William Westmoreland Quotes
As the senior commander in Vietnam, I was aware of the potency of public opinion - and I worried about it. By the end of the summer of 1973 I thought it was virtually impossible for South Vietnam to survive. How in the heck could they? I do not believe that the men who served in uniform in Vietnam have been given the credit they deserve. It was a difficult war against an unorthodox enemy. I don't take criticism lying down. I don't think I have been loved by my troops, but I think I have been respected. I haven't yet figured out how I was made first captain, because I was not an outstanding student. I was an adequate student. I was participating in my own lynching, but the problem was I didn't know what I was being lynched for. I've made this statement many times: If I would have to do it over again, I would have made known the forthcoming Tet Offensive. In the end, we lost IndoChina to the communists. But we did not lose Southeast Asia. It became very clear that Hanoi was in effect strategically running the Viet Cong operation. It's the first war we've ever fought on the television screen and the first war that our country ever fought where the media had full reign. Militarily, we succeeded in Vietnam. We won every engagement we were involved in out there. My wife was my greatest asset. I didn't marry her until after World War II, but she has complemented me in every job I've ever had. President Johnson did not want the Vietnam War to broaden. He wanted the North Vietnamese to leave their brothers in the South alone. Television is an instrument which can paralyze this country. The last man in the world who should have been criticized was the American soldier. They should have criticized me. The military don't start wars. Politicians start wars. The military lead turbulent lives, but they are people like everybody else. The Vietnam memorial is a masterpiece. The names of the dead are listed there, chronologically. Just the names. Vietnam was the first war ever fought without any censorship. Without censorship, things can get terribly confused in the public mind.
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