What Book Are You Reading at the Moment?

[Smitty-48]

Boom! Vietnam syndrome kicked. Boo-yah! No more liberals.

I see it in a more Nixonian way. Post Vietnam Syndrome can be exploited.

It's a pendulum swinging. The game is to feed your opponent rope with which to hang themselves.

You mentioned that many of Nixon's positions were quite fickle ie environmental shit etc. Do you think if he had a better chance of winning, he'd run as a Democrat today?

Ah, no. Nixon despised liberals with every fibre of his being.

He would have had them gassed if he thought he could get away with it.

Nixon would just say anything to get elected. Tricky Dick, just win baby.

Nixonian is when you adopt the strategies of the liberals to run their own game back against them.

[heydaralon]

I see it in a more Nixonian way. Post Vietnam Syndrome can be exploited.

It's a pendulum swinging. The game is to feed your opponent rope with which to hang themselves.

You mentioned that many of Nixon's positions were quite fickle ie environmental shit etc. Do you think if he had a better chance of winning, he'd run as a Democrat today?

Ah, no. Nixon despised liberals with every fibre of his being.

He would have had them gassed if he thought he could get away with it.

Nixon would just say anything to get elected. Tricky Dick, just win baby.

Nixonian is when you adopt the strategies of the liberals to run their own game back against them.

How do you feel about LBJ? I'm no fan of the Great Society or really any of his shit tbh. I think he was pretty awful all around. Are you a fan?

[Smitty-48]

You mentioned that many of Nixon's positions were quite fickle ie environmental shit etc. Do you think if he had a better chance of winning, he'd run as a Democrat today?

Ah, no. Nixon despised liberals with every fibre of his being.

He would have had them gassed if he thought he could get away with it.

Nixon would just say anything to get elected. Tricky Dick, just win baby.

Nixonian is when you adopt the strategies of the liberals to run their own game back against them.

How do you feel about LBJ? I'm no fan of the Great Society or really any of his shit tbh. I think he was pretty awful all around. Are you a fan?

I like LBJ's style in terms of being a ruthless backroom political operator.

But ultimately he was a moral coward didn't have the courage of his convictions.

Chickened out in the face of the commies.

Wouldn't bomb the politburo in Hanoi, wouldn't bludgeon the hippies in the streets.

[heydaralon]

Ah, no. Nixon despised liberals with every fibre of his being.

He would have had them gassed if he thought he could get away with it.

Nixon would just say anything to get elected. Tricky Dick, just win baby.

Nixonian is when you adopt the strategies of the liberals to run their own game back against them.

How do you feel about LBJ? I'm no fan of the Great Society or really any of his shit tbh. I think he was pretty awful all around. Are you a fan?

I like LBJ's style in terms of being a ruthless backroom political operator.

But ultimately he was a moral coward didn't have the courage of his convictions.

Chickened out in the face of the commies.

Wouldn't bomb the politburo in Hanoi, wouldn't bludgeon the hippies in the streets.

Why would bombing the politburo in Hanoi stop the war? If some commie had bombed the Capitol Building in DC, we definitely would keep fighting the reds. Hell, if some commie did that, Americans would probably drop their differences for a bit and work to annihilate the offending party.

[Smitty-48]

Why would bombing the politburo in Hanoi stop the war?

It's a turn of phrase.

Understand that Operation Rolling Thunder was a Dog n' Pony show.

They bombed everything except the regime targets which were critical, in fear of escalation.

Meanwhile the commies just kept escalating. So appeasing them didn't work.

They never really got bombed critically, until Nixon took the gloves off.

Then all of sudden the commies wanted to make a deal.

[heydaralon]

Why would bombing the politburo in Hanoi stop the war?

It's a turn of phrase.

Understand that Operation Rolling Thunder was a Dog n' Pony show.

They bombed everything except the regime targets which were critical, in fear of escalation.

Meanwhile the commies just kept escalating. So appeasing them didn't work.

They never really got bombed critically, until Nixon took the gloves off.

Then all of sudden the commies wanted to make a deal.

lol it really makes very little sense to fight a war if you are not prepared to actually fight the entities on the opposing side that make the war continue. Why was Johnson being a chickenshit? He had the balls to fight the war, but didn't have the balls to actually bomb viable targets? wtf who came up with that dumbass policy?

[Smitty-48]

Why would bombing the politburo in Hanoi stop the war?

It's a turn of phrase.

Understand that Operation Rolling Thunder was a Dog n' Pony show.

They bombed everything except the regime targets which were critical, in fear of escalation.

Meanwhile the commies just kept escalating. So appeasing them didn't work.

They never really got bombed critically, until Nixon took the gloves off.

Then all of sudden the commies wanted to make a deal.

lol it really makes very little sense to fight a war if you are not prepared to actually fight the entities on the opposing side that make the war continue. Why was Johnson being a chickenshit? He had the balls to fight the war, but didn't have the balls to actually bomb viable targets? wtf who came up with that dumbass policy?

Because he was a liberal Democrat, FDR was his idol.

But as a result, his base was a buncha commie sympathizing peaceniks.

He didn't have the Great Silent Majority backing him up.

If LBJ had done in 1964, what Nixon did, they would have won.

Problem being, by the time Nixon has the chance to do it, the media had already declared the war lost.

[Smitty-48]

Bear in mind that Nixon did not prefer to lose the Vietnam War.

Nixon would have liked to escalate and go for the win.

He simply calculated that the media had already shifted public opinion to the point that didn't matter what you did.

Too much of the electorate had decided it was "unwinnable" by 1969.

[Smitty-48]

Because Search & Destroy has caused too many casualties.

It was all about logistics.

The LBJ plan used up too many troops too fast.

That broke the will to fight the war.

That needs to be corrected much earlier than 69', by 69's it's too late to fix it.

[heydaralon]

Because Search & Destroy has caused too many casualties.

It was all about logistics.

The LBJ plan used up too many troops too fast.

That broke the will to fight the war.

That needs to be corrected much earlier than 69', by 69's it's too late to fix it.

What really kills me is the fact that the media, and many politicians felt it was unwinnable, but stuck around. Either your goal is to win a war, or you don't fight one in the first place. Six years for no good reason. You can make a case we shouldn't have gotten involved, a good case, but staying in the jungle for six years is a travesty imo.