Senator James Webb in 2000
28 April 2000 - History Proves Vietnam Victors Wrong – Senator James Webb (D-VA), Wall Street Journal.
Quote:
... While it is correct to say that the American people wearied of an ineffective national strategy as the war dragged on, they never ceased in their support for South Vietnam's war effort. As late as September 1972, a Harris survey indicated overwhelming support for continued bombing of North Vietnam (55% to 32%) and for mining North Vietnamese harbors (64% to 22%). By a margin of 74% to 11%, those polled agreed that "it is important that South Vietnam not fall into the control of the communists."
The 1973 Paris Peace Accords, which earned both the American and North Vietnamese negotiators the Nobel Peace Prize, are largely ignored by present-day commentators. If we were to treat these accords as a binding international agreement between two still-existing governments, Hanoi would be held accountable for having taken South Vietnam by "other than peaceful means," and for failing to uphold its promise of internationally supervised free elections.
The humiliating end result of the communists' final offensive in early 1975 is usually placed on the shoulders of a supposedly incompetent South Vietnamese military. Little mention is made of the impact our "Watergate Congress" had on both its inception and success. This Congress was elected in November 1974, only months after Nixon's resignation, and it was dominated by a fresh group of antiwar Democrats. One of the first actions of the new Congress was to vote down a supplemental appropriation for the beleaguered South Vietnamese that would have provided $800 million in military aid, including much-needed ammunition, spare parts and medical supplies.
This vote was a horrendous blow, in both emotional and practical terms, to the country that had trusted American judgment for more than a decade of intense conflict. It was also a clear indication that Washington was abandoning the South Vietnamese even as the North Vietnamese continued to enjoy the support of the Soviet Union, China and other Eastern bloc nations. The vote's impact was hardly lost on North Vietnamese military planners, who began the final offensive only five weeks later, as the South Vietnamese were attempting to adjust their military defenses.
Finally, the aftermath of Saigon's fall is rarely dealt with at all. A gruesome holocaust took place in Cambodia, the likes of which had not been seen since World War II. Two million Vietnamese fled their country -- usually by boat -- with untold thousands losing their lives in the process. This was the first such Diaspora in Vietnam's long and frequently tragic history. Inside Vietnam a million of the South's best young leaders were sent to re-education camps; more than 50,000 perished while imprisoned, and others remained captives for as long as 18 years. An apartheid system was put into place that punished those who had been loyal to the U.S., as well as their families, in matters of education, employment and housing. The Soviet Union made Vietnam a client state until its own demise, pumping billions of dollars into the country and keeping extensive naval and air bases at Cam Ranh Bay...
The Congressional cuts merely sealed
the fate of South Viet Nam. Our ineptness in the prosecution of that war for the first seven years built the coffin and the 1970-73 efforts while great and productive were not enough to turn around the US domestic malaise. I got all over the country, all four corps and the rural population did not want to fight Saigon or anyone else -- they just wanted to be left alone to get on with their lives. The war was never going to be 'winnable' but a far more satisfactory outcome could have been attained were it not for the politicians and possibly the Army's early screwups.
Perhaps had FDR been alive, that ardent anti-colonialist would have not helped the French. FDR died and the French got back in and like us, tried to fight a European war in the rice paddies. Didn't work. Perhaps Eisenhower should not have signed the mutual defense treaty with the South. He did. Perhaps the brothers Kennedy should not have decided to boost the US economy and give us an idealistic cause -- so idelaistic that they had little clue what they were doing. However, they did. Lyndon shouldn't have tried to boost his own and his party's credibility by escalating. He did.
You are correct that the US did not understand the geopolitics involved -- I just wanted to point out that there was a great deal more to it than that and that four administrations were involved.
The key Congressional cut
has not been mentioned. It was the total withdrawal of US air support. After Tet 68 the VC never mounted an effective offensive operation. Rather, all enemy offensives were conducted by the NVA - a regular conventional army. The 1972 offensive was largely defeated by the ARVN with US help - primarily air support. The 1975 offensive was conducted by the NVA with tanks etc against an ARVN with no US support. Needless to say that President Thieu did not help himself with some of his later political moves such as terminating elected local governments but what was decisive in 1975 was the conventional NVA attack against a RVN standing alone.
