A quick look back at Vietnam - RF Cafe Forums

RF Cafe Forums closed its virtual doors in late 2012 mainly due to other social media platforms dominating public commenting venues. RF Cafe Forums began sometime around August of 2003 and was quite well-attended for many years. By 2012, Facebook and Twitter were overwhelmingly dominating online personal interaction, and RF Cafe Forums activity dropped off precipitously. Regardless, there are still lots of great posts in the archive that ware worth looking at. Below are the old forum threads, including responses to the original posts. Here is the full original RF Cafe Forums on Archive.org

-- Amateur Radio

-- Anecdotes, Gripes, & Humor

-- Antennas

-- CAE, CAD, & Software

-- Circuits & Components

-- Employment & Interviews

-- Miscellany

-- Swap Shop

-- Systems

-- Test & Measurement

-- Webmaster


 Post subject: A quick look back at Vietnam
Posted: Thu Apr 08, 2004 8:21 am 
We're being told by Senator Ted Kennedy, the guy who left a pregnant woman to drown in a submersed car in Chappaquidick, that Iraq is "George Bush's Viet Nam." You know, the war that has brother, John, first sent American troops to fight in. Senator Robert Byrd, a 5-year member and active recruiter of the KKK during his "indiscretions of youth" (he was 40 years old at the time), claims that Dubyah might be a war criminal. John Kerry is touting his Vietnam experience as the reason he should become President, even though in 1992, during the Clinton candidacy, he proclaimed in the Senate that military service should not be a deciding factor when considering who should be America's president.

If you believe that Iraq is "Another Vietnam," then please take a quick look at this timeline that details John Kerry's admitted-to involvement in committing atrocities himself, and his indisputable associations with Jane Fonda and her anti-American cronies. This stuff is a matter of record, not some Right-Wing investigator's view of how he thinks things were.

https://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/Re ... p?ID=12920


 
  
 
 Post subject:
Posted: Thu Apr 08, 2004 12:55 pm 
I had forgotten about Hanoi Jane accepting and proudly wearing a ring fashioned from a downed American airplane, and about her belittling the released POWs and saying that they were not heros.

Why is this woman still living in the U.S.?


 
  
 
 Post subject: first troops
Posted: Thu May 06, 2004 9:29 pm 
"Advisors" were first sent to Vietnam by Eisenhower. If you don't believe me go check The Wall in Washington. The first fatalities were in 1959.

Military service should probably not be a criteria for leadership, however when you have an administration that is unbelievably top-heavy with people who never served, got multiple deferments, or safe NG billets, they do lose moral authority to send others into harms way.


 
  
 
 Post subject:
Posted: Thu May 06, 2004 11:05 pm 
 
Site Admin
User avatar

Joined: Sun Aug 03, 2003 2:02 pm
Posts: 451
Location: Erie, PA
Quote:
jesteralternative wrote:
"Advisors" were first sent to Vietnam by Eisenhower. If you don't believe me go check The Wall in Washington. The first fatalities were in 1959.

Military service should probably not be a criteria for leadership, however when you have an administration that is unbelievably top-heavy with people who never served, got multiple deferments, or safe NG billets, they do lose moral authority to send others into harms way.



Greetings JesterAlternative:

You will find this interesting. It is offered neither to dispute nor support your statement, just to add to it. The music on the site is very nice, too.
++++
https://lonestar.50megs.com/vietnamvet/casualty.html

Air Force Tech Sgt. Richard B Fitzgibbon, Jr. murdered in Vietnam by a fellow airman on June 8, 1956, has been formally recognized by the Pentagon as the first American to die in that war.

With this decision, the Defense Department set Nov. 1, 1955 as the earliest qualifying date for inclusion on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. It says this is the date the MAAG was officially established. Eight other pre- 1961 casualties are already listed on the memorial.

The first death of an American serviceman in Vietnam occurred Sept. 26, 1945. OSS Major A. Peter Dewey was killed in action by the Communist Vietminh near Hanoi. Some 128 members of a MAAG began supervising the use of U. S. equipment in Vietnam on Sept. 17, 1950. And two U. S. fliers contracted by the CIA were killed in action flying a mission over Dien Bien Phu in 1954. The first U. S. advisors sent to actually train Vietnamese troops arrived Feb. 12, 1955. Capt. Harry Cramer, Jr. was killed in a munitions handling accident Oct. 21, 1957: His name had been the first listed.

There is another unique aspect to this story: Marine Lance Cpl. Richard B. Fitzgibbon III -- his son -- was killed in action in Vietnam on Sept. 7, 1965. The Fitzgibbons are the only father-son honorees on the Wall.

When Fitzgibbon’s name is added to the Wall before Memorial Day 1999, the total number of names memorialized will be 58,214.
++++



I personally believe that the U.S. Constitution should be amended to make military service a requirement for both the president and the vice president. It is truly very hard, as you state, for those who have not worn the uniform to make a moral argument for sending others into battle. Like it or not, George W. Bush did serve in the military. Those who dismiss service by Guardsmen and Reservists as illegitimate members of the armed forces are either ignorant or abhorrently deceitful. Cheney got a college deferment. Donald Rumsfeld was a Navy pilot during the Korean era. John Ashcroft did not serve. Colin Powell obviously served. Embarrassingly, many Republicans in leadership position have not served in the U.S. Armed Forces at all. Bill Clinton, of course, avoided the draft. Al Gore served. Richard Gebhardt was in the Guard. Howard Dean was served (by his parents servants in NYC). So, the ledger is balanced pretty evenly with served vs. served-not politicians.

That said, I do not believe that having served in the military automatically makes one qualified for high national office. It should be a necessary, but not sufficient condition. Keep in mind that Benedict Arnold was a decorated war hero, but ended his life as “a man without a country” for his act of treason.

Let us hope that many of the people currently serving will decide to make runs for offices upon leaving the military.

- Kirt B. :mrgreen:





Posted  11/12/2012