On the American side, Westmoreland said it all: "We betrayed you!". On the South Vietnamese side, the war was lost because of the simple and basic facts: corruption, bribery, abuse of power by the military and politicians, oligarchy and authoritarian were order of the day. In South Vietnam at the time, the saying: "It' NOT what you know, but WHO you know" was really the guiding mantra for all South Vietnamese citizens to survive in their daily life. The US shaped and organized a puppet government (Thieu & Ky government. JFK greenlighted to a coup d'etat that overthrew the Ngo government which ended with the murdered of Ngo Dinh Diem and his brothers Ngo Dinh Nhu and Ngo Dinh Can) which will only agree to do their dirty deeds and their ways while they didn't understand the causes, the people, the politics, the nature of the Vietnamese... heck, even the language. All the while underestimated their enemies: the Vietcong and the North Vietnamese Army. And then again, off they go to do the exact same thing in Afghanistan and Iraq. That's American arrogance and American ignorance. The Korean War was a huge warning to the US military and leadership after their high from the WWII victory; the Vietnam War was a bitter-defeated outcome of the American military and civilian leadership who were NOT ready to change and without the flexibility to adapt; the Iraq War was the reinforcement of such ignorance from our politicians and military commanders; the Afghanistan War was the milestone that in our history that marked the decline (and possibly the fall) of this American Empire.
Communist intelligence was located everywhere in the all of organs of US puppet government,from President palace to Army, Police,Congress , including the US embassy ! They didn't need info from radio!
amazing youd have a generation of people go through the debacle of vietnam, then that same generation leads us into iraq & afghanistan repeating the same mistakes.
The talk starts haltingly at minute 18. Before that you get breath-taking details such as the monographs being published with spiral bindings. I may try to come back to listen more, but a bad beginning makes for a bad ending.
32:41 , crossing the national borders in 1971 , to call Lam Son 719 a devastating blow against the enemy is just to repeat Nixons exaggeration of the success of Vietnamisation . Which leads into their comments on the role of advisors and how that role changed with the buildup and US forces took on the primary combat roles . A lesson lost to history it seems , given the surprise at the speed of the ANA collapse all these decades later .
Yeah, after hundreds of years... the truth about the American Native Indians, the Mexicans, and the African slavery history are still mostly kept in the dark annals of history with NO truths ever got taught in our schools to our youngs.
On the American side, Westmoreland said it all: "We betrayed you!". On the South Vietnamese side, the war was lost because of the simple and basic facts: corruption, bribery, abuse of power by the military and politicians, oligarchy and authoritarian were order of the day.
In South Vietnam at the time, the saying: "It' NOT what you know, but WHO you know" was really the guiding mantra for all South Vietnamese citizens to survive in their daily life.
The US shaped and organized a puppet government (Thieu & Ky government. JFK greenlighted to a coup d'etat that overthrew the Ngo government which ended with the murdered of Ngo Dinh Diem and his brothers Ngo Dinh Nhu and Ngo Dinh Can) which will only agree to do their dirty deeds and their ways while they didn't understand the causes, the people, the politics, the nature of the Vietnamese... heck, even the language. All the while underestimated their enemies: the Vietcong and the North Vietnamese Army.
And then again, off they go to do the exact same thing in Afghanistan and Iraq. That's American arrogance and American ignorance.
The Korean War was a huge warning to the US military and leadership after their high from the WWII victory; the Vietnam War was a bitter-defeated outcome of the American military and civilian leadership who were NOT ready to change and without the flexibility to adapt; the Iraq War was the reinforcement of such ignorance from our politicians and military commanders; the Afghanistan War was the milestone that in our history that marked the decline (and possibly the fall) of this American Empire.
48:26 US army put a lot of info out over the radio, in the clear, so VC / NLF could hear it all.
Communist intelligence was located everywhere in the all of organs of US puppet government,from President palace to Army, Police,Congress , including the US embassy ! They didn't need info from radio!
Dr Sorley is a great speaker able to really capture the essence of all the subjects he speaks about.
this lecture sucked lol.
amazing youd have a generation of people go through the debacle of vietnam, then that same generation leads us into iraq & afghanistan repeating the same mistakes.
The talk starts haltingly at minute 18. Before that you get breath-taking details such as the monographs being published with spiral bindings. I may try to come back to listen more, but a bad beginning makes for a bad ending.
Douglas Moran spiral bindings last so much longer, but are easily damaged in tight spaces. Can’t wait for the first 18 minutes!
Poor audio, fuzzy video and it took forever to get to the pont. Do over.
32:41 , crossing the national borders in 1971 , to call Lam Son 719 a devastating blow against the enemy is just to repeat Nixons exaggeration of the success of Vietnamisation .
Which leads into their comments on the role of advisors and how that role changed with the buildup and US forces took on the primary combat roles . A lesson lost to history it seems , given the surprise at the speed of the ANA collapse all these decades later .
Only the truth will set our country free.
Yeah, after hundreds of years... the truth about the American Native Indians, the Mexicans, and the African slavery history are still mostly kept in the dark annals of history with NO truths ever got taught in our schools to our youngs.