Shannon Love has produced a lengthy list of what he considers the Left’s delusional narratives regarding Vietnam:
Delusion: The war in South Vietnam was a popular uprising against an unpopular minority government
Reality: The outcome of the Tet offensive proved this idea conclusively wrong.Delusion: Ho Chi Min was really just a non-ideological Vietnamese nationalist who was driven to seek support from the communist superpowers by the ignorance and racism of America and France.
Delusion:The Tet offensive proved the US military had lied about strength and scale of support in South Vietnam for the Viet Cong.
Reality: The Tet offensive achieved surprise for the same reason Hitler’s offensive in the battle of bulge achieve surprise: The plan was based on a delusional narrative and had no chance of success.
Delusion: There were no North Vietnamese army units operating in either South Vietnam or Cambodia.
Reality: Post-Tet major combat was carried out by North Vietnamese regulars.
Delusion: The US “expanded” the war into Cambodia in 1970 and did so “illegally”.
Delusion: The war was fought on the Vietnamese side by militarily outmatched but plucky and determined peasant soldiers who fought with no significant support or direction from the communist superpowers.
Reality: The support of the Soviet Union and Mao’s China was massive and decisive.
Delusion: American soliders were routinely committing wide scale atrocities in the conduct of the war.
Reality: There was no pattern of wide spread atrocities or war crimes.
Delusion: The deafening silence on the nature of communist regimes on the other side of the conflict.
Delusion:The “Peace” movement brought about peace.
Reality: This is the most tragic delusion of all. It is the reason I have been putting “Peace” in quotation marks.