Warning: Graphic: It's been 50 years since AP photographer Nick Ut captured image of 9-year-old girl running naked from a napalm attack during Vietnam

[basquebromance]

war is bad. hatred is wrong. let's build a world without war, my bro's

 

[BlindBoo]

Nixon mused, "I'm wondering if that was fixed", after seeing the photograph

Amazing story though.

 

[Open Bolt]

war is bad. hatred is wrong. let's build a world without war, my bro's

War is how we protect ourselves and prevent the bad guys from conquering and enslaving us.

As far as the picture goes, I think the expression on the boy to the left and slightly in front of her is more haunting.

 

[Darkwind]

Nixon mused, "I'm wondering if that was fixed", after seeing the photograph

Amazing story though.

Clearly, it wasn't. When people speak of the horrors of war, that image is a good example.

However, I can't really blame his skepticism.

 

[BlindBoo]

War is how we protect ourselves and prevent the bad guys from conquering and enslaving us.

As far as the picture goes, I think the expression on the boy to the left and slightly in front of her is more haunting.

For the record, Vietnam never tried to conquer or enslave us. They helped the Allies rid SE Asia of the Axis forces. They felt the Allies stabbed them in the back when they were given back to the French.

 

[BlindBoo]

Clearly, it wasn't. When people speak of the horrors of war, that image is a good example.

However, I can't really blame his skepticism.

I wasn't surprised by it. By all accounts he was as crass a fucker as anyone. Well, he was pretty paranoid too.

 

[JohnDB]

All that Evil needs to rule the world is for good men to do nothing.

 

[Open Bolt]

For the record, Vietnam never tried to conquer or enslave us. They helped the Allies rid SE Asia of the Axis forces.

The Soviets tried to conquer and enslave us.

The Soviets also tried to conquer and enslave our ally South Vietnam.

They succeeded at the latter when the Democratic Party stabbed our ally in the back and abandoned them.

They felt the Allies stabbed them in the back when they were given back to the French.

Unfortunately France didn't give us much of a choice.

 

[Soupnazi630]

Nixon mused, "I'm wondering if that was fixed", after seeing the photograph

Amazing story though.

The photgraph was real and not fixed but the outcry was.

As it turns out the photo was used as anti US propaganda. The implication was the the US is doing this to kids and here is the proof. The problem is that no Americans were anywhere near the village where those kids were injured except for the photographer.

The aircraft which dropped the Napalm was a South Vietnamese air Froce plane flown by a South Vietnamese pilot. The battle near the village was a fight between the communists and the south Vietnamese Army.

Americans were in no way involved in this tragedy.

As the OP is suggesting yes war is always gruesome and this is an example of why it is gruesome. But the picture was used against the US in a dishonest manner. If your claim about Nixon is true ( which is highly dubious ) it was a legitimate question.

 

[BlindBoo]

The Soviets tried to conquer and enslave us.

The Soviets also tried to conquer and enslave our ally South Vietnam.

They succeeded at the latter when the Democratic Party stabbed our ally in the back and abandoned them.



Unfortunately France didn't give us much of a choice.

We blocked the unification vote that would have averted the war and millions of deaths.

Congressional aid cuts didn't determine the war's final outcome. Saigon's fate was sealed long before, when Nixon forced it accept his settlement terms in January 1973.

As for Laird's "cut off" of funds for Saigon, it just never happened. Even Nixon acknowledged the 1975 military appropriation for Saigon of $700 million

The Myth That Congress Cut Off Funding for South Vietnam

Since partisans have turned the April 30, 1975, Communist takeover of South Vietnam into a political weapon, I’m going to spend the anniversary doing a little myth-busting.

historynewsnetwork.org

 

[Soupnazi630]

We blocked the unification vote that would have averted the war and millions of deaths.

Congressional aid cuts didn't determine the war's final outcome. Saigon's fate was sealed long before, when Nixon forced it accept his settlement terms in January 1973.

As for Laird's "cut off" of funds for Saigon, it just never happened. Even Nixon acknowledged the 1975 military appropriation for Saigon of $700 million

The Myth That Congress Cut Off Funding for South Vietnam

Since partisans have turned the April 30, 1975, Communist takeover of South Vietnam into a political weapon, I’m going to spend the anniversary doing a little myth-busting.

historynewsnetwork.org

We didnt block the vote. People simply blame us for not holding the vote. Which was not the US responsibility

 

[BlindBoo]

If your claim about Nixon is true ( which is highly dubious ) it was a legitimate question.

Why he kept tape recordings I'll never know.....historians are glad he did.

 

[Open Bolt]

We blocked the unification vote that would have averted the war and millions of deaths.

And rightly so. South Vietnam had just as much right to be free and independent as Taiwan and South Korea do.

Congressional aid cuts didn't determine the war's final outcome. Saigon's fate was sealed long before, when Nixon forced it accept his settlement terms in January 1973.
As for Laird's "cut off" of funds for Saigon, it just never happened. Even Nixon acknowledged the 1975 military appropriation for Saigon of $700 million

The Myth That Congress Cut Off Funding for South Vietnam

Since partisans have turned the April 30, 1975, Communist takeover of South Vietnam into a political weapon, I’m going to spend the anniversary doing a little myth-busting.

historynewsnetwork.org

Slashing funds instead of cutting them to zero is still depriving them of the level aid that they needed to survive.

 

[BlindBoo]

And rightly so. South Vietnam had just as much right to be free and independent as Taiwan and South Korea do.



Slashing funds instead of cutting them to zero is still depriving them of the level aid that they needed to survive.

The Times reported that with National Security Adviser and Secretary of State Henry "Kissinger's personal prestige tied to peace in Vietnam, his aides have said that he will try to pin the blame for failure there on Congress." He tried to do just that at a March 26, 1975 news conference in which he framed the question facing Congress as "whether it will deliberately destroy an ally by withholding aid from it in its moment of extremity." Three years earlier, in October 1972, the month in which Kissinger publicly proclaimed that "peace is at hand," he privately told the President that their own settlement terms would destroy South Vietnam.

 

[Open Bolt]

Three years earlier, in October 1972, the month in which Kissinger publicly proclaimed that "peace is at hand," he privately told the President that their own settlement terms would destroy South Vietnam.

How did our settlement terms harm South Vietnam?

(If the terms did so, then we should not have agreed to them.)

 

[BlindBoo]

How did our settlement terms harm South Vietnam?

(If the terms did so, then we should not have agreed to them.)

It wasn't a peace settlement either side stuck too. More of a "You better not shoot our boys as we skedaddle' agreement.

 

[Open Bolt]

It wasn't a peace settlement either side stuck too. More of a "You better not shoot our boys as we skedaddle' agreement.

But how did it guarantee South Vietnam's doom?

 

[BlindBoo]

But how did it guarantee South Vietnam's doom?

Without US troops the remnants of the French Colonial Government was too weak and corrupt and not trusted by the people to hold on for long. Like in Afghanistan it was just a matter of time. As we pulled out, their fight began, except their Army had better discipline that the Afghans.

 

[Open Bolt]

Without US troops the remnants of the French Colonial Government was too weak and corrupt and not trusted by the people to hold on for long. Like in Afghanistan it was just a matter of time. As we pulled out, their fight began, except their Army had better discipline that the Afghans.

That makes sense. We should never have pulled out. Shame on us.

 

[BlindBoo]

That makes sense. We should never have pulled out. Shame on us.

Never should have moved in after France surrendered.