Vietnam,
Now: A Reporter Returns
David
Lamb
Hardcover,
May 2002
"Jane Fonda and other activists who visited Hanoi to denounce
the war are remembered with fondness in Vietnam, but many Vietnamese
admit privately they had a difficult time respecting the activists:
To the ultranationalistic Vietnamese it was unfathonable that
anyone who campained against his or her government in a time
of crisis was worthy of esteem." !!!!!!!!!!! pg 44
"Although revisionists believe JFK would have extracted
the US from Vietnam, he said just weeks before his assasination:
"I don't agree with those who say we should withdraw. that
would be a great mistake. I know people don't like americans
to be engaged in this kind of an effort. Forty-seven americans
have been killed in combat with the enemy, but this is a very
important struggle." pg 45
" 97% of Americans who served in Vietnam between 1965 and
1975 recieved honorable discharges - exactly the same percentage
as for the ten year peroid before the war. The use of drugs
was no greater in Vietnam than it was amoung the same age group
in the U.S." pg 80
" Only 249 men deserted in Vietnam. No platoon ever surrendered
as a unit to the VC or NVA; in WW2 several thousand Americans
not only surrendered, they ended up fighting for Germany"
!!!!!! pg 80
" 80% of the GI's had completed high school and 14% had
attended college. In WW2, 35% had not gone beyond grammer school.
Blacks made up 12.5% of the combat deaths in Vietnam at a time
when blacks of draft age reprsented 13.5% of the population."
pg 81
" 86% of the men killed in action were Caucasion."
pg 81