General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: What was the Specific Event that Made You Realise that Republicans Are Evil? [View all]FakeNoose
(32,634 posts)It was a holdover from the Korean War, and the belief (at the time) that if one country became Communist then they all would fall like dominoes. It wasn't a war yet, but Eisenhower sent troops as "advisers" to Vietnam back in the 1950s.
Kennedy had planned to bring the troops back out because it looked bad and he didn't want any more involvement. Sadly Kennedy was assassinated before he could do that. Then Johnson, yes we all know what Johnson did, and that's why he never had another term.
So the 1968 election had Hubert Humphrey as the Democrat who was forced to support Johnson's war record, even though he was personally against the Vietnam War. Ironically Richard Nixon the candidate was free to criticize the war and promise that he would end it if he were elected. Yes Nixon ran on a peace ticket in 1968, and he won the election.
Once Nixon was in office he immediately expanded that war, and sent more troops and flew raids into Laos and Cambodia. (The United States had never declared war against any of these countries.) The horrible truth is that the Vietnamese people should have been left alone to decide for themselves if they wanted to be Communist or "pro-Western." We just couldn't keep our noses out of their business. They had a democratic election and voted for the communist leader Ho Chi Minh to be their President.
It was a horrible time, so misguided, so avoidable. Our baby boomer generation paid a terrible price for those mistakes.
Yes LBJ was a hawk and he had bad intel, but most of the VN casualties should be blamed on Republicans.