Ray Swindle wrote:
When I joined the USAF in 1970, I thought I was being selfish. I wanted to get the GI Bill so I could go to college and I wanted to learn the skills to be competent to work on aircraft. I was actually ambivalent about the war in SEA. At 18 years old, I didn't see how it winning or losing the war would change life in the US. There was too many miles between that part of the world and ours for communism to be a threat. Of course I did not know how prevalent communism had been in the USA since the beginning of the 20th century. I guess I was like 'not our circus, not our clowns'. I feel the same about Ukraine, it's none of our business. I think we have people in high levels of gov't who get us into these conflicts without a concern for how it impacts the average American citizen. I wish we could identify them and send them to war...without the resources to win.
Sorry, sometimes I ignore the rhetorical comment.
I was a Junior in college when I first received my "Greetings From Uncle Sam" letter. I had, or thought I had, a coll-SOCege deferment. Not so! I was drafted then inducted in April 1967. They allowed me to finish my Fall semester then I was gone!
I ended up enlisting for RASP -SOC( what I was called was a "RA5"-draftees had the 1st digit of their service number as a "5") and spent 6 years active. I had an Uncle that was retired career military, Army. One of the last of the "mounted horse" cavalry soldiers.
I wont bore anyone with what I thought what went wrong and hampered our winning in Vietnam. "The Domino Theory" was a false narrative here! Americans saw Vietnam as an extension of the Cold War and developed the domino theory. The was the belief that if communists won in S. Vietnam, the communism would spread to other governments in SE Asia. WRONG!
Ray Swindle wrote:
When I joined the USAF in 1970, I thought I was being selfish. I wanted to get the GI Bill so I could go to college and I wanted to learn the skills to be competent to work on aircraft. I was actually ambivalent about the war in SEA. At 18 years old, I didn't see how it winning or losing the war would change life in the US. There was too many miles between that part of the world and ours for communism to be a threat. Of course I did not know how prevalent communism had been in the USA since the beginning of the 20th century. I guess I was like 'not our circus, not our clowns'. I feel the same about Ukraine, it's none of our business. I think we have people in high levels of gov't who get us into these conflicts without a concern for how it impacts the average American citizen. I wish we could identify them and send them to war...without the resources to win.
Sorry, sometimes I ignore the rhetorical comment.
I was a Junior in college when I first received my "Greetings From Uncle Sam" letter. I had, or thought I had, a coll-SOCege deferment. Not so! I was drafted then inducted in April 1967. They allowed me to finish my Fall semester then I was gone!
I ended up enlisting for RASP -SOC and spent 6 years active. I had an Uncle that was retired career military, Army. One of the last of the "mounted horse" cavalry soldiers.
I wont bore anyone with what I thought what went wrong and hampered our winning in Vietnam. "The Domino Theory" was a false narrative here! Americans saw Vietnam as an extension of the Cold War and developed the domino theory. The was the belief that if communists won in S. Vietnam, the communism would spread to other governments in SE Asia. WRONG!
Feb 12, 2024 at 09:04 PM
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