Funny how MSM & the Reich wing is soft peddling Vietnam on Ford's watch.

[robertpaulsen]

I've seen countless rehashing over the last few hours on Ford becoming President, Ford pardoning Nixon, Ford losing to Carter, tripping on the stairs, cooking breakfast, blah blah blah. But the subject of the Vietnam War ending on Ford's watch is approached with muted tones. Funny how last year, when the identity of Deep Throat was revealed, MSM and the Reich Wing, the connection to the end of Vietnam was trumpeted from the rooftops:

Buchanan, Limbaugh, Stein blamed those who "brought down" Nixon for fall of Vietnam, Cambodian genocide

MSNBC analyst Pat Buchanan, nationally syndicated radio host Rush Limbaugh, and conservative author and TV personality Ben Stein suggested that, through their role in exposing the Watergate scandal, which resulted in the resignation of President Richard Nixon, newly disclosed "Deep Throat" W. Mark Felt and Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein were responsible for the fall of South Vietnam and the genocide in Cambodia that left approximately 1.7 million people dead.

* BUCHANAN: There's something deadly serious here. People that brought down Nixon also resulted in the fall of South Vietnam, the death of hundreds of thousands of people. ... Nixon was brought down by people who were a hell of a lot worse than he was. (MSNBC's Hardball with Chris Matthews, 5/31/05)
* LIMBAUGH: Had they not brought down Nixon, we wouldn't have lost Vietnam. Had (they) not brought down Nixon, the Khmer Rouge would not have come to power and murdered two million people in a full-fledged genocide. (The Rush Limbaugh Show, 6/1/05)
* STEIN: When his (Nixon's) enemies brought him down, and they had been laying for him since he proved that Alger Hiss was a traitor, since Alger Hiss was their fair-haired boy, this is what they bought for themselves in the Kharma Supermarket that is life:

1.) The defeat of the South Vietnamese government with decades of death and hardship for the people of Vietnam.

2.) The assumption of power in Cambodia by the bloodiest government of all time, the Khmer Rouge, who killed a third of their own people, often by making children beat their own parents to death. No one doubts RN (Richard Nixon) would never have let this happen. (The American Spectator, 6/1/05)

http://mediamatters.org/items/200506020001?offset=20&show=1


The implicit argument with these Reich wing nutballs is that if Nixon had stayed in power, we would have stayed in Vietnam, therefore by contrast Ford was weak in the face of Democratic opposition. Perhaps this explains why MSM, instead of recapping the achievements of the Ford administration by showering praise on Ford for having the decency to obey the will of the people and completely end our involvement, militarily & economically, in Vietnam, is either ignoring the elephant in the room entirely or mentioning it briefly, as if in shame.

Please note I am not trying to give false praise to the undeserving. With all that occured during his two years in the White House from the pardon, to East Timor, to daylight slavings time, I do not think Ford was a good President and I think the bulk of the credit for our withdrawal from the senseless devastation of Vietnam does lie with the Democratic Congress. But I don't think the fact that this occurred on Ford's watch should be ignored by MSM. Surely, with the plethora of vetoes Ford issued, he could have found a way to continue Vietnam under his Executive authority if he had really wanted to. The fact that he didn't shows that for all his shortcomings, when it came to Vietnam, Ford possessed the one quality Nixon lacked: common sense. But for MSM to mention this might mean that viewers might draw parallels to our current quagmire in Iraq. Then they might actually get viewers thinking that maybe the only way to really jumpstart a withdrawal for a no-win situation would be to do what Congress did with Vietnam: cut off the funding.

[BOSSHOG]

1. I might suggest that Nixon brought himself down

but the dumbass right wing knucklehead machine churns on with one of their lasting credos, Criminal "conservatives" are not responsible for anything, can do no wrong and should not be criticized for their actions. They are as we speak constructing their tome of who will be responsible for everything bush has fucked up since he was first selected.

[sandnsea]

2. This is all wrong

The Democratic Congress had next to nothing to do with the withdrawal from Vietnam. Funding was cut after the majority of our troops were out. The funding was only cut in half, and it was funding to the South Vietnamese to defend against the north. Most of our troops were out by March '73. Nixon resigned in 1974, Ford took office, funding was cut in half (not completely), Saigon fell on April 30, 1975.

Like it or not, Nixon got our troops out of Vietnam. What he didn't do was stop the war on and between the Vietnamese people. That's what the Democratic Congress did, stop the funding so the war itself would end.

[coalition_unwilling]

5. While it is true that Nixon's policy of "Vietnamization" resulted in

the withdrawal from Vietnam of U.S. combat troops, it must also be noted as corollaries that Nixon's policies saw a huge escalation of the air campaign inside the borders of the then-South Vietnam and that Nixon's policies saw a widening of the war to include Cambodia and Laos.

As to the air war escalation, hey what're the deaths of a few hundred thousand southeast Asians when we can save a few thousand American combat troops?

As to the escalation to Cambodia and Laos, they constituted one of the articles of impeachment the House Judiciary committee considered. In other words, blatantly illegal.

[Joe Chi Minh]

3. I can tell you it's a very different story on UK terrestrial TV.

They've usually been pretty compliant in their misrepresentation of the disgraceful right-wing persecution of Clinton. (It couldn't be described as manicly litigious, since, bizarrely, any kind of breach of the law was never at issue...!); in their silence about the massive election frauds, since and including 2000; and in their support of the Blair's war in Iraq, initially.

However, the newsreader said that in most of the world, Ford would be remembered as being the only President to have pardoned a criminal president: Nixon; and that the people never forgave him, proceeding to vote in Carter as the next President. There's no longer any ambivalence at all about the criminality of Nixon and his crowd whatsoever on this side of the pond - if there ever was.

They may be respectable in their own "Looking Glass" world among their own, but even the supine old UK has given up turning the other way and pretending they're respectable, finally conceding that they're beyond the pale.

[Joe Chi Minh]

13. Well, BBC 1 wasn't as explicitly honest as I'd come to expect.

Their newsreader said that Ford would be remembered for rescuing the Presidency! Though he, too, mentioned that the people rejected him at the next election for his pardoning of Nixon.

[johnaries]

4. What?!?!? Nixon ended the war when he signed the Peace Treaty

in 1973:

http://www.vietnamwar.com/timeline69-75.htm

January 27, 1973 - The Paris Peace Accords are signed by the U.S., North Vietnam, South Vietnam and the Viet Cong. Under the terms, the U.S. agrees to immediately halt all military activities and withdraw all remaining military personnel within 60 days. The North Vietnamese agree to an immediate cease-fire and the release of all American POWs within 60 days. An estimated 150,000 North Vietnamese soldiers presently in South Vietnam are allowed to remain. Vietnam is still divided. South Vietnam is considered to be one country with two governments, one led by President Thieu, the other led by Viet Cong, pending future reconciliation.

January 27, 1973 - Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird announces the draft is ended in favor of voluntary enlistment.

January 27, 1973 - The last American soldier to die in combat in Vietnam, Lt. Col. William B. Nolde, is killed.

February 12, 1973 - Operation Homecoming begins the release of 591 American POWs from Hanoi.

March 29, 1973 - The last remaining American troops withdraw from Vietnam as President Nixon declares "the day we have all worked and prayed for has finally come."

America's longest war, and its first defeat, thus concludes. During 15 years of military involvement, over 2 million Americans served in Vietnam with 500,000 seeing actual combat. 47,244 were killed in action, including 8000 airmen. There were 10,446 non-combat deaths. 153,329 were seriously wounded, including 10,000 amputees. Over 2400 American POWs/MIAs were unaccounted for as of 1973.

What happened after that was that North Vietnam violated the treaty, but we did not retaliate.

[coalition_unwilling]

6. Oh, the U.S. violated the treaty also. We never paid Vietnam

the reparations guaranteed in the treaty, under various spurious excuses. In fact we have not paid reparations to this day.

[johnaries]

7. That may be true, but I was talking about the War and later

hostilities in the context of the OP.

[Tom Joad]

9. US continued to send support for the south vietnamese dictatorship.

There was limited military aid.
Vietnam won. The US lost. Thank god.

[niyad]

10. the last days--1975

1974

Thieu Announces Renewal of War

Report Cites Damage to Vietnam Ecology: According to a report issued by The National Academy of Science, use of chemical herbicides during the war caused long-term damage to the ecology of Vietnam. Subsequent inquiries will focus on the connection between certain herbicides, particularly Agent Orange, and widespread reports of cancer, skin disease, and other disorders on the part of individuals exposed to them.

Communists Take Mekong Delta Territory

Nixon Resigns

Communists Plan Major Offensive: With North Vietnamese forces in the South believed to be at their highest levels ever, South Vietnamese leaders gird themselves for an expected Communist offensive of significant proportions.

1975

Communist Forces Capture Phuoc Long Province: The South Vietnamese Army loses twenty planes in a failed effort to defend Phuoc Long, a key province just north of Saigon. North Vietnamese leaders interpret the US's complete lack of response to the siege as an indication that they could move more aggressively in the South.

Hue Falls to Communists

Communists Take Aim at Saigon: The North Vietnamese initiate the Ho Chi Minh Campaign -- a concerted effort to "liberate" Saigon. Under the command of General Dung, the NVA sets out to capture Saigon by late April, in advance of the rainy season.

Ford Calls Vietnam War "Finished": Anticipating the fall of Saigon to Communist forces, US President Gerald Ford, speaking in New Orleans, announces that as far as the US is concerned, the Vietnam War is "finished."

Last Americans Evacuate as Saigon Falls to Communists: South Vietnamese President Duong Van Minh delivers an unconditional surrender to the Communists in the early hours of April 30. North Vietnamese Colonel Bui Tin accepts the surrender and assures Minh that, "...Only the Americans have been beaten. If you are patriots, consider this a moment of joy." As the few remaining Americans evacuate Saigon, the last two US servicemen to die in Vietnam are killed when their helicopter crashes.

http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/vietnam/timeline.htm

[damntexdem]

8. Let's see: Nixon spread the war into Cambodia, ...

thereby paving the way for the Khymer Rouge and Pol Pot. So, had Nixon not brought himself down when he did, chances are we would have witnessed psychopathic leaders in Thailand, Japan, maybe even North Korea!

;-)

[robertpaulsen]

11. Reich wingers always get things ass backwards!

The domino theory being one of them. The same can be said of Iraq being the central front in the War on Terror: send 150,000 Americans to occupy a country in the Middle East and, lo and behold, we've changed the central front!

Osama Who?

[Warren Stupidity]

12. They have a multitude of theories about vietnam.

Which one they are currently braying depends on what point they are trying to make. For example recently the nonsesne that it was the failure to escalate after the Tet Offensive that lost the war got revived just in time for Operation Sell Them Surge.

The war was lost it seems either in 1968 or 1975, or perhaps somewhere in between. It will be fascinating to see what myths the right develops to frame this current failed war. One thing I am sure of, us lefties will once again be blamed.