FROM ALLIES TO ENEMIES: THE VIETNAM WAR’S TRAGIC SHIFT

Many veterans, journalists, and writers have tried to make sense of the Vietnam War. Some have written the truth; others have spun their own stories. But the one that sticks in my throat is the claim: “The battle that changed the conflict.” It’s a lie, and it’s wrong. History’s pages prove it. No one battle ended the war. There wasn’t a single event that brought the long, brutal fight to its knees. Not even close.

Eleven years, long and bloody, with no real end, U.S. forces never lost a battle, but they were never winning. It was a circle — round and round it went. The North Vietnamese Army and the Viet Cong were relentless, pushing, pulling, and driving at the American will. The body count grew. The wounded piled up. And all the while, the fighting never stopped.

Washington’s politicians, fat with their arrogance, kept quoting a country the size of California could never defeat the might of the United States. But they were wrong. Their mistake fueled the fire, sending death through the ranks of the Americans, the Vietnamese, the Cambodians, the Laotians — everyone.

What makes it worse is the betrayal. Ho Chi Minh, once an ally of the U.S. in the fight against Japan, never thought he’d be left behind, betrayed by the country he helped. He fought for Vietnam’s independence, believing America would…