My wife and I just saw the movie The Post: the story of the release of the Pentagon Papers by the Washington Post.
The Pentagon
Papers proved that from the start of the Vietnam war the government knew we
could not win. There was no strategy to
win.
58,000 men
died in Vietnam and hundreds of thousands came home wounded in body or mind. I saw young men dead and stacked like cord
wood on pallets waiting for the C-130.
Young men coming home with colostomy bags and arms and legs
missing. A young girl yelled at me, ‘How many babies
did you kill?’ when I got off the plane in California on my way home.
The reason
we couldn’t win, in my opinion, was North Vietnam was being trained, supplied
and supported by China. There were
Chinese regular troops in the North and an attack on the North would have
brought China into the war.
The whole
reason we were there, I believe, was the U.S. saw China a future threat and wanted
to have a nuclear capable airbase, within striking distance, on the southern
border of China. No one in the
government gave a rat’s ass about South Vietnam.
I have never
understood why Vietnam vets celebrate the government. We should all be mad as hell and understand
that the government uses the military as pawns on the chess board, while the
players sit in Washington safe with their deferments.
Anyway, the
movie was great – a must see. It is applicable
to what is happening today between the government and the news media.
the Ol’Buzzard
People never get angry at who their true enemies are. Vets, the poor, Trump supporters, etc. Glad to know the movie is worthy. It is on our "to see" list soon.
ReplyDeleteVeterans' support of Republican politicians is one of life's great mysteries I guess no one likes to admit either that they were suckered or that the glorious cause they risked dying for was based on lies.
ReplyDeleteI think it was the military industrial complex doing it's thing back then, and still doing it with the Presidential Wars for the last 17 years.
ReplyDeleteIf politicians had sons and daughters in a war. That war would be cut short. But that's just a pipe dream. The Post is on our Movie list for sure.
ReplyDeleteI just went & watched The Post this afternoon. It was a good movie and I think a very different time in so many ways.
ReplyDeleteRight now we're into 17+ years of the Presidential Wars with no end in sight, the NSA reads all our email & listens to all our phone calls and no one cares.
I got snatched in 1968...They are still doing it today..
ReplyDeleteI better be quiet...It wouldn't do any good to warn the kids of today...I'm sure the same happens to the kids on all the other sides...SAD...
delete this if you want...
Were there together. Same feelings.
Deletethanks for your comment O'B