No 1975 retreat in Vietnam

Submitted by Ross Howard (Australia), Apr 7, 2006 at 21:44

Daniel Pipes is correct to say that the US won the Vietnam War on the ground but that "the body politic's will had been sapped." However I believe he is incorrect to refer to a 1975 retreat, as so many do, when he says"1975 the only defeat in US history, when American troops retreated from South Vietnam."

It was my understanding that 1968 was the high point of the war when the US had approximately 536,000 military personnel assigned to Vietnam. Those figures decreased over the years so that after the Paris Peace Agreement in 1973 the US had "less than 250" military personnel assigned to Vietnam by December 1973.

It is common for many to refer to the helicopter evacuation of the US embassy in 1975 as the US retreat and defeat. It is totally inaccurate.

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