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Garner Ted Armstrong
SPIAKS OUT!
All for Nought
Stunned Americans may now reflect
upon the exultant headlines following
former President Nixon·s
announce~
ment that a peace agreement had been
concluded
with
Communist
torces
in
Vietnam. "The long war is over, .. they
shouted . "Peace alter 12 years... they
crowed . "P.eaee?"
Though Americans were no longer
"directly" (a very debatable term. as
subsequent revelations trickJed out to
victories. no national heroes.
no
stirring
patriotic songs: lt was a war without any
clear front -
with,..out
oven a real
' 'homefront."
Millions of Americans came to simply
loathe the Vietnam
..;ar.
As a whole,
they wanted it ovei. Finally, it may go
down in history as a war staned by the
govemment, and ended by the people.
War'l1ings Ignorad
the public) involved in the Vietnam
Pull out all stops - fight to win -
struggle, ·the war continuad unabated . fight' to survive - fight to preserve de-
Today, as we see the incredible night· mocracy? Sure. Americans
~ave
preved
mate
of
human suffering and listen to their willingness to do that. Fight to de-
~
the. deatll..cri.es .ol an entire nation; as. stroy.;tfu),.enemy? Sure. But ·:lean..on"
rl
'W<),'iltate1<.síl¡lle·ne¡J;,at
:the e~~i'me~
and:•. ttle enemy?. Force him
ro~the-conférence
- dea1:h as
we~isten;"appaírt'a,
to' the eye' • tabfe? Commit troops 'piecemea l · to
.
witness accounts of frenzied, panic- battle? Fight foi real estate you know
stricken mobs fleeing befare the ad- your
teaders
will abandon tomorrow?
vancing Communists;
as we
read of Fight
as
an el(tension of your
govern~
whOie
VietnameSe divisions abandoning
meñt's policy or to pre:vent the "domino
hundreds al millions of dollars worth of theory" from taking effect?
U.S.-made weapons to the enemy and
Americans don't know· how to do
turning their guns
on
their
own
kindred
that.
in mad sprees of looting or frenzied ef-
Korea should have taught us a
fons at escape, we should reflect upon bloody. painfullesson. ·
those headlines and the events of the
Even·during the later .stages of World
60s which preceded them.
War 11, American commanders warned
By 1973, Vietnam had become one we must never becomé involved in a
of· the worst nightmares ol American land war in Asia. They knew, from fight-
history. The United Slates hai! been ing the elusiva Japanese in Burma that
heavily involved in Vietnam for about the jungles ·of Southeast Asia were as
12 years - with the last five or six formidable an enemy as hostile armies.
preceding Hl731iterally s.haking ·the na- that they could gobble up enormous
tion to its fC!!Jndations. . causing
rever·
berations which. in tum, shook every
nation on earth . By the time
of
those
amounts of
m8npo~er
and equipment
and that tank warlare was a seasonal
alfair limited to roadways.
But the lesson of Korea and the sage
adviGe of military leaders of World War
11 were ignored by the policy makers of
Washington. From our earlier posture of
support for Ho Chi M ioh. we shifted to
the support of a corrupt goverñment in
Saigon.
. And so the wa'r was joined. Dozens of
Vietnamese names now trickle easiiy
lrom American lips. Hundreds of thou·
sands of our citizens have been there.
Da Nang. Ben Hoa. Cam' Ranh Bay.
Hue. There are the memories ol buddies
who !lied there. the memorias .of the
" living room" war, fought on television
befare Americans at
dinnec
time. the
memorias of Calley's tria!.
When Richard Nixon carne t o the
White House. Vietnam was "Johnson's
war:·
Quickly,
it
became
"Nixon·s war"
to the antiwar protestors.
Now, the war was being · wound.
down. Gradual disengagement, as the
Vietnamese troops could take over bat·
tlefield positions from their American
benelactors. became the rule of the
day.
.
Skillful negotiations finally brought
about the release of most POWs. and so
the long war was "over."
~ 'PEACE
After
12 Years, " the headlines said.
But the fighting went
ón
and on. The
·
only difference
was
those whO were·
dying vyere, ,l)gt
Aq>eri<;Wl~. l(ie~nam
gradúa.l.ly became· third-pag&. ·news:
Today; it's .back on page one. lt's the
covet story of our magazines.
The War That Changed
APeople
Make no mistake about it. Vietnam
chañged America in many significant
ways.
Vietnam revived dormant yeamings
for isolation from foreign troubl.es;
which is being continuously reflectad in
other areas. including
attitudes
toward
American support of Israel.
Vietnam destroyed America's feelings
that it possessed the ..rightness" to
solve. the world's problems. Our "right–
ness" was-sullied by the screams of the
dying under massive B-52 bombing at·
now ironic head lines announcing
"war's end, .. there were no
gr8at
cele–
brations. no explosiva natiorial bell ring–
ing. There were no ticker-tape parades
AMERICA'S WARS
welcoming· returning tr<>ops - no real -
Battle Deaths
sense of satisfaction for a job "well
In World War 1, 53,402 American servicemen were killed in action. In
done. ..
World War 11. the toll was 291,557. for the Korean War, 33,629. and in
Vietn~m
was the war that changed
Vietnam, 45, 940.
America. lt changed us mentally, mor-
ally. emotionally, and spiritually.
1t
quite
literally took as grievous a toll on the
American home f ront as it did on 1he
Vietnam battlefront . lt cost ·46,000
American lives in combat and another
10.000 lost from other causes. l t had
cost s 170 BILLION - financed. by defi·
cit government spending. which in turn
pumpod lar too much money into the
economy.
which
in
turn
directly
led to
the stifling period of "stagflation" we
now
suffer. Moreover.
it
caused a
griev·
ous
wound to the spirit
of America.
lt was a war that produced no famous
12
Wounded in Action
World War 1: 204,002; World
War 11: 670,B46; The Korean War:
103.284; Vietnam: 303.475.
The Cost of the War
in Billions of Dollars
World Wa.r 1: 25. 7; World War 11:
341; Korean: 54; Vietnam: 170.
U.S. Bomb'ing in Tonnages
World War 11: 2.057.244 rons;
Korean War: 635,000 tons; Indo–
china War: 7.100,000 tons.
Length of U.S. lnvolvement
in Major Wars
World War 1; 1 yr., 7 mo.; World
War 11 : 3 yr.. 8 mo.; Korean: 3 yr..
1 mo.; Vietnam: 12 yr.
tacks - by the greatest uñleashing of
conventional firepower the world had
ever seen surpassing even that of World
War l l.
Vi.etnam split the leaders of the nation
into two polarized groups. characterited
as "hawks" or "doves," and shattered
a
long tradition of bipattisan
suppon
for
a President's foreign policy.
Vietnam
made..
military conscription
and the military establishment so un·
popular that both panies called for an
"al! volunteér" army.
Vietnam drained away billions of dol–
lars and energy from giant domestic
problems.
lt
raisad consumar prices and
workers' wages -
being financed
through an inflated economy by govern–
ment printing presses which were grind·
ing out billions of paper dollars, backed
by nothing
exc~pt
whatever · waning
confidence was
lo
h.
Vietnam caused the greatest dissent
in American history. igniting
riots
and
demonstrations on campuses. sending
draft dodger.; lo Canada and Sweden,
priests to jail. and pan-time soldiers to
tria
l.
Vietnam drove Pre-sident Johnson
from the White House and engendered
distrust of leaders and government.
Vietnam aocelerated the growth of a
counter-culture
in
America. with
a
irightened, hopeless youth turning to
drugs. rock concerts, free ' lóve, crim'e,
and violence. lt reduced mean1ngful de·
bate to,..shO)I,\tiJ9
m¡¡t~hlls,.!JJ!J!'Ye.~(>
those,who wore •the·flag'<>nd· those who
burned it. The hard hats and the long
hairs, the left and the right. the liberal
and the radical. and the young and the
old all fought each other.
Vietnam inflamad an the strains in
contemporary Americá -
between
races. classes. and generations.
1t
di–
.
vicfed Americans against Americans as
had not occurred since the Civil War. lt
eróded the authority and credibility ol
our major institutions. not only the gov–
ernment
and
the
military
but
also
busi~
ness. universities. religions and even
science. The CIA and the FBI ' becarne
not only suspect, but were also con–
victed
by
their own admissions.
In
the beginning
o(
the
war
Ameri~
cans thought we had a purpose for
fighting i·n Vietnam -
to honor our
commitments, to stop Communist ag–
gression on a distant shore, to llelp a
helpless country, to support
a
" democ–
racy" and the right of a free people to
decide in free elections the k)nd ol gov–
ernment they wanted.
1n the middle of the war no ona
seemed sure.why
we
wera fighting. At
the
end of American military in·
volvement. we knew it had been a co–
lossal mistake.
,
And now. the death throes of South
Vietnam hóld us transfixed in horror. All
we fought to prevent is happening. The
56 ,000 Americans who died did. in
fact. die in vain. The more than $1 70
billion was money down the <lrain . The
prophecy - •·your strength shall be
spent in vain.. (lev. 26; 20) - has
como to pass; the predii:tion was true.
To paraphrase Sir Winston Churchill.
" Nevar have so many paid so much for
so l ittle... What a useless, hean-break–
ing. monumental human tragedy we
have wrought. O
WEEK ENDING APRlL 19. 1975