North Vietnam was never subdued


I am not sure which Vietnam War letter-writer Michael A. Smith fought in ["Don't insult Vietnam vets ," Nov. 28]. However, the war he refers to does not sound like the same one that took a little over two years of my life.

Yes, we bombed North Vietnam, but not into submission as Mr. Smith claims. If the North Vietnamese government was so eager to sign a treaty to end the carnage, what was that last hectic day there airlifting people off the roof of the American Embassy?

I do agree with him on one count: We were not allowed to win the war.

We got wrapped up in "body count." It brings to mind the British officer who once bragged that the British still had the flag they captured at Bunker Hill, and the American officer reminded him that we still had the hill.

Mr. Smith says we never lost a military engagement during the war. More than 58,000 young men, many of them my close friends, lost their military engagements in that country.

I am proud of my service to my country, but blind allegiance doesn't erase fact.


George W. Williams
Spotsylvania

Link- http://fredericksburg.com/News/FLS/2006/12...12022006/240131

Battle of FSB Mary Ann: 50 VC defeated 231 Americans.

can we stop talking about the vietnam war. holy $hit. is that all we viets can really talk about? 'Nam and pho, all fu-king day. geesus.

Have you ever seen the documentaries made by americans about the Vietnam war now?
They and many soldiers claim that there were many military defeats but the U.S. government was too good at hiding.

Talk about Sino-VN war 1979 ? Or the ' failed , in the end ' Cambodian adventure ?

It was no failure, get your facts straight.