George W. Nixon

[argexpat]

Nixon in 1969: "The precipitate withdrawal of American forces from Vietnam would be a disaster not only for South Vietnam but for the United States and for the cause of peace."

Bush yesterday: "Setting an artificial deadline to withdraw would vindicate the terrorists' tactics of beheadings and suicide bombings and mass murder -- and invite new attacks on America."

Nixon: "An announcement of a fixed timetable for our withdrawal would completely remove any incentive for the enemy to negotiate an agreement. They would simply wait until our forces had withdrawn and then move in."

Bush: "Setting an artificial deadline to withdraw would send a signal to our enemies -- that if they wait long enough, America will cut and run and abandon its friends."

Nixon: "If necessary ... we will withdraw all our forces from Vietnam on a schedule in accordance with our program, as the South Vietnamese become strong enough to defend their own freedom."

Bush: "And as the Iraqi security forces stand up, coalition forces can stand down -- and when our mission of defeating the terrorists in Iraq is complete, our troops will return home to a proud nation."

Nixon delivered his Vietnamization speech in November 1969, but the last U.S. ground troops didn't leave Vietnam until March 1973. More than 8,000 American soldiers died in the meantime.

 

[KCConservative]

Flame thread

 

[The Real McCoy]

Nixon in 1969: "The precipitate withdrawal of American forces from Vietnam would be a disaster not only for South Vietnam but for the United States and for the cause of peace."

Bush yesterday: "Setting an artificial deadline to withdraw would vindicate the terrorists' tactics of beheadings and suicide bombings and mass murder -- and invite new attacks on America."

Nixon: "An announcement of a fixed timetable for our withdrawal would completely remove any incentive for the enemy to negotiate an agreement. They would simply wait until our forces had withdrawn and then move in."

Bush: "Setting an artificial deadline to withdraw would send a signal to our enemies -- that if they wait long enough, America will cut and run and abandon its friends."

Nixon: "If necessary ... we will withdraw all our forces from Vietnam on a schedule in accordance with our program, as the South Vietnamese become strong enough to defend their own freedom."

Bush: "And as the Iraqi security forces stand up, coalition forces can stand down -- and when our mission of defeating the terrorists in Iraq is complete, our troops will return home to a proud nation."

Nixon delivered his Vietnamization speech in November 1969, but the last U.S. ground troops didn't leave Vietnam until March 1973. More than 8,000 American soldiers died in the meantime.

Nixon was right, withdrawling from Vietnam WAS a disaster for South Vietnam (along with Laos and Cambodia) and for our country. I'd rather not see the same thing happen twice.

 

[Befuddled_Stoner]

Y'know, putting W's speech side by side with Nixon's makes me realize how much better W's speech is. Nixon's reads as all cold and clinical, while Bush sounds more chummy and cordial. Did Nixon write his own material?

 

[argexpat]

Nixon was right, withdrawling from Vietnam WAS a disaster for South Vietnam (along with Laos and Cambodia) and for our country. I'd rather not see the same thing happen twice.

So it was our withdrawal from Vietnam that was the disaster? Not the escalating of an unwinnable war in the first place. We dropped more bombs on Vietnam than all the bombs dropped in all of WWII, had 500,000 troops on the ground, and killed almost a million Vietnamese in the process, and still we couldn't "win." Had we "stayed the course" we would have had to literally "bomb them back to the stone age" and "destroy the village the save it."

We didn't "cut and run" from Vietnam because a bunch of treasonous pinko hippies were demostrating back home. That's an urban myth. We cut and run because we realized that to "win" that war meant killing every last North Vietnamese. Because to them, this wasn't a proxy squirmish in the Cold War with the Soviet Union, as it was to us. To them, it was a war of liberation against the latest in a long histroy of foreign occupation, to which the Vietnamese were prepared to sacrifice every last man, woman and child.

We could have "won" the war, but at the cost of our national soul. That's why we left.

P.S. But don't take my word for it. This is the conslusion of Defense Secretary Robert McNamara, the architect of the Vietnam War, in the excellent documentary The Fog of War.

 

[argexpat]

Y'know, putting W's speech side by side with Nixon's makes me realize how much better W's speech is. Nixon's reads as all cold and clinical, while Bush sounds more chummy and cordial. Did Nixon write his own material?

Have you never heard of presidential speech writers?

 

[cnredd]

Y'know, putting W's speech side by side with Nixon's makes me realize how much better W's speech is. Nixon's reads as all cold and clinical, while Bush sounds more chummy and cordial. Did Nixon write his own material?

One of his speech writers was none other than Ben Stein (Bueller?...Bueller?)...

In 1973 and 1974, he was a speech writer and lawyer for Richard Nixon at The White House and then for Gerald Ford. (He did NOT write the line, "I am not a crook.")

http://www.benstein.com/bio.html