I'm feeling safe in saying this is bush's* war, who's war was

[madokie]

the vietnam war? was it tied to any one person? I don't remember it being but being shell shocked and all I might be in err. just setting here wondering waiting for the meds to kick in.

[Jawja]

1. I think Lyndon Johnson

and his Sec. of Defense, Robert McNamara, get the credit for the Vietnam War. If has to be tied to anyone, it would be Johnson.

I remember it very well, as I was in high school at the time and it was a regular topic of discussion at the dinner table because I had two soon to be draft age brothers.

on edit: I wrote a paper on the war for an English class assignment, as well; and the sources I got mostly parrotted the argument of "stopping communism from spreading." The "War on Communism" was much like the "War on Terror" today.

[Deja Q]

10. In retrospect, Vietnam was a total joke. Nixon ensured the communists won.

Or anyone going TO China who put corporate interests ahead of Freedom interests.

[HereSince1628]

2. I think, based on salesmanship it was Mr. McNamara's war

but since the buck stops with the boss, it becomes Mr. Johnson's war.

Having said that McNamara made his arguments in the context of the cold war, which was the ideological baby of two competing socioeconomic systems. And who's "war" was that?

[madokie]

3. seems like I remember that Ike sent in the first advisor's back in the

late 50's, but then again I'm getting old and tired.

[HereSince1628]

8. Actually Truman sent in American military advisors/observers

in the late 1940's, and they might not have been "the" first. Nonetheless, every president thereafter increased the aid dollars and US presence.

I think that you have to admit that when the USS Maddox was hit with a 14 inch shell from a coastal gun, Johnson's tolerance of the festering little conflict burst. Within a short time the military was hallucinating Vietnamese PT boat attacks on US ships in the Gulf of Tonkin.

Although we were involved in political intrigues in Vietnam earlier, there is really no comparing the escalation of the conflict under Johnson.

[Toots]

15. Actually it was the French in the late forties and early fifties

It wasn't til the French defeat in Dien Bien Fu (sp) that the US became involved and it was Eisenhower that first sent troops/advisors into Vietnam

[HereSince1628]

16. Yes France was the colonial ruler, but the US _DID_ send military

advisors/observers in the late 40's, including apparently some engineering units. I kid you not.

All of which matters little, because the ill-considered US escalation of the conflict, well discussed now by significant players including Ellsberg and McNamara, happened in the 1960's.

[Media_Lies_Daily]

4. Actually, I think you have to put the blame on the Eisenhower....

...Administration. They were responsible for sending the first U. S. advisors to Vietnam in 1954. LBJ was definitely responsible for escalating the war based on the bogus Tonkin Gulf Incident.

[shadowknows69]

6. But at least IKE

redeemed himself by trying to warn us of the beast that had been created (military industrial complex)

[Media_Lies_Daily]

7. But Ike did nothing to reduce the number of advisors out of Vietnam....

...and steadily increased those numbers to roughly 16,000 men by the time he left office.

[Deja Q]

11. How do you know it was bogus?

Of course, how do I know it was real?

:think:

[INdemo]

5. Actually

The Vietnam war started out as sending American advisers which Eisenhower initiated.This continued but was called a police action under Kennedy. Kennedy, shortly before his death was trying to find a way out of there without turning all of Southeast Asia over to the Communists.Johnson strongly disagreed with the Kennedy policy and felt that America should increase the forces and "kick ass" and get it over with. Well we all saw what happened. It was a civil war that had been going on for about thirty years and the United States as historians look back had no reason to interfere.
Johnson may be remembered for many accomplishments as far as civil rights, but mention his name today and the Vietnam war buildup is what he is most remembered for

Ref: Kennedy "An Unfinished Life"by Robert Dallek
great reading

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

9. A whole crew of criminals ran the Vietnam war.

Ike, JFK, LBJ, Nixon, McNamara, Dulles, Kissinger, the CIA, the Pentagon, numerous war profiteers, and, ulitimately the American people who supported it.

[acmavm]

12. And your assessment is 100% correct. The government not

only lied to the American people about why we were there, the casualty figures, war crimes (you know just the usual stuff. They knew early on in the war that there was no way to win. The enemy was invisible, there one minute, gone the next (I'm sure you know there were tunnels under practically the entire country).

Just like we can't win this one.

[INdemo]

14. Oh so Iraq is not run by criminals

Its a for profit war and * and all his cronies are profiting from this "war for oil".. You dont think for one minute they want to end this profit making venture do you? Halliburton is milkng it and guess who is getting all those dividnds in his blind trust....

[Demeter]

13. VietNam Was A French War

and then the US decided to take it over for them (they were glad to get it off their hands).