...and good riddance.
This is how I remember Walter Cronkite:
It was on February 27, 1968, when Walter Cronkite gave his "Mired in a Stalemate" speech.
He declared that the war was "unwinnable".
This is how I remember Walter Cronkite:
It was on February 27, 1968, when Walter Cronkite gave his "Mired in a Stalemate" speech.
He declared that the war was "unwinnable".
Except that we were not mired in a stalemate.
And the war was not "unwinnable".
(Read the memoirs of General Vo Nguyen Giap, North Vietnam, TET primary strategist.)
But Walter Cronkite was "the most trusted man in America".
American public opinion changed.
The North Vietnamese realized that they didn't have to win militarily, they only had to outlast the will of the American people, who were already sick of seeing husbands and sons, fathers and brothers coming home in body bags.
So, we declared a truce, pulled out our troops, and cut off funding to the South Vietnamese; the North Vietnamese restrengthened, the South Vietnamese government fell, and thousands of South Vietnamese were sent to 're-education camps' or killed outright.
Since then, even our former enemies have admitted that they did not win on the battlefield, but in the American Congress and in the American defeatist media.
The American defeatist media. Deja Vu.
But Walter Cronkite was "the most trusted man in America".
American public opinion changed.
The North Vietnamese realized that they didn't have to win militarily, they only had to outlast the will of the American people, who were already sick of seeing husbands and sons, fathers and brothers coming home in body bags.
So, we declared a truce, pulled out our troops, and cut off funding to the South Vietnamese; the North Vietnamese restrengthened, the South Vietnamese government fell, and thousands of South Vietnamese were sent to 're-education camps' or killed outright.
Since then, even our former enemies have admitted that they did not win on the battlefield, but in the American Congress and in the American defeatist media.
The American defeatist media. Deja Vu.
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