"No event in American history is more misunderstood than the Vietnam War. It was misreported then, and it is misremembered now. Rarely have so many people been so wrong about so much. Never have the consequences of their misunderstanding been so tragic." [Nixon] <http://www.vhfcn.org/>

The Vietnam War has been the subject of thousands of newspaper and magazine articles, hundreds of books, and scores of movies and television documentaries. The great majority of these efforts have erroneously portrayed many myths about the Vietnam War as being facts. [Nixon] <http://www.vhfcn.org/>

The American military was not defeated in Vietnam. The American military did not lose a battle of any consequence. From a military standpoint, it was almost an unprecedented performance. (Westmoreland quoting Douglas Pike, a professor at the University of California, Berkley a renowned expert on the Vietnam War) [Westmoreland] <http://www.vhfcn.org/> This included Tet 68, which was a major military defeat for the VC and NVA.

THE UNITED STATES DID NOT LOSE THE WAR IN VIETNAM, THE SOUTH VIETNAMESE DID.

The fall of Saigon happened 30 April 1975, two years AFTER the American military left Vietnam. The last American troops departed in their entirety 29 March 1973. How could we lose a war we had already stopped fighting? We fought to an agreed stalemate. The peace settlement was signed in Paris on 27 January 1973. It called for release of all U.S. prisoners, withdrawal of U.S. forces, limitation of both sides' forces inside South Vietnam and a commitment to peaceful reunification. [1996 Information Please Almanac] <http://www.vhfcn.org/>

The 140,000 evacuees in April 1975 during the fall of Saigon consisted almost entirely of civilians and Vietnamese military, NOT American military running for their lives. [1996 Information Please Almanac] <http://www.vhfcn.org/>

There were almost twice as many casualties in Southeast Asia (primarily Cambodia) the first two years after the fall of Saigon in 1975 then there were during the ten years the U.S. was involved in Vietnam. [1996 Information Please Almanac] <http://www.vhfcn.org/>

No American had involvement in this incident near Trang Bang that burned Phan Thi Kim Phuc. The planes doing the bombing near the village were VNAF (Vietnam Air Force) and were being flown by Vietnamese pilots in support of South Vietnamese troops on the ground. The Vietnamese pilot who dropped the napalm in error is currently living in the United States. Even the AP photographer, Nick Ut, who took the picture, was Vietnamese. The incident in the photo took place on the second day of a three-day battle between the North Vietnamese Army (NVA) who occupied the village of Trang Bang and the ARVN (Army of the Republic of Vietnam) who were trying to force the NVA out of the village. Recent reports in the news media that an American commander ordered the air strike that burned Kim Phuc are incorrect. There were no Americans involved in any capacity. "We (Americans) had nothing to do with controlling VNAF," according to Lieutenant General (Ret) James F. Hollingsworth, the Commanding General of TRAC at that time. Also, it has been incorrectly reported that two of Kim Phuc's brothers were killed in this incident. They were Kim's cousins not her brothers.

91% of Vietnam Veterans say they are glad they served [Westmoreland] <http://www.vhfcn.org/>

74% said they would serve again even knowing the outcome [Westmoreland] <http://www.vhfcn.org/>

There is no difference in drug usage between Vietnam Veterans and non-veterans of the same age group (from a Veterans Administration study) [Westmoreland] <http://www.vhfcn.org/>

Isolated atrocities committed by American soldiers produced torrents of outrage from antiwar critics and the news media while Communist atrocities were so common that they received hardly any attention at all. The United States sought to minimize and prevent attacks on civilians while North Vietnam made attacks on civilians a centerpiece of its strategy. Americans who deliberately killed civilians received prison sentences while Communists who did so received commendations. From 1957 to 1973, the National Liberation Front assassinated 36,725 South Vietnamese and abducted another 58,499. The death squads focused on leaders at the village level and on anyone who improved the lives of the peasants such as medical personnel, social workers, and schoolteachers. [Nixon] <http://www.vhfcn.org/> Atrocities - every war has atrocities. War is brutal and not fair. Innocent people get killed.

Vietnam Veterans are less likely to be in prison - only 1/2 of one percent of Vietnam Veterans has been jailed for crimes. [Westmoreland] <http://www.vhfcn.org/>

97% were discharged under honorable conditions; the same percentage of honorable discharges as ten years prior to Vietnam [Westmoreland] <http://www.vhfcn.org/>

85% of Vietnam Veterans made a successful transition to civilian life. [McCaffrey] <http://www.vhfcn.org/>

Vietnam veterans' personal income exceeds that of our non-veteran age group by more than 18 percent. [McCaffrey] <http://www.vhfcn.org/>

Vietnam veterans have a lower unemployment rate than our non-vet age group. [McCaffrey] <http://www.vhfcn.org/>

87% of the American people hold Vietnam Vets in high esteem. [McCaffrey] <http://www.vhfcn.org/>

2/3 of the men who served in Vietnam were volunteers. 2/3 of the men who served in World War II were drafted. [Westmoreland] <http://www.vhfcn.org/> Approximately 70% of those killed were volunteers. [McCaffrey] <http://www.vhfcn.org/>

Mortality studies show that 9,000 is a better estimate. "The CDC Vietnam Experience Study Mortality Assessment showed that during the first 5 years after discharge, deaths from suicide were 1.7 times more likely among Vietnam veterans than non-Vietnam veterans. After that initial post-service period, Vietnam veterans were no more likely to die from suicide than non-Vietnam veterans. In fact, after the 5-year post-service period, the rate of suicides is less in the Vietnam veterans' group." [Houk] <http://www.vhfcn.org/>

86% of the men who died in Vietnam were Caucasians, 12.5% were black, 1.2% were other races. (CACF <http://www.vhfcn.org/> and Westmoreland) <http://www.vhfcn.org/>

Sociologists Charles C. Moskos and John Sibley Butler, in their recently published book "All That We Can Be," said they analyzed the claim that blacks were used like cannon fodder during Vietnam "and can report definitely that this charge is untrue. Black fatalities amounted to 12 percent of all Americans killed in Southeast Asia - a figure proportional to the number of blacks in the U.S. population at the time and slightly lower than the proportion of blacks in the Army at the close of the war." [All That We Can Be] <http://www.vhfcn.org/>

Servicemen who went to Vietnam from well-to-do areas had a slightly elevated risk of dying because they were more likely to be pilots or infantry officers.

Vietnam Veterans were the best-educated forces our nation had ever sent into combat. 79% had a high school education or better. [McCaffrey] <http://www.vhfcn.org/>

While certain factions have desperately struggled over the past three decades to uncover very few instances of atrocities with US involvement, very little attention was paid to the wide spread atrocities committed by the North Vietnamese Army and the Viet Cong.

In 1975 North Vietnam violated the 1973 Paris Peace Agreement and overpowered the south two years after the last US combat troops departed. Horrendous atrocities took place after the fall of Saigon under the communist regime. Ex-military and citizens who associated with the allies were sent to re-education camps where more than 50,000 perished while imprisoned, and others remained imprisoned for almost two decades. Two million Vietnamese fled their country on foot and boat preferring to risk death at sea rather than subject their families to the unmerciful treatment by North Vietnamese occupational forces and the atrocities they were committing against their own countrymen.

Another holocaust took place in Cambodia just as grizzly as that of World War II. Over two million slaughtered in the famous “killing fields” during the mid to late 70’s.

During the war and the famous 1968 Tet Offensive, casualties among the people whom the NVA/VC claimed to be liberating exceeded 7,000, with an additional 5,000 tortured and murdered by the NVA/VC in the city of Hue and other parts of the country. After the city was cleared of enemy troops, allied forces discovered mass graves containing the mutilated bodies (hands still tied) of local Vietnamese teachers, doctors, community leaders and probably (journalists and commentators they did not agree with.)

Let us not forget the murder of American civilians (including missionaries, doctors, aid workers and journalists) captured and murdered by the North Vietnamese and the Viet Cong. U.S. POWs that did not perish at the hands of the communists, wished they had during the systematic torture sessions which are classified as war crimes under the Geneva Convention. Many of those guilty of such crimes are in leadership positions in today’s Vietnam.

Where were the protesters and their concerns for the Asian peoples well being while these widely reported atrocities were in full swing?

Could it be that they protested because they did not want to be inducted into the military? It is worth noting that when Congress ended the draft in 1972, anti-war protests almost ceased entirely. A nightmarish parade of thousands and thousands of victims of communist atrocities are on parade nightly for those who openly or by their indifference supported the ruthless murderers of the North.

Most Vietnam Veterans are comfortable with the side they were on and are not the ones re-fighting the war at every opportunity.

I could never understand people who partake of our country's freedoms and privileges, but when asked to defend the country's interests, search high and low for a place to hide.