Another old dog responds to the Whitefield slam Contributed by Bill Faith
In "" I excerpted part of a recent LAT editorial "" and posted a copy of R J Del Vecchio's response. Old War Dog-to-be (as soon as he finishes settling in to a new home) Arch Arthur saw my post and was kind enough to copy me on his letter to the LAT. Arch, btw, was the EWO in an F-4 that took a SAM over North Vietnam during the '72 Eastertide offensive. I'm still working on him for permission to post the email he sent me describing that experience.
Mr. Whitefield,
I'm a veteran of Vietnam. Apparently you missed the fact that those soldiers, sailors, marines and airmen you chose to demean actually won the War. They never lost a single battle. No unit ever surrendered. They withstood two major enemy offensives, Tet and Eastertide, both of which were major defeats for the communists. Your OpEd piece maligns the people your freely-elected government sent to fight and die there. At least get your facts straight.
While the Tet Offensive frightened Walter Cronkite and the media, it destroyed the Viet Cong. Of the 84,000 VC, fewer than 10,000 escaped death or capture. None of their five major VC objectives were achieved. The North Vietnamese army (NVA) took the old imperial capital of Hué and held it for several weeks. To save this ancient site, our Marines retook the city without artillery or tactical air support but not before the NVA executed 5,800 civilians.
The Eastertide Offensive coincided with the monsoon in late March 1972. General Giap had 200,000 NVA regulars equipped with tanks and artillery. Only 40,000 US servicemen were in country. The weather broke the morning of April 28th. It was NVA's high water mark. The South Vietnamese army fought well, especially with US air and logistical support. The NVA lost half their tanks, half their artillery and 100,000 troops. General Giap got fired.
President Nixon, furious about Eastertide, ordered Operation Linebacker. We got to hit their capability to wage war. In the weeks that followed, we destroyed roads networks, rail yards and airfields. We hit their air defense system, electrical power grid, communication and their only steel mill. Until mid December, Henry Kissinger made steady progress at the Paris Peace Talks.
On December 18th 1972, the North Vietnamese negotiators walked out. Nixon ordered Linebacker II – waves B52s each loaded with 106 Mk82 500-pound bombs. They pounded Hanoi and Haiphong with 100 to 150 sorties per night. By Christmas, the North Vietnamese had run out of surface-to-air missiles and anti-aircraft ammunition. On December 28th, 1972, the North Vietnamese returned to the table agreeing to most of our terms in return for a halt in the bombing. By any standard, the Paris Peace Accords constituted a US military victory in Vietnam.
The Democrats, in control of Congress, refused to let the Republican administration achieve victory. First, the Senate Foreign Relation Committee reduced military aid appropriation to South Vietnam from $1.4B to $700M, ensuring that the South Vietnamese army would be unable to mount another successful defense. Second, to the FY75 Defense Appropriations Bill, the Senate attached the Case-Church Amendment. This rider prohibited US military operations in, over or in the waters of Vietnam, Laos or Cambodia. For some reason, President Ford signed it. The North Vietnamese did not believe that US forces would permit them to attack the South, so as a test, they took a provincial capital. We could do nothing.
On May Day 1975, a Soviet tank manned by a Cuban crew crashed through the gates at the Presidential Palace in Saigon. It was not yet over. 850,000 South Vietnamese were reeducated to death. Hundreds of thousands of boat people drowned. Hill tribes were ethnically cleansed and 2,000,000 Cambodians, slaughtered.
LA Times circulation is down 6% daily and 8% on Sundays. Anyone reading your piece can understand why. You may publish your opinion, make fun of men who shed their blood to protect your right to do so, but I would not suggest you do it in person.
By the way, I own guns but no Harley and I have all my teeth.
Arch Arthur
Contributed by Bill Faith on January 31, 2007 at 01:56 AM in , , , |