[speaker001:] tell me what you think about the Vietnam war.
[speaker002:] Okay. Well, I'm a Vietnam era veteran, and, uh, I was, uh, fortunate not to have to serve in the theater, however, my support roll in the service was to support those in the theater of operation. Uh, I'm of the old school that believes that, uh, the, uh, uh, contracts that we made back years ago needed to be honored. However, uh, I think we could have executed the war and gotten it over a whole lot quicker. Uh, but those are my personal thoughts, and I think that if we'd let the generals run the war like we let the generals run World War Two we'd had got it over a whole lot quicker and lost a lot fewer people. But as it was, the politicians ran the, the Korean conflict and ultimately the Vietnam thing, and we managed to come out, uh, losers all the way around. And so this is what trigger-, ultimately triggered us, uh, United States, uh, per se, being, uh, deciding to get out of the role of world policeman. Your views,
[speaker001:] Uh, as I understand it, {C and I, uh, [barking] don't know a lot about it, } uh, we got in there because of [barking] France
[speaker002:] Well.
[speaker001:] uh, France was there first. They had,
[speaker002:] We got into it because of SEATO agreement, back just right after World War Two that, [NOISE] uh, we pledged a mutual, uh, uh, defense of, of the South Vietnamese, and as it turned out they were in a civil war one with another, and really we [LAUGHTER] [NOISE] I, I question us, you know, now, of course hindsight is all too clear.
[speaker001:] Sure.
[speaker002:] Uh, so, we're, we, we have to, have to deal with, with the, uh, situation as, as we played it.
[speaker001:] Jerry, what did you think of people like, uh, Jane Fonda, another war an-, anti-war activist.
[speaker002:] I, [LAUGHTER] don't get me started on those people. You know, before she, before Jane Fonda did, did what she did, I thought she was a wonderful person, but after, uh, uh, well, I, I just don't have anything, want anything to do with her any more, because you support, uh, you support your government.
[speaker001:] Right or wrong?
[speaker002:] Uh, okay, right or wrong, I don't think is, is, we can determine whether we were right or wrong, because, you're, you're having to deal with, again, uh, I think we could have made a different agreement
[speaker001:] Uh-huh.
[speaker002:] back in for-, the for-, the late forties era that would have kept of there.
[speaker001:] Uh, you know, I, I didn't realize that we'd signed some type of deal like that. I thought we came in as first advisors to the French, and then they decided to pull out and,
[speaker002:] Can you hold just a second, Terry?
[speaker001:] Sure.
[speaker002:] One moment please.
[speaker001:] Sure [clicking] [beep]. [Talking to someone else or himself.] Wonder what happens to this little beastie on call waiting or something. Huh, fascinating. Well that's not,
[speaker002:] Sorry for the delay.
[speaker001:] That's okay.
[speaker002:] Uh, yeah, this is, the, uh, the, the, uh, mutual defense thing was, uh, we, we, it was complicated, and I don't think everybody knows the whole situation. I don't. But from what I can gather, is we went and said yeah, we will help the South Vietnamese, uh, should they ask. Well, the French went in and tried their old style warfare, and, uh, got soundly thrashed. And we didn't do a whole lot better.
[speaker001:] Um. No, I had thought that they had, uh, colonies there, or something.
[speaker002:] Well, yeah, that was the old French colony, but see, the French, the French were our, uh, allies in NATO
[speaker001:] Right.
[speaker002:] and they're also our allies in SEATO, which was the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization, which has since been, uh, disbanded as far as I know, you know, NATO is, is on the way of being disbanded. Uh, but, uh, the, you know, the French, yeah we go in as an ally to the French and says yeah, we'll, we'll help you out, if you get in a bind. Well, they got in a bind and says we don't want to, you know, play any more
[speaker001:] Uh-huh.
[speaker002:] so, uh, we, we kind of, we kind of got, got the ball rolling ourselves versus a bunch of top secret silly organi-, uh, um, oh, operations and then the full scale, you know, full scale troops, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.
[speaker001:] Yeah, I'm thirty-two, so, uh, I bar-, well, I missed it. Seventy-four is when they quit sending troops.
[speaker002:] Uh, yeah, yeah roughly.
[speaker001:] Yeah. I was just probably three or four years,