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The Views of General William C. Westmoreland

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dap22
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Posts: 687
(6/8/01 11:52:33 am)
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ezSupporter
The Views of General William C. Westmoreland
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It's a little lengthy but full of great detail. For those of you interested, please go to the following webpage.These comments come from a speech given in February of 1989 titled: "As I Saw it And Now See It"
members.aol.com/USAHeroes/wcw2.htm





Edited by: dap22 at: 6/8/01 1:00:15 pm

Misterstan
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Posts: 251
(6/8/01 1:00:20 pm)
| Del Re: The Views of General William C. Westmoreland
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Dave,

One mistake was the fact that the Vietnam conflict was never declared a "war". That took away our ability to stop people like Jane Fonda. (It would have also made our last President a traitor).

The military draft deferment for college students causing a huge majority of anti-war activists attending our major universities.

The effect of the media. This was our first TV war.

And most important - It has been proven time and again that our military personnel performed admirably under adverse conditions with the average soldier being only 19 years old.

(The dedicated student and renowned expert on the Vietnamese communist, Douglas Pike has written: "The American military's performance in Vietnam was particularly impressive. It won every significant battle fought, a record virtually unparalleled in the history of warfare.")

Stan Lambert
St. Clair Shores, Michigan




mt pari
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Posts: 33
(6/8/01 6:21:50 pm)
| Del Re: The Views of General William C. Westmoreland
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Let's not forget that the average age for KIA was 19 in Viet Nam and 25 for WW11.

In 1968 we had 542,000 men over there..In 1965 we had 180,000.

That from 1962-1971 over 19 million gallons of herbicide were sprayed on our troops, 11 million of those were Agent Orange. And I may add that from 1964 on, The Federation of American Scientists had expressed opposition to the heribicides on the grounds that the US was capitalizing on the war as an opportunity to experiment in biological and chemical warfare!!!
hmmmm..

What on earth did we win there? Wouldn't it be cool to go where they are giving one of these stand out speeches and tell it like it was? I'd love to take Jer there, 52 years old with Agent Orange, PTSD, shrapnel through him, a messed up leg and Hep C..and have him give his stare while they were giving information..

LarryJK
Senior Chief Moderator III
Posts: 124
(6/9/01 6:50:06 pm)
| Del Re: The Views of General William C. Westmoreland
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Dave...I have not read all. But in the first couple of pages the General says in part..."the war could not be followed on a map". This was in re to the difference between WW II and Vn. It being the American people cheered on the War War II effort because they could see where our effort was being made...this was not the case in Vn. Most interesting. I never thought of it in that text!

TShooters
V.I.P. Member
Posts: 220
(6/11/01 10:40:19 am)
| Del Re: The Views of General William C. Westmoreland
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Great site, Dave! You can pretty well feel his frustrations in his words.

Sharon

dap22
Senior Chief Moderator II
Posts: 698
(6/11/01 10:53:39 am)
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ezSupporter
Re: The Views of General William C. Westmoreland
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I agree, Sharon, that he was very frustrated. I had the pleasure of speaking with the General in Atlanta in 1976 at our inaugural Dustoff Association meeting at which he was the honored speaker. He explained in detail how very limited he was in his ability to command. He was emotional about it as well, clearly demonstrating his frustration (and disrespect... although he didn't come out and blatantly say it) with the political incompetents for whom he had to work and answer to.

TShooters
V.I.P. Member
Posts: 232
(6/11/01 4:40:56 pm)
| Del Re: The Views of General William C. Westmoreland
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Glad you had the opportunity to meet and speak with Gen. Westmoreland, Dave.
I truly believe that if we'd had a military-minded SecDef, instead of automotive-mogul McNamara, that military strategies and conditions for you guys would have been much, much different.

Sharon

homer4
Moderator
Posts: 854
(6/11/01 9:28:33 pm)
| Del Re: The Views of General William C. Westmoreland
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He had his job and was curtailed...we had our job and was curtailed...everyone was curtailed except for Charlie.

I 'm willing to agree with his assessment.
...and two hard boiled eggs.
 
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