Go to sleep. He was still fighting WWII and a lot of my friends died because of it. Truth be told, he was doing what he was told to do by the political/civilian leadership of the time. But that's not what the most senior leaders of the uniformed services are paid to do. They are paid to think about tomorrow's wars, and figure out effective stratgeies to win.

It's especially sad that this man, who showed such promise at one time, continued to fight WWII in Viet Nam even after he retired from the service.

I have a picture of Dad shaking his hand while receiving a unit citation. My Dad looks so fucking proud. I love that picture.

If we had Generals like Westmoreland during WW2 there would have been no Vietnam War... for we would all have been goose stepping and saying Sieg Heil.

Wait... we are getting perilously close to that happening now!

Yeah trying to run an Ike strategy , where lands wanted our presence, is far different from attacking a country that asked for recognition and adopted the Consitution into their government.

Had we recognized the North they would not have polarized to pure Communism.

They would have hedged China(do so tot his day). Laos and Cambodia would have been kept more stable and less likely to erode into nightmares.

Today the 'Nam is a business partner, and assimilated into the western trade model.

That land was a lost opportunity to let Democracy develop on its own, if we had given recognition and aid the process would have been accelerated.

Firestone, Arbusto, Dow,etc. had bigger fish to fry.

That land was a longstanding problem from past WWII, the French never stabilized it.
They had Ike wanting to expand NATO and France made this outcome a contingency plan.

Maybe the next time a legit democracy springs up, asks for our help, we'll listen.

Maybe not- Condi wants Venezuela's oil. Carter recognized their elections (which after two neocon funded recall juntas Chavez still won).

Carter showed a lot of compassion and integrity to endorse that outcome.

Seems like someone else ridicules the idea of understanding promoting a coherent world community...

Venzuela has the world's largest reserves and we could get off the Sauds wrinkled peak oil tit for good if we'd stop the smear campaign.

Nationlized oil is what we hate, we hoped they would have no customer to peak demand if we impose sanctions. Guess what- China has moved ahead and can outbid, and no longer pegs the dollar.

Sounds like the gloves may have come off.
There are so many lessons from SE Asia being ignored today. History being repeated...

1. Timely
   
2. Strategery
   
3. Webb wins
   
4. Huh?
   
5. Bunnypants in Bagdad
   
6. Outage
   
7. Filthy Lucre Watch
   
8. Playing the numbers
   
9. My letter to Countdown
   
10. Jefferson's Nigerian Scams