host

I think that Reagan had the largest influence on the advancement of an opinion that gathered momentum during his 1980 presidential campaign, and continues to this day.....the crux of it is that from a US centric POV, Vietnam was "a noble war", and that "we could have won it", if "the left" and the "liberal media", hadn't tied "one of our military's hands, behind it's back".

The people who subscribed to this fallacy, failed to learn the lesson that the US had foolishly inserted itself in the middle of Vietnam's civil war, and did not understand, as they (our Reagan influenced leadership) don't again, today, that the US cannot persuade people in another country that the preservation of a US backed government in their country, is worth fighting and dying for.

Thus, largely because of Reagan's opinion of what the US Vietnam experience was, our current government can expect to wait decades for Iraqis to "stand up and fight" to preserve a US installed form of government in their country, so that US soldiers who are fighting and dying on the orders of our leadership, can "stand down".

If Reagan had not opted to politicize and thus obscure, the actual lesson for the US in Vietnam, the US could have avoided, as it skillfully did in 1991, loosing a trillion dollars, so far, 2700 dead US soldiers, and 15,000 or more other seriously wounded military personnel, only to find itseld mired in the middle of an Iraqi civil war, training an Iraqi "security force", which after three years, it does not have enough trust and confidence in, to supply with "top line" weapons and logistic support infrastructure.

Marv, if you don't believe Reagan was the force behind the "noble war" bullshit, why do you agree that the Gulf of Tonkin incident was contrived? If it wasn't Reagan who influenced the "lack of learning", who did? Or....was their even a potential to learn a Vietnam lesson? Is it just more convenient to make believe Reagan had an honest message...."it was all "the left's fault"?