RacerJim
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"For the first time in modern history, the outcome of a war was determined not on the battlefield but on the printed page and, above all, on the television screen."-- Robert Elegant, the Los Angeles Times.
Mr. Elegant was, of course, referring to Walter Cronkite's infamous CBS TV Evening News 'We Are Mired in a Stalemate' broadcast on February 27 1968 which was based upon his recent two-week visit to South Vietnam. CBS TV EVENING NEWS - FEBRUARY 27, 1968 (Walter Cronkite - Anchor) "Tonight, back in more familiar surroundings in New York, we'd like to sum up our findings in Vietnam, an analysis that must be speculative, personal, subjective. Who won and who lost in the great Tet offensive against the cities? I'm not sure. The Vietcong did not win by a knockout, but neither did we. The referees of history may make it a draw. Another standoff may be coming in the big battles expected south of the Demilitarized Zone. Khesanh could well fall, with a terrible loss in American lives, prestige and morale, and this is a tragedy of our stubbornness there; but the bastion no longer is a key to the rest of the northern regions, and it is doubtful that the American forces can be defeated across the breadth of the DMZ with any substantial loss of ground. Another standoff. On the political front, past performance gives no confidence that the Vietnamese government can cope with its problems, now compounded by the attack on the cities. It may not fall, it may hold on, but it probably won't show the dynamic qualities demanded of this young nation. Another standoff. We have been too often disappointed by the optimism of the American leaders, both in Vietnam and Washington, to have faith any longer in the silver linings they find in the darkest clouds. They may be right, that Hanoi's winter-spring offensive has been forced by the Communist realization that they could not win the longer war of attrition, and that the Communists hope that any success in the offensive will improve their position for eventual negotiations. It would improve their position, and it would also require our realization, that we should have had all along, that any negotiations must be that -- negotiations, not the dictation of peace terms. For it seems now more certain than ever that the bloody experience of Vietnam is to end in a stalemate. This summer's almost certain standoff will either end in real give-and-take negotiations or terrible escalation; and for every means we have to escalate, the enemy can match us, and that applies to invasion of the North, the use of nuclear weapons, or the mere commitment of one hundred, or two hundred, or three hundred thousand more American troops to the battle. And with each escalation, the world comes closer to the brink of cosmic disaster. To say that we are closer to victory today is to believe, in the face of the evidence, the optimists who have been wrong in the past. To suggest we are on the edge of defeat is to yield to unreasonable pessimism. To say that we are mired in stalemate seems the only realistic, yet unsatisfactory, conclusion. On the off chance that military and political analysts are right, in the next few months we must test the enemy's intentions, in case this is indeed his last big gasp before negotiations. But it is increasingly clear to this reporter that the only rational way out then will be to negotiate, not as victors, but as an honorable people who lived up to their pledge to defend democracy, and did the best they could. This is Walter Cronkite. Good night." Cronkite's broadcast reportedly prompted then President Lyndon B. Johnson (D) to privately opine "If I've lost Cronkite, I've lost middle-America.", and was followed shortly thereafter with similiar critiques from the editors and opinion-makers at Time and Life magazines as well as the New York Times, the Los Angles Times and the Washington Post newspapers - for the first time making it not only acceptable but, moreover, fashionable for revered mainstream-media in America to oppose a war America was currently engaged in. In the midst of the ever-increasing anti-war sentiment President Johnson's approval rating vis-a-vis the Vietnam War dropped to 20 percent, he had concluded that the war was unwinnable, and he announced he would not run for re-election.
POST-WAR MEMOIRS OF GENERAL VO NGUYEN GIAP (NVA's Commanding General during the Vietnam War) "We were completely and totally amazed by Walter Cronkite's broadcast. Tet was a massive failure for us and we were ready to surrender unconditionally. Cronkite's broadcast and the aftermath convinced us that if we perservered one more hour, day, week, year we would eventually win the war on the political battlefield in America." The Democratic Party was in control of Congress for the entirety of the Vietnam War -- from the day President Harry S. Truman (D) sent the first U.S. military advisors to Vietnam, through the four years President Lyndon B. Johnson (D) increased the number of U.S. combat forces in Vietnam from about 20,000 (1964) to almost 500,000 (1968), to the day President Gerald R. Ford pulled the last of our troops out of Vietnam -- and never publically questioned, much less publically voiced opposition to, the Vietnam War. That is, not until it was in their political interest to do so -- the imminent Presidential election.
And so it is today, again.
"The aftermath of the collapse of American power in Vietnam-and how they ran and left their agents-is noteworthy. Because of that, we must be ready starting now, before events overtake us, and before we are surprised by the conspiracies of the Americans and the United Nations and their plans to fill the void behind them...." -- Letter from Al-Zawahiri to Al-Zarkawi
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RE: Viet Nam and Iraq??? - 
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