Vietnam Remembered
By the Men of Hotel Company, Second Battalion, Fifth Marine Regiment, First Marine Division.

By Gene Kuentzler: The question raised by Gary Beaver, "Do you have any data on actual U.S. troops, by name who were killed as a direct result of Fonda's actions?" can be answered by reading the book written by General Giap, Commander of NVA forces. Giap clearly indicated that NVA troops were without sufficient supplies, and had been continually defeated time and again.
����� By 1968, NVA morale was at it's lowest point ever. The plans for "Tet" '68 was their last desperate attempt to achieve a success, in an effort to boost the NVA morale. When it was over, General Giap and the NVA viewed the Tet '68 offensive as a failure, they were on their knees and had prepared to negotiate a surrender.
���� At that time, there were fewer than 10,000 U.S. casualties, the Vietnam War was about to end, as the NVA were prepared to accept their defeat. Then, they heard Walter Cronkite (former CBS News anchor and correspondent) on TV proclaiming the success of the Tet '68 offensive by the communist NVA. They were completely and totally amazed at hearing that the US Embassy had been overrun. In reality, The NVA had not gained access to the Embassy--there were some VC who had been killed on the grassy lawn, but they hadn't gained access. Further reports indicated the riots and protesting on the streets of America.
����� According to Giap, these distorted reports were inspirational to the NVA. They changed their plans from a negotiated surrender and decided instead, they only needed to persevere for one more hour, day, week, month, eventually the protesters in American would help them to achieve a victory they knew they could not win on the battlefield. Remember, this decision was made at a time when the U.S. casualties were fewer than 10,000, at the end of 1967, beginning of 1968.
����� Today, there are 58,000 names on the Vietnam Wall Memorial that was built with the donations made by the American public. Although Giap did not mention each and every protester's name in his book, many of us will never forget the 58,000 names on the Wall. We will also never forget the names of those who helped in placing those additional 48,000 names there: Bill, Jane, Tom, Cronkite, and others.
����� Those of us who rotated prior to Walter Cronkite's report on "Tet-68" can clearly state, "We were still winning when I left!"

Between Tet 1968 and March 1970 the members of Hotel Company, Second Battalion, Fifth Marine Regiment, First Marine Division, FMF Fought many battles starting in the provincial capital of Hoa to the Arizona Territory about 21 miles Southeast of DaNang, Vietnam.

Those of us who were member of Hotel Company are featured on this website and we stand as a testimony to what we have accomplished during our individual tours of duty in Vietnam. Each of us have a lot to be very proud of. First in the fact that we never lost any of the battles we were engaged in and second that we faced the enemy and we defeated him on his own turf.

For those of us who were there we will never forget the name of the places we have been like Hoa City, Goi Noi Island, Liberty Bridge, Booby Trap Alley, or the Arizona Territory nor will we ever forget the many 30 day turned into 120 day operations we were sent on like Allen Brook, Taylor Common, Mead River, Muskege Meadows, or Durham Peak. Nor will we ever forget those who fought along side of us.

We accomplished what everybody said was the impossible. We routed out the enemy and sent him crawling back to North Vietnam. For those of us who survived Mother's Day 1969. When out of a T. O. Company reinforced or 180 men strong, we were reduced to only 45 of us left standing after 3 days of fierce fighting. According to the "Official Vietnamese Government Reports" they had sent some 5,000 men to evict us from Vietnam. Out of those 5,000 men only 5 survived the 3 day battle and of those 5 remaining men 3 died of their injuries while heading back to North Vietnam.

On the following pages are some of the pictures of us and of Vietnam and her people. Some of the men you will see were killed in Vietnam and many more were injured and left without arms, legs or other body parts.

For those individuals who maintain the misbegotten belief that we lost the war consider this for a moment. We demoralized the enemy. Then we totally destroyed his strong holds. In doing so we defeated him. We packed out trash and we came home. In April 1973 we had the peaceful exchange of Prisoners of War along with the total surrender of the enemy. From April 1973 till the fall of Saigon in 1975 the South Vietnamese held their own without the aid of U.S. Forces. It wasn't until our government cut off all aid and support for the South which left the South Vietnamese without any means of defending themselves that the North was able to then and only then go in and take over. We won the first war and we decided we didn't want to play any more as we turned our backs on the Vietnamese people. So please tell me how we can loose a war we were never involved in?

I mean seriously after the end of World War One and the Germans were defeated. We packed our trash and came home. Nobody has ever said that we lost World War One even though years later the Germans started yet another World War. Yet some people refuse to believe that we won the war in Vietnam simply because years after the end of the war the North Vietnamese started yet another war. A second war which we refused to participate in.

Heros of the Vietnam
Generation

To ENTER click on Dog's

Nose


ICQ # 22434561



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