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badbob
08-29-02, 12:50 PM
With serious talk of war in Iraq, certain media folks have begun to criticize and question our President as to the mission and referencing the Mistakes made in Vietnam.

Personally I don’t want the world to know the mission, that could cost American lives

Speaking as a Vietnam Combat Veteran, I’m here to tell the World that we will never make the Vietnam Mistake again.

There’s almost a million living Vietnam Vets who will never allow another Vietnam.

The problem with almost all who criticize the Vietnam mistake, they do not really understand what the mistakes were.

It wasn’t a mistake to send Marines to Vietnam in 1965, I was one, I know firsthand.

It was however a tremendous mistake, to take a large force of Marines who were experts in every aspect of offensive tactics and place us in a defensive position. Marines have always been trained to attack not defend.

It was a mistake to send Americans to war without a clearly defined, “Win-able Mission”.

It was a mistake not to increase the bombings in the North that really were having a tremendous impact on the enemy, and would have brought a different and quicker end.

As I see it, we have strong leadership moving in the right direction with the right mission, using the correct tactics, and before it’s all over, we will fight many battles in the Middle East, We Will Win them All, and we will do so with minimal American casualties.

No, there will never ever be another Vietnam Mistake involving American Troops.

War without a mission is pure insanity for those ordered to fight it. He who orders such a mistake in the future, will suffer swift, political self-destruction, you can trust your Vietnam Vets will lead this mission.

The same folks, who were against the Vietnam War in 1965, have come out of the woodwork again. If given a chance, they will render this President as ineffective and afraid to act as Johnson became in 1966. Only difference today, if we don’t take decisive action, we, the American civilian population will have a wall of our own, and it’ll be a much larger Wall than the Vietnam War Memorial.


Semper Fi,
Bob Neener
0351 1964-1968

VietVet
08-29-02, 01:24 PM
If we had done in Vietnam as we did in Grenada I think it would have been a totally different out come. I guess we must have learned something.

VietVet

MillRatUSMC
08-29-02, 08:36 PM
I too was one of the first to go into Vietnam in 1965 up north in Phu Bai.

Let me count the ways...

1.Waging a war with an eye more on the "War on Proverty" because it was an election year.

2.under reporting the enemy's Order of Battle by half.

3. ROE Rules of Engagement forced on the military to the benefit of our enemies.
LBJ saying "They can't bomb an outhouse in Vietnam without my permission!" sorry to say there no outhouses in Vietnam, that how much LBJ knew about a country he was in a war with.

4. Never cutting the Ho Chi Minh trail, allowing men and equipment to reach our enemies.

5. Taking the M-14 and replacing it with the M16 before it was really tested.
Resulting in many getting killed.

6. Corruption on all levels of the Vietnamese government and some here also.

7. Waging a war of attrition, with an enemy that had more coming online than we could ever kill.

8. Forcing the McNamara line on the Marine Corps, thus fixing us into stationary positions.

9. Never getting into the minds of leadership up in North Vietnam.
But they did get into our leaders minds.
Those leaders in North Vietnam were using Tzu Sun's thoughts on war.
One being "War is the highest gamble that a nation can undertake." because you can lose the Nation.

10. Commanders above Captain rarely in the field with those under their command.

11. Commiting units and equipment in stages rather than massing force to get the job done.

12. Fear of offending the Chinese and the Russkies.

Well I think many will get the picture of what impossible task we had to deal with.
I didn't even mention drugs, because at first we didn't have that problem.
Later it became a big problem to the leadership.
Fragging too came later, it cause was many were thinking more of self-survival.
Anybody stood in the way of their survival might become a victim of a fragging.

All these things must be taken into account by the leadership before they even think of bomb Iraq.

Wars are easy to get into, it the getting out that's the difficult part.

Semper Fidelis
Ricardo

Sparrowhawk
08-29-02, 10:36 PM
The only thing I felt in Viet Nam, when I pulled the trigger on the M60 was the recoil of my weapon.....

I would do it all over again....


I don't regret having fought in the Viet Nam War; I wouldn't give up that experience for anything in the world. We fought for democracy, for a dream that was obtainable.


We felt honored to have served our country, to be given the opportunity in life to be more than a witness in history. We will never again fight battles as we did in Viet Nam. That war veteran may very well be America’s last real warrior.

If we failed, it was not because we did not do our duty, it was because others entrusted with higher responsibilities failed to do theirs.

arzach
08-30-02, 02:25 PM
I would do it all over again....


I don't regret having fought in the Viet Nam War; I wouldn't give up that experience for anything in the world. We fought for democracy, for a dream that was obtainable.


We felt honored to have served our country, to be given the opportunity in life to be more than a witness in history. We will never again fight battles as we did in Viet Nam. That war veteran may very well be America’s last real warrior.

If we failed, it was not because we did not do our duty, it was because others entrusted with higher responsibilities failed to do theirs. [/B][/QUOTE]

All the reasons listed on this thread are valid----But in my mind. the one that says it all is 'Hawk's last line here.
Anytime you are required to radio Bn. for permission to engage an enemy--- setting up to blow yer butt away---it's just plain stupid. You can't fight a war and have any expectations of winnig, if you're too worried about stepping on 'political toes'---The key word here is 'comittment'---from the top down to the lowest ranking PVT.

USMC0311
08-30-02, 04:59 PM
ain't nuthin stays the same and nuthin lasts forever. Patroits serve with Honor, the rest thank God the didn't serve!

Semper Fidelis. Forever

NamGrunt68
08-31-02, 05:37 AM
Robert McNamara
Lyndon Johnson
Westmoreland
Lt Col Greenwood
Jane Fonda
Tom Hayden
Abbie Hoffman
Cassius Clay

And the list goes on, and on, and on...........................

Phuc it...dont' mean nuttin......

Was Proud to Serve and would go again !!!!