The author of 'Black Hawk Down', Mark Bowden

HISTORICAL Hue 1968: A Turning Point of the American War in Vietnam
Mark Bowden (Atlantic)

has a new book, 'Hue 1968'.
Those of us of a certain age, old, remember the Tet Offensive, when it became obvious the Viet Nam war was REALLY bullshit. Bottom line, the war was unwinnable, no matter how many young Americans were sent in as cannon fodder, while the Pubs talked 'God and Country', calling anyone who disagreed a 'traitor' and worse.

Senior U.S. officials knew long before the Tet Offensive that the obstacles in the way of lasting success in the war were formidable and growing; many of them indeed knew it even before they initiated the air war and sent the first combat troops in early 1965. Although largely ignorant of Vietnamese history and culture, they understood full well that the odds were against them.

For this reason one can question Bowden’s assertion that Tet, and the Battle of Hue, was “the pivot point” in the war, after which “the debate was never again about how to win but about how to leave.”

58,000 deaths later, with hundreds of thousands wounded, the US was finally kicked out, after the decisive Battle of Saigon. with nothing being gained while it tore our country apart, alienating a generation against their government.

Sorta like Iraq, another Republican fiasco.

Now we have the Orange Clown. Don't ya just love them Pubs?