Page 168 - Stand Down Vietnam

During my time as an officer, I was given the
opportunity to go to college, was commissioned by the
President of the United States to Chief Warrant Officer
Two and Chief Warrant Officer Three. I retired in
1990, after serving for more than twenty-two years.
The military was a pretty good choice for me.

Supporting my comment that we lost the Vietnam War we

must consider the Paris Peace Talks. The back and
forth didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out
there was a lot of political ongoing that was not going
to wind up good for Americans.

When we saw helicopters being pushed off the ships; and
the evacuation of Saigon - you know all those things,
it was like someone just took the air out of our
balloon.

I watched the events unfold on television, and I
listened to the Vietnam “In-Country” Veterans talking.
It was as if all of what we did went for nothing; we
were turning and leaving – like it never happened.

What it really boiled down to was no one understood.
We didn't understand why we were there; our purpose for
being there never was fully explained.

I don't think there was a plan that could have been

implemented that would have changed the attitude of “we
lost”. I say we went there; we overextended ourselves
and we lost. I’m not being judgmental, I’m being
factual.

Eight United States presidents were involved during the
Vietnam War Era. None of them, not even one of them,
really decided to get out of Vietnam. They all decided
to appease, to find a way to leave without feeling like
we were cowards. That was the wrong thing to do.