Mitch wrote:

we sat back and watched as people like bobspit, spat on our returning soldiers
... This was a dark day in the history of the united states. ...

It was indeed a dark day because the good on both sides blame each other
instead of the real culprits: a small group of men called JFK's Whiz
Kids. There was supposed to be an election to reunify Vietnam but polls
showed Ho's communists winning because the Diem dictatorship was so bad
Buddists (the majority) were burning themselves in protest. Believing
they could save the situation by delaying the election, McNamara & Co
staged the Gulf of Tonkin Incident to get us into a war they could
gradually escalate; and it worked. 100's of 1000s of young Americans
were drafted and fought just as well and just as bravely as any before
or since. But they were NEVER be allowed to win because by winning we'd
become another invader just like the French had been. Knowing that
McNamara & Co micromanaged the war, trading lives to make sure that
didn't happen. Then came a day when LBJ balked at sending the next
increment of canon fodder and asked Westmoreland why Ho wouldn't match
it. "He will" said Westy. Then where will this end? Never, was the
answer. When I get the 500,000 combat troops McNamara promised me I'll
be able to contain the situation but the fighting will go on
indefinately, just like I told my boss Sec of Def McNamara. A few days
later LBJ announced he wouldn't seek reelection and after more years of
killing to get an "honorable" peace (and make a few more $$$ off the
war) Nixon & friends finally pulled out leaving the country to Ho's
communists.

Meanwhile we had protesters insulting their peers who had after all done
their duty bravely and others despising the protesters without whom the
war'd still be going on - and the real culprits went on to bigger and
better screwups. Yes,it was indeed a very dark day when a tiny group of
men were able to thwart our system of checks and balances, pull the wool
on Dem's & Republicans alike, and kill 1000s. But worst of all, few know
it even happened so it could easily happen again. Why do you think The
Shrub found it so easy?