The saddest part of it all is that we were allied with Vietnam in WW2 with OSS operatives in assistance.[1]  Ho Chi Minh reached out to the United States for our support at the end of the war.  Unfortunately, the French wanted back their pride and their colonies and refused to support the Marshall plan without them.  So we turned our back on a people who wanted to be independent for politics and a desire to buttress Western Europe against communism.[2]  We then followed the French in after their fiasco at Dien Bien Phu to fight the spread of the communist menace.<p>For the longest time I thought the Vietnamese were the biggest losers in this.  They got their independence, but down a path closer to North Korea instead of South Korea after much loss of life.  But now I think America was the biggest loser. We lost a cornerstone of our culture: military service.  We killed the draft and a generation has been inoculated with the attitude military service is for poor people without other options.  The military has begun to privatize and isolate itself from America.  Fewer and fewer people serve.  Many people serving in Iraq were paid, foreign contractors.  Debate about the military is nonexistent.  Everyone “supports the troops,” but the wars are either patriotic or evil, with little discussion of execution and goals.  It saddens me and makes me think of Rome at the end of the Republican period. [3]<p>[1] <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.historynet.com&#x2F;ho-chi-minh-and-the-oss.htm" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.historynet.com&#x2F;ho-chi-minh-and-the-oss.htm</a><p>[2] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;books.google.com&#x2F;books?id=B59ZUKeNoD4C&amp;pg=PA47&amp;lpg=PA47&amp;dq=france+marshall+plan+vietnam&amp;source=bl&amp;ots=vDtuRho66J&amp;sig=jos6boLUTCwZiwaultjTJdg5pdI&amp;hl=en&amp;sa=X&amp;ved=0ahUKEwidzoiWiebKAhUH92MKHR77BL0Q6AEILTAC#v=onepage&amp;q=france%20marshall%20plan%20vietnam&amp;f=false" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;books.google.com&#x2F;books?id=B59ZUKeNoD4C&amp;pg=PA47&amp;lpg=P...</a><p>[3] <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.historynet.com&#x2F;romes-barbarian-mercenaries.htm" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.historynet.com&#x2F;romes-barbarian-mercenaries.htm</a>