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May 25, 2012
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May 18, 2012
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May 17, 2012
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The Kosher Gourmet by Faith Duran : Cheesy Potato Breakfast Casserole with Cheddar and Sun-Dried Tomatoes
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The Kosher Gourmet by Joyce White : GOODNESS GRACIOUS: GREENS! 4 winning recipes that are no longer just for down-home folks (Includes expert tips & techniques)
May 15, 2012
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May 10, 2012
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May 9, 2012
Sharon Palmer, R.D. How you can reduce your risk -- or delay -- chronic diseases associated with aging
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Jewish World Review
July 21, 2005
/ 14 Tammuz, 5765
In recalling Westmoreland and the lessons of 'Nam, one can't help but wonder if history is being repeated
By
Bob Tyrrell
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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
When retired Gen. William Westmoreland (Ret.) died
this week in Charleston, S.C., the press erupted with reminiscences, mostly
about him and the Vietnam War, mostly permeated with the myths of the Kultursmog , the politically-polluted culture of our elites,
our liberal elites. After Vietnam the general spent the rest of his life
refighting the war. He never learned that it was a war we could not win. He
was a failure. These are three of the foul thoughts that pollute the
liberals' culture and were repeated in many of his obituaries.
I knew Westmoreland later in life, not as a general but as a
private citizen. For years he served on the board of The American Spectator.
He was interested in journalism. He felt many American journalists did a
pretty shabby job in covering the military. When a CBS News documentary,
"The Uncounted Enemy: A Vietnam Deception," claimed in 1982 that he, as the
commanding officer in Vietnam, had engaged in a "conspiracy" to "suppress"
unfavorable intelligence and dupe America into believing we were winning the
war, Westmoreland sued. CBS, after four painful months, admitted to grievous
error and settled out of court. The general felt vindicated, but I doubt he
ever felt fully satisfied. Somehow, he could not accept that American
journalists would get the facts so wrong and apply the paranoid scheme of a
"conspiracy" to his generalship.
The old general I knew at American Spectator board meetings and
other events was as incapable of conspiracy as he was incapable of bad
manners. He was a thorough gentleman. Far from being consumed by Vietnam, he
never mentioned it unless one of his fellow board members brought it up. Nor
did he talk much about military matters or his own illustrious military
service. He had breezed through the Citadel and West Point, where in his
last year he received the Pershing Sword for achieving the highest command
position in the student body. He went on to fight valiantly through WWII in
Europe. In Korea he commanded paratroopers and late in his career, insisted
on leaping out of airplanes. I once asked him why, as a relatively old man,
he attempted such derring-do. If his young troopers could do it, he told me,
he wanted to, also. And I remember his smile in answering my question.
He was a perfect gentleman, but he was also a can-do kind of
guy. Most of our soldiers are. Westmoreland was also a fount of good sense.
There was a serene quality to him, and far from being preoccupied with
anything from Vietnam to politics, he always struck me as level-headed and
sagacious. At the magazine, we have always prided ourselves in developing
younger generations of clear-headed journalists, and that seemed to be an
interest of his. With regard to the Vietnam War, he thought many of the
journalists had gotten it wrong, but I could only get that judgment out of
him when I brought the matter up.
The war was never a military defeat, he believed. It was a
political defeat. The politicians did not have the stomach for victory. What
burned them most badly was the 1968 Tet Offensive, during which the North
Vietnamese launched a massive offensive that temporarily put them in control
of critical parts of the country. Westmoreland instantly counterattacked,
vanquishing the enemy and leaving 40,000 dead to the one thousand we lost.
In military terms, it was equivalent to Gen. Andrew Jackson's victory over
the British at New Orleans, but the journalists reported it as a defeat, and
so it was recorded for years.
Actually, now historians are noting that in military terms, Tet
was the Communists' defeat. Our armies never lost in Vietnam, and Vietnam
only fell after our armies had been withdrawn and our politicians reneged on
their promise to resupply the South Vietnamese and bomb the North Vietnamese
in the event of further aggression against the South. In the end the Vietnam
War was very useful to the defense of American interests. Westmoreland's
forces held off Communist designs on the Pacific rim, showed Moscow and
Beijing that continued aggression would be costly, and demonstrated the
superiority of American military hardware and tactics, a demonstration that
did not escape the Communists' notice, particularly in Moscow. Vietnam was
the last time the Communists mounted such an assault.
Yet back home the liberal politicians and their intelligentsia
were whipped. They never again regained their resolve. Even today, after the
American military's demonstration of its effectiveness in Afghanistan and
Iraq, these bearers of the Kultursmog are revealing
their defeatist nature. In Vietnam they demanded that we negotiate with
Hanoi. Today the Taliban and the insurgents in Iraq offer no such
opportunities to negotiate. Nonetheless, the liberals are increasingly
calling for withdrawal before our interests are realized. One wonders: Can
they screw things up as nicely as they screwed up Vietnam?
Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.
JWR contributor Bob Tyrrell is editor in chief of The American Spectator. Comment by clicking here.
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