As a pretty good armchair historian who lived through that time and kept up with news, let me chime in. I'm sure someone will correct any impressions I have that are wrong. Over one Million casualties, destruction of all meaningful tactical and strategic targets in the North by air, and the cutoff of North Vietnam's supply of AA and SAM Missles by mining the harbors and dropping the bridges to China giving the US complete air superiority brought them to the Peace Table.
The Paris Peace Accords were signed in 1972 and the Vietnam War ended. Prisoners of War were exchanged, borders were supposed to be inviolate, and the US Military (except for computer and helicopter technicians and the Navy offshore) came home. We promised to stop any future incursions by the North - the B-52s from Guam would flatten any such move.
The North Vietnamese, after two years of re-equipping and rearming, in Violation of the Peace Treaty, REINVADED South Vietnam and took Saigon in 1974. President Gerald Ford judged the US public "too war weary" and left the B-52s in their hangers, giving South Vietnam, after a valent fight, to the North.
I think it is a terrible injustice to not acknowledge that the US Military did NOT "Lose" the Vietnam War - they won it. The spineless politicians "LOST" Vietnam, after our feats of arms ended the conflict.
This matters. We were NOT defeated - Henry Kissenger, the weakling Gerald R. Ford and the rest of the One World xxxxxxx in our Government spoiled what was an actual victory. I would refer you to the excellent book, Unheralded Victory: The Defeat of the Viet Cong and the North Vietnamese Army, 1961-1973 (Vandamere Press, 1999, $24.95), author Mark Woodruff written by a Marine who was there, and who went to the trouble to study what happened in depth, to include North Vietnamese records. Here is a link to a good summary/review: http://www.historynet.com/book-revie...mere-press.htm
Until I read this book, I too "blurred" the entire story into one sad mess - and I, like most Americans, saw a defeat. Mark Woodruff correctly points out that we never lost a major battle, or the war itself.
But the American Left and their many friends in the Media wanted to degrade and disgrace the US Military and our soldiers, and ridicule the US policy of protecting Freedom in the world. The Leftists in the Newsrooms got their revenge. They created a false narrative that members of the US Military are "losers". And they've kept that alive with misleading and misunderstood pictures of the helicopters on the Embassy roof for years. Don't keep their lies alive. We evacuated lots of people - but there was no US Military combat presence when we did. We did not "go with our tails between our legs". That is a huge disservice to all who served.... CC
Last edited by Col. Colt; 11-27-2015 at 01:57.
Colt, Glock and Remington factory trained LE Armorer
LE Trained Firearms Instructor