Walter Cronkite's lost broadcast

[musterion]

People have talked about this for years and apparently it finally showed up.

http://www.wnd.com/2018/01/lost-cronkite-broadcast-reveals-180-degree-war-flip/

“First and simplest, the Viet Cong suffered a military defeat,” [Cronkite] reported. “Its missions proved suicidal. If they had intended to stay in the cities as a negotiating point, they failed at that. The Vietnamese army reacted better than even its most ardent supporters had anticipated. There were no defections from its rank, as the Viet Cong apparently had expected. And the people did not rise to support the Viet Cong, as they were also believed to have expected.”

U.S. and South Vietnamese forces thoroughly routed the offensive of the communist North, but Cronkite went on the air about 2 weeks later with the exact opposite story, falsely stating the war was hopeless. Public support for the war dropped, Democrats in Congress cut the funding, and the U.S. "lost" Veitnam.

 

[Gary K]

People have talked about this for years and apparently it finally showed up.

http://www.wnd.com/2018/01/lost-cronkite-broadcast-reveals-180-degree-war-flip/



U.S. and South Vietnamese forces thoroughly routed the offensive of the communist North, but Cronkite went on the air about 2 weeks later with the exact opposite story, falsely stating the war was hopeless. Public support for the war dropped, Democrats in Congress cut the funding, and the U.S. "lost" Veitnam.

Great find, musterion. Just goes to show how long we have had a corrupt media.

 

[The Barbarian]

Two words:
"Pentagon Papers"

These documents showed that US military and intelligence people had realized that the war could not be won as early as the Eisenhower administration.

But it was kept secret until Daniel Ellsberg let it out.

The Papers revealed that the U.S. had expanded its war with the bombing of Cambodia and Laos, coastal raids on North Vietnam, and Marine Corps attacks, none of which had been reported by media in the US.[4] The most damaging revelations in the papers revealed that four administrations (Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Johnson), had misled the public regarding their intentions. For example, the Eisenhower administration actively worked against the Geneva Accords. The John F. Kennedy administration knew of plans to overthrow South Vietnamese leader Ngo Dinh Diem before his death in a November 1963 coup. President Johnson had decided to expand the war while promising "we seek no wider war" during his 1964 presidential campaign,[9] including plans to bomb North Vietnam well before the 1964 Election. President Johnson had been outspoken against doing so during the election and claimed that his opponent Barry Goldwater was the one that wanted to bomb North Vietnam.[29]

In another example, a memo from the Defense Department under the Johnson Administration listed the reasons for American persistence:

"70% – To avoid a humiliating U.S. defeat.
20% – To keep [South Vietnam] (and the adjacent) territory from Chinese hands.
10% – To permit the people [of South Vietnam] to enjoy a better, freer way of life.
ALSO – To emerge from the crisis without unacceptable taint from methods used.
NOT – To help a friend"[9][31]

Another controversy was that President Johnson sent combat troops to Vietnam by July 17, 1965, before pretending to consult his advisors on July 21–27, per the cable stating that "Deputy Secretary of Defense Cyrus Vance informs McNamara that President had approved 34 Battalion Plan and will try to push through reserve call-up."[32] In 1988, when that cable was declassified, it revealed "there was a continuing uncertainty as to [Johnson's] final decision, which would have to await Secretary McNamara's recommendation and the views of Congressional leaders, particularly the views of Senator [Richard] Russell."[33]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pentagon_Papers

North Vietnam was defeated easily in the Tet offensive. It didn't matter. They were prepared to do it time and again. The simple fact was that they wanted to unite Vietnam more than we wanted to stop them. A series of U.S. presidents knew this, and told us otherwise.

That was all that mattered.