How St. Jude, the patron saint of lost causes came to define the Vietnam war

If there was ever a time and place that epitomized individuals battling a lost cause, then the war in Vietnam was the time and location.

America lost the war when Indo-China returned to the French instead of the communists who fought the Japanese and aided the U.S. in liberating Vietnam. The Kennedy administration agreed to free elections, and Ho Chi Minh enacted a cease-fire. Yet, the U.S. reneged on allowing free elections because a survey indicated Ho Chi Minh would win. It rekindled the insurgency.

JFK had second thoughts, but his assassination occurred before this idea could enact. President Johnson, under the advice of Robert S. McNamara, escalated the war to epic proportions. The absolute pity of it all was that the North Vietnamese were fighting for self-determination without the rule of a foreign power. The South Vietnamese puppet government supported by the U.S. were carpetbaggers who installed themselves as dictators and took the millions offered by our government to line their pockets and give false promises to keep the cash flow. To say we were fools is an understatement. But where else could 58,000 American boys be sent to slaughter without those responsible prosecuted than a war conducted on a false premise? And that’s the truth of it!

Jerry Glazer — Vietnam Uncensored

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