Road to Yosemite

Started by benevolance, August 28, 2006, 09:41:37 PM

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Amanda_931

Loren Baritz' Backfire talks a lot about a) why we were programmed to lose in Viet-Nam and b) why it was so incredibly difficult to understand.

A big one is our belief in TECHNOLOGY.  We had better technology, so we couldn't have lost.

Also--every time the North Vietnamese fought on our terms they lost.  

They didn't lose when they dragged guns through the jungle using hundreds of people--instead of fancy technology.   We tended to consider that disgusting, unfair, and besides we shouldn't count that, it wasn't an army.

And army headquarters lied to themselves about so much--the infamous one was body counts--that they couldn't really believe that we weren't winning.  And one tends to believe some of what our commanders, supervisors, top brass says, even when we know it's not all true.  In this case, it may have been very liittle.

I highly recommend getting the book (ex-library copy is good, decent paper, etc., price tends to be right--it may also come in used mass market paperback--there the print is smaller, the paper may have already started to disintegrate).  Although it may just make you feel ill.  

(N.B.--the number of soldiers we have in Iraq is grossly underestimated when compared to other wars, because of the many jobs that have been given to "contractors."  E.G., food services.)