It was 50 years ago today (January 31, 1968 at 02:30 AM) ..

[DemoTex]

It was 50 years ago, today (January 31, 1968, at 02:30 am). The beginning of the end, some call it. But it dragged on for another deathly five years, thanks mainly to Nixon and Kissinger (IMO), and their non-existent 1968 "plan" to end the war. I am currently reading the Bowden book, "Hue 1968." All three are great reads. Today would be a very good day to read about this epic day in US and Vietnamese history.

[flt rsk]

1. I read Hue 1968 a couple of weeks ago.

Good read, stirred up a lot of mental dust. I went to college with one of the men on the cover. In the beginning, Westmoreland did not have good intel on the situation and then would not believe it when he got it. Could go on but it’s in the book. He did not have a clue as how to use Marines. Having Marines stay in place at Khe Sanh was a waste of the troops. Marines are not barracks troops. They hit and keep going. Army engineers had to be brought into Khe Sanh to teach Marines how to build bunkers. As you know, and probably experienced, Marines dig fighting holes, fight, and then move up to do it again. Another good read is Matterhorn. It’s a “fiction” piece on Khe Sanh, with way too many facts. Not a book for PTSD. It has everything except the smells. The best man at my wedding was there, served under the author, and verified much of the book.

Fifty years ago yesterday, I got off a plane, onto the tarmac, in Da Nang, Republic of South Vietnam. I was a nineteen-year-old Marine L/Cpl on my first tour. Talk about bad timing.

[kentuck]

6. Good timing!

I arrived in country in Sept 67 so I remember those times. I was 20 years old.

[FakeNoose]

2. Nixon got elected in 1968 on a promise to END the war

How many people remember that now? We talk about Watergate and the other shit he did later, but Nixon pulled a fast one on the American people as soon as he got elected.

It was an awful time, RFK and MLK were killed, everybody protesting the Vietnam war. Friends talking about splitting for Canada. I was in high school at the time, so most of the guys going to fight in Vietnam were a few years older than I was. The youngsters of today can't ever imagine how bad it was in 1968.

Thanks for these book references. I'm going to look for them.

[Blue_Tires]

3. kick for truth...

[lpbk2713]

4. Uncle Walter said we lost.

So we lost.

[DemoTex]

7. "And that's the way it is .."

Walter Cronkite KB2GSD - SK

[Ligyron]

5. We'd win most of the stand up fights.

But much like the Taliban today, they just melted away until another opportunity presented itself. We lost in so many ways in that war, both here and abroad.

All in all, nobody really wins a war.