re: Another history thread: How did we get involved in the Vietnam War?

The same as it was last August when this was debated here before, after the bogus video featuring Bruce Herschensohn circulated:

"Well, I was a history professor, so let me clear the air a bit here.

I'm not going to engage in a long and drawn out debate, but let me be the soon to be drowned out voice of reason in this sea of bullshite.

The Vietnam War was, in fact, a series of military victories for the United States. However, as President Kennedy said in 1963, speaking of South Vietnam, "in the final analysis, it is their war. They're the ones who have to win it or lose it."

That was true when Kennedy was still alive, and it was the reality that Johnson faced later. McNamara and everyone else advised him, accurately, that South Vietnam could not win the war on its own, and that American withdrawal, regardless of whatever supplies we provided (nice try, Bruce), would result in South Vietnam's defeat. That is why Johnson ultimately decided to commit American combat forces.

Nixon understood this as well, and knew well that his Vietnamization policy would fail just as it had under Kennedy and Johnson. He continued American involvement for another four years trying to get a reasonable settlement.

If there's one thing that is the silver bullet against this ridiculous theory in the video that the war was won until the Democrats fricked it up, it is the reaction to the accords by the South Vietnamese government. Look it up. They were terrified, because they knew what it meant for them. Nixon and Kissinger's agreement with North Vietnam, not later congressional action, doomed South Vietnam. Or rather, it sealed their fate, because they were doomed all along.

As much as the former Nixon assistant in the video would like you to believe otherwise, it was not the fault of the Democratic Party. Nor was it the fault of the Republican Party. There were two Democratic and two Republican presidents involved in Vietnam after the French defeat, and none of them found success there. It was a national tragedy, not a partisan one. "