil-ian clothing. In fact the enemy soldier had been murdering civilians and General Loan was within his rights. (location 1525)In 1969 Nixon became president, Abrams replaced Westmoreland, and Bunker became ambassador. The Phoenix program was implemented to reduce the influence and effectiveness of the Viet Cong Infrastructure in South Vietnam. (location 1837) “The Communist authorities in Vietnam... said that Phoenix was the ‘single most ef-fective program that you used against them in the entire war.’” (location 1883)In March, 1969, Nixon ordered B-52 attacks on Communist base areas in Cambodia. (location 1977) There was no reaction from Hanoi, Phnom Penh, Moscow, or Peking. (This suited everyone’s purposes - Hanoi did not want to admit that they had troops in Cambodia, and Cambodia did not want to admit that they were allowing it.) But some American anti-war activists claimed there were 600,000 civilian casualties. Jennings allows that there likely were civilian casualties, but no where near that number, be-cause the area was not heavily populated and the Communists did not want Cambodian peasants near their camps.In April, 1970, Nixon ordered military incursions into Cambodia to eliminate Communist sanctuaries, promote negotiations, and make it safe for American troops to withdraw from Vietnam. (location 2004) Anti-war liberals saw it as a huge expansion of the war. The attack commenced on May 1, 1970, with B-52 raids followed by 15,000 Americans. (loc 2059, p 161) After that, the Senate repealed the Gulf of Tonkin resolution, and in December 1971 Congress forbade American ground forces from conduct-ing operations in Laos or Cambodia. (p 164).In June, 1971, the New York Times started publishing the “Pentagon Papers.” This was supposed to make Johnson look bad but the papers actually showed that the U.S. had entered Vietnam with old-style liberal idealism. (p 167).In March, 1972, the last of the American combat units left Vietnam, leaving Army advisors, some Air Force people, and various support troops. On March 30, the Easter Offensive started with 200,000 North Vietnamese soldiers. (p 160). Nixon responded with the Linebacker I bombing of North Vi-etnam. There was also a lot of bombing of NVA troops in South Vietnam.On October 8, 1972, Henry Kissinger and Le Duc Tho reached a compromise draft settlement. The NVA troops in the South could stay in the South but additional troops could not be sent to the South. President Nguyen van Thieu could stay in office. Thieu rejected the agreement. Jennings doesn’t say why. I believe it was because the agreement allowed the North Vietnam Army to remain in South Vi-etnam. As Jennings says, Le Duc Tho refused to make any further concessions. Nixon ordered Line-backer II, the Eleven Days Of Christmas bombing of Hanoi, Haiphong, and other locations in the North, with B-52s. Fifteen B-52s were downed, 43 crewmember killed, and 49 crewmembers taken prisoner. The Washington Post reported it was “the most savage and senseless act of war ever visited, over a scant ten days, by one sovereign people over another.” (P 175) Other mainstream media outlets reported that the bombing was indiscrim-inate, that its purpose was to cause heavy civilian casualties, that it would stiffen Hanoi’s resolve, that it would cause seri-ous losses of United States aircraft and manpower, and that it would shame the United States in its own eyes and in the eyes of the world. The North Vietnamese claimed 1,318 civilian deaths. The campaign was widely misreported. It was said that it was “the most vicious attack in military history”, “the work of a madman”, and “a crime against humanity.” (p 177)There is disagreement about what followed Linebacker II. Jennings says that it finally forced North Vietnam to capitulate at the Paris peace talks (P 176). On December 15, Hanoi ignored Nixon’s de-mand to return to negotiations. On Dec 26, Hanoi said they would resume negotiations. The bombing halted on December 28. An agreement was arrived at on January 13 and ratified on January 23, 1973. This agreement still allowed North Vietnam to keep its troops in the South. Nixon promised to help the South if the North violated the agreement, but Congress prevented that. It passed the Case-Church Amendment, prohibiting any further American military involvement in Southeast Asia, effective Au-gust 15, 1973. (p 182) And it passed the War Powers Resolution. The U.S. Navy removed the mines from Haiphong Harbor, and Soviet munitions came in.In the last part of the book, Jennings takes shots at Jane Fonda, anti-war activists, Mao, John Kerry and the Winter Soldier Investigation, men who falsely claimed to be Vietnam veterans, and Martin Luther King Jr.Jennings makes the claim that, given the terms of the 1973 Paris Peace Accords, we won the war. (p 210). But of course Congress prevented President Nixon and President Ford from doing anything to support South Vietnam when the next invasion came.

I liked this book a lot.I wanted to learn the lies that I was told was the truth as a kid and the lies that Hollywood tells and I found that here.Biggest facts for me:1. No one really won the war...the North did later, but the South/America sort of won it temporarily and then the second half of it was lost to the communists because of the US congress not upholding their agreement to arm our allies in the South. Our country didn't lose...but we also didn't win...and one might well say it wasn't really our war, so there is no definitive answer.2. Most everyone in the US was PRO war and the Hollywood films suggest all the hip young kids were against it. In reality women in their later 30's and later ages were the most opposed to the war. 90% were pro war.3. All the soldiers are seen as shell shocked tortured souls who have substance abuse demons on them and must beg for hand outs; In reality many of these soldiers are doing much better than those of their generation who did not participate. They are paid more, have more education and are more emotionally sound and intelligent. They also probably don't believe fake news:)4. Kennedy issued the coup/assassination of the South Vietnamese President and later says he didn't and it was a mistake...perhaps a grave error that eventually might well have lost the war for the South.5. Macnamerra was a garbage Secretary of War and supposedly thought an electric fence would keep the North from the South...which makes me think he wanted to spend tremendous money that the Fed would print out of thin air to inflate the currency and appease the globalists...he is a CFR goon. I find this fact ridiculous.6. The 'boat people' caused 2 million Vietnamese to flee in boats to get away from the communist madness. Also around 125K and perhaps up to 250K Vietnamese were 'reeducated' after they lost the war...meaning killed.7. The domino effect was indeed real and spread just like they said it would into Cambodia (2 million dead) and Laos.8. The US death toll was under 60K and the North Vietnamese was 1.2MILLION....9....there are probably a few more very good facts here....like the Gulf of Tonkin is perhaps not exactly how The Fog of War says it is...who would trust this CFR guy simply because he cries....he spent his life selling out his people and then we are supposed to believe him? It might have been that the torpedo boats did make the 1st attack...it seems like this is indeed true and PERHAPS the 2nd attack was not real; but the North Vietnamese brag about how they chased out the destroyer in that 2nd event, so I am unsure. But it is not the catalyst for entering the war. It seems that we would have entered regardless and the Fog of War seems less like a mind blowing death bed repentance that I thought it was and instead a old man with a hard greedy heart who might well still be bending the truth.10. My own reflection on the event and thoughts ask this, what I feel is a more relevant question than 'should we have entered or not...was it good or not?; 'What can we as a people do to insure our freedom and not engage in war with collectivists in the first place so that it fizzles out?' We need to find that our constitution has been trampled upon by the Supreme Court, our Congress often votes against maintaining our rights and the President often takes power that is not his to take in the first place AND out kids DOE unionized school system doesn't teach them how to be responsible for their elected leaders and thus their rights gradually erode and we find ourselves in a time of bread and circuses.The answer is to expose the Fed, IMF, World Bank, DOE and all the other sick globalist agenda elements and share this with the people who have been conditioned to hate their country and identify with a shallow smug and emotional image without any deep history or the critical thinking ability, let alone wisdom, to even have a pleasant discussion. But God is amazing and these very sick leftists might suddenly do a 180 and after being poisoned with these lies realize they were epically duped and then be used for the sacred struggle that we now are waging against ourselves; lets remember to not take it too seriously and see the silver lining and humor in it:)

Brilliant!!! Sets the record straight, a must read!!

Democrat politicians lost Vietnam and have been trying to blame the US military ever since.

A fact-based and heavily footnoted account of a war that is too obscured by agendas for many people to learn the true lessons from.