STOLEN HISTORY III
from the title, Leadership: Combat Leaders and Lessons, Bigfork, Montana: Stand Up America USA, 2008. This essay describes the deplorable conditions that prevailed in the training base in America and Seventh Army in Europe during the Vietnam War. The problems resulted from decisions made at the highest levels of command to draw down forces not deployed to the combat zone to support the forces committed to combat operations. The problems in the units cannibalized to sustain the war effort created serious ethical problems for the commanders of non-combat ready units. To order go on line at www.standusamericaus.com.
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Great leaders tell us by their example that there is no such thing as a bad command. Despite scanty clothing, drafty log cabins to protect men from freezing conditions, and meager rations for his soldiers at Valley Force, George Washington would never have labeled the Continental Army a bad command. Nor would Douglas McArthur have tarnished the dignity of his men by claims he had led a bad command at Corregidor; despite the Imperial Japanese Army attacks that defeated the last American resistance on the Bataan Peninsula during the opening campaign of the Americans in World War II. Nor would George Armstrong Custer have described his as a bad command before braves and squaws scalped the last of the fallen soldiers of the 7th Cavalry at the Battle of the Little Big Horn. For Washington and McArthur great leadership and an indomitable spirit made possible American victories over determined opponents,while poor intelligence and poor planning allowed victory to elude Custer and the Cavalrymen of the 7th Cavalry.
"The Vietnam War: Our Stolen History, from the files of Andy P. O'Meara, Jr."
In the summer of 1963, a time of riots and demonstrations in Vietnam, the Buddhists were up in arms and rumors of treason were daily fare in the foreign media. As I emerged from a barber shop in Saigon, clusters of illiterate dock workers marched through the streets carrying signs written in English denouncing the Government. Shoppers and merchants ignored the gaggle of demonstrators blocking traffic in the middle of Freedom Boulevard, which once bisected Saigon. American journalists ran along the cluster of ill clad workers attempting to get enough bodies in their camera lenses to provide photographic evidence for stories that would appear in the New York Times proclaiming a demonstration of tens of thousands that had turned out to denounce the “corrupt” Diem Regime.
While drinking my morning coffee over the next few days, I read the newspaper accounts of the massive demonstration realizing that I had witnessed the demonstration that in actuality numbered no more than fifty workers obviously paid to carry signs they could not read. They could have been Viet Cong peasants, but their clothing suggested otherwise. Their absence from the docks was evidently rewarded in cash by enemies of the Diem Regime, encouraged by the attention of the foreign journalists. The result was a fabricated news event manufactured by coup plotters intent upon bringing down the Government of President Diem.
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Jesse...(Jackson, below) what
are you doing?hailing a cab? or could that be the 'Black Panther wave?' yes......we thought so! (nice hair, by the way!)
Agent Orange Claims UpdatePayment of claims for the three newly designated Agent Orange presumptive conditions of ischemic heart disease, Parkinson's disease and B-cell leukemias, came a step closer to reality following an appeals court order directing the Department of Veterans Affairs to publish a final implementing regulation by September 1.
The order was In response to a lawsuit brought by a coalition of veterans' service organizations. In making the order the US Court of Appeals rejected the VA's argument that the final regulation needed to be reviewed by the Office of Management and Budget.
After the final regulations are published, the VA will still have to delay payments for 60 days because the Congressional Review Act was invoked. If, as directed the VA publishes the final rule by Sept. 1, disability payments could start by November 1.
The Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee will still be holding a hearing on September 23 to review the evidence used to add the three new conditions. Although it is possible the funding could be further delayed, it is unlikely as the funds are already in place and are only waiting for final authorization.
