Lying Generals don't stop lying when they retire. As Yogi Berra once said it is déjà vu all over again. by Tom McFadden
I'm old enough to remember when the generals told Congress and the American people we were defeating the Viet Cong, the North Vietnamese communists army. How could it be otherwise? They were slightly-built little guys who slipped around in what looked like black pajamas and sandals while we had helicopters, jets that dropped napalm and agent orange on them and we had lots of artillery. General Westmoreland gave the daily body counts that showed we were training the South Vietnamese Army and winning the Vietnam War. Just give the generals more time and money. And then I remember the terrified Vietnamese on the roof of the U.S. embassy in Saigon as the last U.S. helicopters flew off in ignominious defeat. The Communists inherited billions of dollars of infrastructure (airfields, ports) that we taxpayers had built and the S. Vietnamese, the lucky ones known as "the boat people" managed to board anything that floated and thousands perished at sea. A generation of American men were decimated. To thank the 58,000 killed, mostly conscripts, their government put their name on a wall. The remainder were neglected by their countrymen for serving in a losing war and so many ended up homeless, mentally-ill, or drug addicted. "Thank you for your service" was not in the lexicon.
