doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com 29 April - a Bad Day at Black Rock

This will be posted now. I was under the impression Saigon fell on 29 April 1975; and that Sardar Mohammad Daud Khan was overthrown in Kabul on 29 April 1978 starting the whole mess there. I was in Singapore for the first event; Up in Baluchistan near Dera Bugti Khan for the second:

Internet search will identify NVA tanks busting through the SVN Palace gates on 30 April; and the "Saur Revolution" on 28 April 1978 when the Afghan Air Force at the urging of the Afghan communist party bombed the Presidential palace to smithereens killing 5,000 members of the Presidential bodyguard.

Still I don't like or trust this day.

Here is the last message transmitted from CIA Station Chief in Saigon Tom Polgar around 2330 hours 29 April 1975. The message is apt:

This will be final message from Saigon station. It has been a long and hard fight and we have lost. This experience, unique in the history of the United States, does not signal necessarily the demise of the United States as a world power.

The severity of the defeat and the circumstances of it, however, would seem to call for a reassessment of the policies of niggardly half-measures which have characterized much of our participation here despite the commitment of manpower and resources, which were certainly generous. Those who fail to learn from history are forced to repeat it. Let us hope that we will not have another Vietnam experience and that we have learned our lesson.�

Saigon signing off.

And here is a picture at Dera Bugti Khan on that date when news reached us. The Afghan Air-Force Migs were passing right over the US embassy with the bombs already falling to hit the Presidential palace a half-mile down the road. The US high schools in the region - Kabul, Peshawar, Lahore, Islamabad and Karachi were having their sports tournament there. The kids took refuge on the roof of the embassy and came back wide-eyed. Kabul was an interesting city then - mini-skirts and burkhas - Pakistanis used to travel there to see Indian movies they couldn't see in Lahore.




I don't like this day. Plus my Mom died on this day.

So Argo44, are you making this totally Off-Topic Thread to say that we would have fared better in Vietnam if Donald Trump had been leading the charge to quickly essentially eliminate their Leadership, Command and Control, Air Force, Air defenses, Navy, etc., while simultaneously restricting China's oil imports, as he did in Iran?

I don't think he would have been happy to see 58,000 U.S. soldiers die , and nothing to show for it.

Or are you pointing out how Joe Biden totally ignored the advice of the military by screwing up the gradual and well controlled withdrawal of U.S. forces that Donald Trump negotiated to end a protracted conflict in Afghanistan?

Imagine if we had the billions in weapons Biden left behind for the enemy, and had them to also use on Iran. And imagine if Biden had not also abandoned the huge and costly Baghram Air Base to the enemy. Then our Air Force could have used it to much more efficiently bomb Iran and their nuclear program. It boggles the mind.

But Iran might have collapsed on it's own if both Obama and Biden hadn't handed them billions of dollars and also removed tough sanctions. At least that's what I think you are trying to say... and it's a good way to slide away from the personal attack you made on Ed too. We all know how that behavior chases members away!

Another day here on Double Standards Shop.

Gene, I have found that the best way to get bad memories out of my mind is to dwell on something else. One can't do that while spending time reminiscing on the bad ones.

Replacing bad memories with good ones is a first step.

Yeah, for once Argo it appears you were not in the thick of things. Lots & Lots of ethnic cleansing in Vietnam during that period. I attended University with several of the kids of Refuges, who escaped to Guam on the Last Birds out. Their families were typically a mix of Filipino Dads & Vietnamese Moms where the Dads were jungle guys and informants or operatives of the CIA. With the certain Ethnic Cleansing, there was no further future on that Peninsula. Very Chaotic & Unorganized Retreat.

The families staged on Guam till California Churches developed a network to push them across the US of A and many landed up in a German Stronghold in North Alabama.

Congo is quite similar as they to live by the Sword.

Serbus,

Raimey
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