Regarding the Feb. 5 letter, “Did Vietnam teach us anything at all?”: I have to conclude that, regrettably, it appears it did not.
The reason South Vietnam fell to the Viet Cong is that we pulled out and shamefully turned tail and ran from our obligations to our ally. Congress chose to ignore our treaty obligations and end our involvement by “de-funding” the war after Aug. 15, 1973. Anecdotal accounts of South Vietnamese cowardice aside, our allies lost three times the number of soldiers that we did. That, along with the civilian bloodbath in Vietnam and Cambodia, was due primarily to our pull-out. We were clearly winning the war when we left and the offensive that ultimately defeated the south would not have been possible had we remained.
Osama bin Laden said that he learned from Vietnam. Our quitting there taught him that America is weak, without resolve, and easily defeated by inflicting a comparatively few combat deaths. Turning tail in Somalia reinforced this.
The stakes are far higher in Iraq and we must learn that resolve is imperative to our survival. We are fighting an enemy that successfully attacked us at home and says that Iraq is the new battlefront. Our defeat in Iraq will result in Syria and Iran controlling not only Iraq but the entire, primary oil-producing, region of the world. Israel, Saudi Arabia and others will be forced to intervene. Iraq will become a haven for terrorists. The price of oil will become so high that the developed economies of the world are imperiled.
Either freedom and democracy will take hold and offer hope to the hopeless in the Middle East, or evil barbarians will whip them into an irrational frenzy of actionable hatred.
Let’s not give up this time – the cost of defeat is far too high.
Dave Tuttle
Marysville
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
