Re: The 2nd Term - Round 2 - Amensty for Some, Miniature AR-15s for Others...
Opie, I'm well aware troops were already in Vietnam. However the idea put forth in that article that Nixon's view was you give Asian allies weapons and let them fight seems to have been abandoned by Tricky Dick as he kept US troops in Vietnam right up until he resigned in disgrace. US troops didn't leave Vietnam until 1975 IIRC, with the last two casualties being suffered during the Fall of Saigon.
As usual, the war you lefties used as the excuse to excoriate America (spelling it with a "K" for instance) isn't your fault. It's the hated Nixon. What, exactly, do you suppose those hundreds of thousands of GI's already in Vietnam were doing? They were fighting a war. A war that a Democrat president aided by Democrat majorities in congress greatly expanded beyond the scope of JFK's involvement. You are doubtless aware of Oliver Stone's delusions about Kennedy ending our involvement (which he suggests is a major factor in the assassination). Now Kennedy may or may not have changed course in Vietnam, but there is surely no persuasive evidence of what he would have done had he not been murdered.
You also conveniently "misremember" the politics of the time. When Nixon became president the formerly gung-ho Democrats on capitol hill became anti-war. Lead by that world class phony J. William Fulbright. A racist who never voted for any piece of civil rights legislation and kept the federal money flowing into Arkansas, both of which kept the sh*tkickers at home happy. This great brain was Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee when it issued the Gulf of Tonkin resolution. Later, however, the great brain claimed to have been "tricked" by LBJ even though his committee wrote the resolution. It was before Fulbright's committee that that
other world class phony John Kerry, appeared out of uniform to enter scurrilous lies about American servicemen into the record. And inflict on an unprepared public the pronunciation "Jen' jis" for the great Mongol emperor.
Those heavy Democrat majorities in Congress became, generally, as anti-war as they had earlier been pro-war. They fought Nixon every step of the way. Vietnamization was a good idea. And would have worked, if the congressional Democrats had not done everything in their power to pander to the anti-war "kids" that were paralyzing campuses from coast to coast. Of course, Vietnamization wasn't occurring as fast as the anti-war Chicken Switch Democrats wanted. Naturally. At the end, with Ford in the White House, Democrats in congress refused to authorize funds to help South Vietnam repel the invasion from the north. Tens of thousands of people were tortured, "re-educated" or murdered as a result.
You may recall when the North Vietnamese dragged their feet during the Paris talks, Nixon sent the B-52s over Hanoi, wingtip to wingtip (the "Christmas bombing"). And whadya know, they came back to the table. Nixon also mined the harbors of Hanoi and Haifong, despite fears (by Democrats, naturally) that doing so would risk bringing the Soviets or Chinese into the war (at least to a greater extent than they were already involved).
Nixon didn't start the Vietnam War. He inherited it. And he ended it. And all these years later you want to blur those facts by making irrelevant comments about whether or not he "abandoned" his views on people fighting their own wars. But he didn't wind down our involvement fast enough to suit you and the other phonies. Al Gore had to have a cup of coffee in Vietnam (far behind the lines, with a personal bodyguard) because his father was facing huge opposition at home because of his anti-war activities. Gore later claimed he did so because he didn't want some other young man to have to serve in that war. A statement which would have been more believable if he'd served a full tour. Now, that environmental phony has made himself a "tillonaire" by taking gobs of oil money.
