Sort of in the same vein as the op-ed piece on today’s page, I received this e-mail yesterday from Columbia’s own Col. Angelo Perri, U.S. Army, retired:
Westy’s death makes it a time to reflect on what might have been…I did two tours in Vietnam and was there when the armistice was signed..so I have some knowledge. The Viet Cong were defeated by the spring of 1972…which is why the N.Vietnamese launched their Easter offensive of 1972. The South Vietnamese Army held all the provincial capitals except Quang Tri, which it later regained.But the anti-war crowd helped to drive huge cutbacks in American aid. The South Vietnamese Army was short on ammunition, spare parts, etc. Themajor offensive launched by the North in 1975 really knocked over a shell of the S.Vietnamese Army.
I recall the look on the face of the South Vietnamese officers and civilian employees we had when in Feb of 1972 we had ONE week to get all our advisers OUT; they knew that we were abandoning them…to sweeten the departure we did a massive airlift of ammo, spare parts, vehicles, artillery etc, but that was 1972, and then we stopped…it took the North, continuingly supplied by the Soviets, the Poles, the Czechs, China, and other eastern block countries only a couple years to beef up and overrun the south…we may be facing the same situation now in Iraq. We need to stay long enough to bring stability to that country by providing for a strong internal police force and an Army worthy of the name…if we do not we will repeat the Vietnam abandonment with the same consequences…regards…Col Perri
For other views on the late general, check out John Monk’s column today.
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