Brian: Uh, okay, talk about avoiding facts or omitting them altogether.
Last US combat troops were out in 1973, not 1975, so you have a two year window that you have to account for, prior to that infamous Huey shot in April, 1975.
So, what happened in the interim? Would you like to discuss how a Democrat-led Congress left the armed forces of South Vietnam high and dry and without the necessary war materials and supplies to sustain and maintain offensive operations in the field against the North Vietnamese Army? How the fall of Saigon (as well as the rest of the South Vietnam) came about as a result of that?
You talked about starting a book club. Here’s some titles you should read about the Vietnam War (actual books, not Wiki entries). Start with a “Bright Shining Lie” by Neil Sheehan, move to “Fire in the Lake” by Frances Fitzgerald, and then “The Cat From Hue” by John Laurence (OPCA Winner) and finally “A Viet Cong Memoir” by Troung Nhu Tang.
That last one is a must read and highly informative, especially to someone that has been propagandized by the Halberstams and Karnows. You also might want to sit down with some guys who were actually IN the Vietnam War. Most of the senior NCOs and officers I served with in the 1980s were Vietnam vets and I can tell you their take is very different from yours, largely because they were there and saw the war as soldiers, not some cheap agitprop bloviation exercise.
