Viet Nam Remembered: 30 Years Later

April 30, 2005 marks the 30th anniversary of the official end of the war in Viet Nam. The war still lives on for many, whether they be the victims of Agent Orange still being born today, veterans from all sides, or the bereaved. To commemorate this anniversary, Long, Chomsky and Pinkow share their current perspectives on the American involvement in Viet Nam.

Ngo Vinh Long is a professor of history at the University of Maine. His own involvement in the US's "counter-insurgency" effort in Viet Nam, as well as his intimate knowledge of Viet Nam as a country, will add a strong personal perspective on the war.

Noam Chomsky is a professor of linguistics at MIT. He is also widely known as an anti-war activist during the war in Viet Nam. He has written and spoken extensively about the nature of the US involvement in Viet Nam.

Linda Pinkow is a co-news director of WMBR, MIT's radio station. She hosts the program What's Left?
Noam Chomsky | Viet Nam Remembered: 30 Years Later | WGBH Forum Network | Free Online Lectures

Well it is the premise. Republicans reading Tea Leaves is the reason we are in the huge screwed up mess we are in. Let's try dealing with reality for a while and see what happens?

This is the way I see it. We lost 58,000 + good Americans in Viet Nam, and for what? Not 1 damn thing. The Bush Crime Family kisses Viet Nam's Ass now because they want to sell them weapons and oil.

After serving in Viet Nam I do not see anything worth remembering.
What does Viet Nam have to do with Iraq? Not a damn thing as far
as I am concerned. Why do Americans like to continue to beat a
dead horse? What good came out of Viet Nam that's worth talking
about now?...Not a Damn thing.

A anti-War Activist? Then mean the profesor never di serve for in
Viet Nam. So what was the real reasons for US involvement in Viet
Nam? What ever the reason was we losted a bunch of American
fighters then like we are slowly doing in Iraq.

What's left?? What is left is a bad bunch of memories, and I just don't
get it. I served two years and a half in Qui Nhon, and that was the
dividing point between the North & the South.

In closing, If we don't pull back from Iraq (Babylon) We are going to
suffer more pain, and the only reason why we are running around
like chickens with their heads cut off in Iraq. Is because we did a
lots of damage in Iraq for nothing, and this is a cover-up way to
say We are sorry.

Bravo - Well said.

"We must not abandon Iraq"

Far too late for that sentiment now. Iraq was effectively "abandoned" right after Saddam was toppled. Since then, only an ineffective occupation has been in place.

Bush's incredibly short-sighted and incompetent mismanagement of the Iraq fiasco has made failure there a certainty, no matter how long we stay, no matter how much more we spend, and no matter how many more lives are lost/ruined.

I see Iraq becoming the next Lebanon, with a decades-long internal bloodletting. Our continued presence will not now change that scenario. The time to prevent this sad state of affairs passed us by in mid-2003, when the Bushies refused to provide an adequate number of troops to ensure security and resources to re-establish the damaged infrastructure.

We are now reaping the results of that failure in leadership.

BringThemHomeNow.org

We must not abandon Iraq? That's one of the most unreal statement
I ever read. Why we must not abandon Iraq? The people in Iraq did
not ask for our help in the first place, and the only reason why we
went into the Middle East war was because of Oil plus our greedy
President and his band of thiefs.

BRING OUR TROOPS HOME....DON'T WAIT NO LONGER.

ROFL!!! Pray tell, what was the PURPOSE to IRAQ? It's been admitted by the Administration Saddam posed no threat. We got him. He's dead. Then we are developing a "democracy" which turns out to be a theocracy. Giving Iraq to the Osama bin Laden school of Arab states. Now, we have to stay...huh?

This isn't a war with ANY intention of winning. This is a war which has as its intention to bankrupt the US from stealing billions from skids of cash delivered there to fraud in contracts which Congress does nothing about but rewards with more tax dollar contracts.

Please, define for me our "mission" and what will occur to create the "win" you seem to think we always get.

Our mission:

OPERATION
IRAQI
LIBERATION