PrintMay 5, 2005
Why Vietnam was lost
Revisionism is a booming industry for historians. Columbus was once a hero, discoverer of a new world, carrying the glory of Christendom to savage and pagan lands. Today he is a villain, despoiler of paradise, carrying disease and slavery to utopian societies. This makes the new chroniclers happy; it settles their doubts and soothes their consciences. It serves to fill their current agendas with a righteous glow. And it sells books. But it isn't true.
The Vietnam conflict was a major enterprise of the cold war. It was a noble undertaking by the United States. Over a ten—year period the blood and treasure of this country was used to stop the communist takeover of South Vietnam. In 1975 we abandoned the effort, and the communists swiftly invaded and secured the country. Because we are a proud people we sometimes like to tell ourselves that in the larger sense, because of our triumph in the Cold War, we actually won. But we lost, in any meaningful sense of the word.
Understanding...(Read Full Article)
