NO MATTER WHAT THEY SAY, WE WON THE WAR!!!

FIRST: I'm personally really glad that you are doing what you are doing here at this site. Preserving the images from Vietnam and remembering the last big military conflict that this country entered into is something that should be congratulated. Too many people either don't want to remember, or know so little about something that touched everyone in America. And most importantly we have to remember the vets who came back from one of the most challenging battlefields of our modern times! SECOND: I have long operated under the theory that we emerged victorious from Vietnam. They cansay we lost, but some of us say we won. Here's the reasoning behind the Victory Theory. Vietnam was one of the last places on the globe to have any remnants of European colonialism, even in the mid-sixties. At that time, a small French military presence had come under attack by what, at that time, they considered to be an independence movement, even if it was communist, and backed by the Peoples Republic of China. The French sent out an international call for military aid, and when there were no takers, of course they asked for military assistance to get French military equipment and troops out of the country. That was when America answered the call, and our first move was to send in military advisors. This is what most people remember as the start of the Vietnamese War. Our military advisors requested support, and for whatever reasons, our military command and government started sending equipment and troops. This was obviously not acceptable to the Chinese and they organized what we came to know of as the Viet Cong. For those years that the war went on, very simply put, Charlie was not going to let us out of there without a fight. So fight we did, and when we finally pulled out, it was over. For those of us who keep the bigger picture in mind, we did what we went over there to do. even though some may disagree, to me and many others that spells V-I-C-T-O-R-Y. And not only did we get our troops out, we staged a mass evacuation that made it possible for many demacratic people to start their lives over again in some other part of the world. We should remember this war, like every war, no matter how painful it gets sometimes. Every war, like WWII General Patton is famous for saying, is not much more than living Hell. The Vietnamese war is the most recent fullscale conflict that we have been in with our modern weapons and training, even if it was over 25 years, a whole quarter of a century ago. That makes it the only reference we have. If we remember Vietnam and our POW/MIA we won"t forget why we try to avoid military conflicts! NOT FORGOTTEN...!!