Sunday, October 23, 2011
[1869 - John William Heisman, college football coach, born in Cleveland, Ohio]
[1871 - New York Yacht Club's Columbia & Sappho beat Livonia (UK) in 3rd America's Cup]
[1906 - Gertrude Ederle, Olympic champion swimmer, born in New York City]
[1914 - 'Bruiser' Frank Kinard, College and Pro Football Hall of Famer, born in Pelahatchie, Mississippi]
[1918 - James Daly, Emmy Award-winning actor, born in Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin]
[1925 - Johnny (John William) Carson, TV host, comedian, born in Corning Iowa]
[1931 - Diana Dors (Mavis Fluck), actress, born in Swindon, England]
[1940 - (Eleanor Louise) Ellie Greenwich, (Gaye), songwriter, singer, producer, born in Brooklyn]
[1956 - Hungarian Revolution against USSR begins]
[1983 - Islamic terrorists bomb US Marine barracks at Beirut, Lebanon]
[1983 - Islamic terrorists bomb the US Marine barracks at Beirut, Lebanon, killing 241 peacekeepers]
Early on in the ill-fated Bush-Cheney Iraq adventure there were fanciful comparisons to the Vietnam experience by the pundits, and much talk of quagmire. Like a lot of us who served and lived through the Vietnam debacle, William was originally unimpressed by these strained efforts to find parallels. Messrs. Bush and Cheney made believers of us though.
In the early '70s it became clear to all that gross mismanagement of the Vietnam conflict had placed this Nation and our military forces in the midst of an un-winnable war. In a desperate attempt to save face, the reigning leader of that era announced a new strategy called "Vietnamization." The idea was a simple one:
1. Create another in the succession of puppet regimes in the Republic of Vietnam.The Bush Iraq exit strategies of trust me, followed by "stay the course," "stand up to stand down," and "return on success" were strikingly reminiscent of the Nixon cover story for the US withdrawal from Vietnam. One remembers the ignominious scenes of US helos airlifting the last survivors from a roof near the US Embassy in Saigon (now Ho Chi Minh City) while hundreds of Vietnamese civilians milled at the embassy gates or scaled the walls in terror, anticipating the fate that would soon befall them once the capitol fell to the victorious North Vietnamese.
2. Give them some training and military equipment.
3. Turn over the mess to them.
4. Beat a hasty retreat.
William's Whimsical Words:
A somewhat more graceful exit from Iraq would seem to be in the offing.
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