Assessment of Vietnam War
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I agree with one part of Wolf’s assessment of the Vietnam War. His statement, “U.S. forces soundly beat the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong in virtually every large-scale encounter” was probably correct.
Unfortunately, the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong weren’t polite enough to make the war a series of large-scale tests of military might. In a guerrilla war, our tanks and bombs were no match for booby-trapped bicycles and snipers in trees.
Wolf’s claim that Vietnam only won at the Paris peace talks and in a propaganda war on college campuses is simply an attempt to rewrite history, Rambo-style.
If we succumb to the dangerous temptation to look back upon our involvement in that war as anything but a grueling defeat, we are all the more likely to repeat the mistakes of our recent past.
PAUL KORETZ
West Hollywood
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