For those too young to remember him, Vo Nguyen Giap was the North Vietnamese minister of defense. The Tet offensive in which the Viet Cong were virtually wiped out, along with a fair number of North Vietnamese regulars, was his idea. In his words, he believed there would be a popular uprising in support of the offensive. Still according to him, North Vietnam was ready to surrender after the failure of Tet. But then they noticed the reaction to Tet in the American press, among American lawmakers, and with the American public. The North Vietnamese, he says, realized that if they could hang in there they would win ultimately because of the negativity being directed against the war, primarily through the press. So we lost a war in which we won every battle. Jack Murtha and many members of Congress are acting as if they're trying to effect the same result again.
Pete Farris, St. Michaels, MD (Sent Tuesday, February 20, 2007
hardblogger.msnbc.msn.com
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