Colonel Bui Tin's Comments On The Vietnam War
From A Recent Interview Published In The Wall Street Journal
Former Colonel Bui Tin Served On The General Staff Of The North Vietnamese Army
He Received The Unconditional Surrender Of South Vietnam On April 30, 1975
Colonel Bui Tin Confirmed The American Tet 1968 As A Military Victory
"Our Losses Were Staggering And A Complete Surprise"
General Giap Later Told Me That Tet Had Been A Military Defeat
Though We Had Gained The Planned Political Advantages When Johnson Agreed To Negotiate And Did Not Run For Reelection
The Second And Third Waves In May And September
Were In Retrospect
Mistakes
Our Forces In The South Were Nearly Wiped Out By All The Fighting In 1968
It Took Us Until 1971 To Reestablish Our Presence
But We Had To Use North Vietnamese Troops As Local Guerrillas
If The American Forces Had Not Begun To Withdraw Under Nixon In 1969
They Could Have Punished Us Severely
We Suffered Badly In 1969 And 1970 As It Was
And On Strategy
If Johnson Had Granted Wetmoreland's Requests To Enter Laos
And Block The Ho Chi Minh Trail, Hanoi Could Not Have Won The War
It Was The Only Way To Bring Sufficient Military Power To Bear On The Fighting In The South
Building And Maintaining The Trail Was A Huge Effort
It Involved Tens Of Thousands Of Soldiers
Drivers
Repair Teams
Medical Stations
And Communication Units
Our Operations Were Never Compromised By Attacks On The Trail
At Times, Accurate B-52 Strikes Would Cause Real Damage
But We Put So Much In At The Top Of The Trail
That Enough Men And Weapons To Prolong The War Always Came Out The Bottom
If All The Bombing Had Been Concentrated At One Time
It Would Have Hurt Our Efforts
But The Bombing Was Expanded In Slow Stages Under Johnson
It Didn't Worry Us
We Had Plenty Of Time To Prepare Alternative Routes And Facilities
We Always Had Stockpiles Of Rice Ready To Feed The People For Months
We Could Feed Then Even If A Harvest Was Damaged
The Soviets Bought Rice From Thailand For Us
And The Left
Support For The War From Our Rear Was Completely Secure
While The American Rear Was Vulnerable
Every Day Our Leadership Would Listen To World News Over The Radio At 9 A.M.
We Did This To Follow The Growth Of The AntiWar Movement
Visits To Hanoi By Jane Fonda
Former Attorney General Ramsey Clark
And Ministers
Gave Us Confidence That We Should Hold On In The Face Of Battlefield Reverses
We Were Elated When Jane Fonda, Wearing A Red Vietnamese Dress
Said At A Press Conference That She Was Ashamed Of American Actions In The War
That She Would Struggle Along With Us
Those People Represented The Conscience Of America
They Were Part Of It's War Making Capability
And We Were Turning That Power Into Our Favor
Bui Tin Went On To Serve As The Editor Of The People's Daily
The People's Daily Is The Official Newspaper Of The Socialist Republic Of Vietnam
But He Became Disillusioned With The Reality Of Vietnamese Communism
Bui Tin Now Lives In Paris
And The Rest Is History
And If You Don't Think The Actions Of A Few Did Not Hurt
Just Ask The Ones That Were There
Because You Sure Cannot Ask The Ones That Did Not Come Home
But That Is Just My Opinion
Rick
The United States Did Not Lose The War In Vietnam
The South Vietnamese Did!!!
Quotes
One Reason The Kennedy And Johnson Administrations Failed To Take An Orderly
Rational Approach To The Basic Questions Underlying Vietnam
Was The Staggering Variety And Complexity Of Other Issues We Faced
Simply put
We Faced A Blizzard Of Problems
There Were Only Twenty Four Hours In A Day
And We Often Did Not Have Time To Think Straight
Robert S. McNamara
In Retrospect
1995
It Is Silly
Talking About How Many Years We Will Have To Spend In The Jungles Of Vietnam
When We Could Pave The Whole Country
Put Parking Stripes On It
And Still Be Home For Christmas
Ronald Reagan Interview
Fresno Bee
October 10--1965
We Seem Bent Upon Saving The Vietnamese From Ho Chi Minh
Even If We Have To Kill Them And Demolish Their Country To Do It
I Don't Intend To Remain Silent In The Face Of What I Regard As A Policy Of Madness
Which
Sooner Or Later
Will Envelop My Son And American Youth By The Millions For Years To Come
George McGovern
Speech to U.S. Senate
April 25--1967
It Became Necessary To Destroy The Town In Order To Save It
Unidentified U.S. Army Major
On The Decision To Bomb Bentre--Vietnam
February 7--1968
Our Objective In South Vietnam Has Never Been The Annihilation Of The Enemy
It Has Been To Bring About A Recognition In Hanoi That Its Objective
Taking Over The South By Force
Could Not Be Achieved
Lyndon B. Johnson
Address To The Nation
March 31--1968
Only You Can Prevent Forests
Sign In Room Of U.S. Airmen Spraying Defoliants
In William C. Westmoreland
A Soldier Reports
1976
We Did A Fine Job There
If It Had Happened In World War II
They Would Still Be Telling Stories About It
But It Happened In Vietnam
So Nobody Knows About It
They Don't Even Tell Recruits About It Today
Marines Don't Talk About Vietnam
We Lost
They Will Never Talk About Losing
So It's Just Wiped Out
All Of That Is Off The Slate
I Doesn't Count
It Makes You A Little Bitter
John Muir
In Al Santoli
Everything We Had
An Oral History of the Vietnam War
1981
I Can Envision A Small Cottage Somewhere
With A Lot Of Writing Paper
And A Dog
And A Fireplace
And Maybe Enough Money To Give Myself Some Irish Coffee Now And Then
And Entertain My Two Friends
Richard Van De Geer
In A Letter To A Friend Before He Was Killed
May 15--1975
Officially The Last American To Die In The Vietnam War
From Time Magazine
April 15--1985
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