Letter to Human Events Magazine, 2011

Your recent article in Human Events about the top ten greatest military engagements was interesting.  You included every war of the last 100 years but left out Vietnam.  This article is purported to be about battles "awash in patriots blood to secure liberty and freedom...".  Yet you totally ignored some of the great battles of Vietnam.  Why is that?  The killing of UBL was really nothing in terms of spilling blood and you included that, yet left out the battle of Ia Drang Valley, Dak To, Tet, Khe Sanh, Hamburger Hill and many other winning battles in which large numbers of American lives were sacrificed at the altar of freedom.  Is it because we "lost" the war?  The liberals re-writers of history like to say "yes, we lost, it was inevitable". But militarily we did not lose, we won , and you should know better.  In discounting the Vietnam war, you neglected the fact that our government "lost" the war by slithering out of it through peace negotiations; and by the "Watergate" US Congress denying paltry amounts of war funding to the South Vietnamese army after we left. They had no bullets, so "we lost".  We lost the war at home.  We lost the war in the White House and Congress. You ignored the fact, as your liberal counterparts like to do, that our military did a superb job, under the ridiculous constraints imposed on them by our government.  This should not in any way subtract from the honor and  bravery of the men who fought that bloody war, but only attests  to the incompetency of our political leaders that put them in harms way. Your magazine should be better than that.

Consider these facts:  There were more US marine casualties in Vietnam then in all of World War II, the war of our now dubbed "greatest" generation.
There were four times as many men killed in Vietnam in the 101st airborne division, one of our nations premier divisions, than in the WWII. They were made famous for their bravery in WWII as a  "Band of Brothers" who jumped into Normandy and fought the battle of the bulge.  Yet their bravery and sacrifice in Vietnam is buried with them and ignored. The men of Vietnam won every major battle in Vietnam.  Could you not have picked at least one battle  to exemplify their sacrifice as you "pause this memorial day to honor those who fought and died for our country"?   Ironically, the North Vietnamese now show more respect for our own fighting men of Vietnam than many in this country, including and maybe especially, the press, a group of which "Human Events" is now a fully qualified member.
Did you even know that the battle of Ia Drang Valley was a huge defeat for the North Vietnamese which caused them to abandon their plan to cut South Vietnam in half at the outset of the war?
Did you know that a few thousand men at Khe Sanh held of an attack of 30,000 well equipped North Vietnamese who had heavy artillery?  "Awash in blood" it was.  Did you realize that the Tet offensive was a decisive military win for our side, which decimated the North Vietnamese Army and the Vietcong?
Did you know that General Giap, the leader of the North Vietnamese military essentially said we snatched defeat from the jaws of victory?
I suggest that if you examine the premise of your article, and your selection process, you might also examine the real motivations and bias you may have, as well as your lack of understanding of history. Shame on you for leaving out the great successes of our military in  Vietnam from your parade of sacrifice.  You have been victimized by the liberal re-write of history, and ignored an opportunity to correct the falsehoods with the truth.
To this day , even though they lost to the Romans,  we honor  those who died at Masada for their bravery.  It is the least we can do for those who fought bravely in Vietnam and won every major battle.

Bob March
Poulsbo Wa.