THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, May 10, 1995 TAG: 9505100003
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A16 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Letter
LENGTH: Medium: 52 lines
It should certainly be clear to all thinking people that our national policy in Korea and in Vietnam was never to ``win the war'' but was to prevent the spread of communism by containing the armed forces of communist countries from expanding beyond their borders and to forestall any small conflict from escalating into a larger and more dangerous confrontation. It should also be clear that if the United States had really, really wanted to defeat North Korea and North Vietnam, it could easily have done so but with a greater effort and considerably greater cost.
Now that 50 years have elapsed since the end of World War II, it appears as though the wisdom of the containment policy has been proved and that it accomplished what it set out to do. It prevented the spread of worldwide communism. It forestalled a general conflict. It laid the groundwork for the death of communism and the absolute emasculation of what President Reagan termed ``the Evil Empire.''
I believe that thanks and respect are due all American veterans since the end of World War II who fought and bled and died in far-off corners of the world for a noble cause - a cause whose successful conclusion saved the world from a hard-to-imagine fate. It is especially important that veterans of Vietnam, who fought in a highly unpopular and largely misunderstood war, should understand that their contribution was the vital linchpin in the eventual downfall of communism. The United States did not ``win'' the war in Vietnam. Nor did we ``lose'' it. Vietnam proved to the Russians that the United States would fight communism whereever it appeared and forever if necessary.
Robert McNamara's new book has been quoted and excerpted by countless reviewers and talk-show hosts who have declared that Robert McNamara wrote: ``I knew as early as 1965-7 that we could never win this war. . . The war was wrong, wrong, wrong, terribly wrong. . . . I'm very sorry. . . .'' Surely McNamara knew that American foreign policy required that the spread of communism be contained by any and all means and at all costs; that Vietnam was a vital link in our ongoing policy to preserve democracy by destroying communism; and that if we could hold to this policy, the forces of communism would eventually self-destruct.
The containment policy proved itself to be right on target! And for that, veterans of the Vietnam War (especially) should be proud of the brave and courageous part they played in the implementation of that winning policy.
THEO S. RODERICK
Virginia Beach, May 2, 1995 by CNB