Vietnam & Cuba:
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VIETNAM-
During world war 2 the French pulled out of Vietnam, because their 
home land was over taken by the Nazis. 
The people of Vietnam sided with the allied forces against 
the Japanese who were invading large sections of China 
and south east Asia. 
They help american forces in intellegence and guerilla warfare. 
After the war France wanted to re-occupy Vietnam but had no means 
of transporting troops back there. The U.S. made a big mistake in 
helping France by letting them use our planes, ships and supplies. 
The people of Vietnam felt betrayed, with good reason. 
(They helped america, america sold them out) 
Its sort of ironic. The first thing France did after 
getting free from a hostile outside rulership of their nation was 
to re-establish one over another nation. 

Vietnam rallied back, under a man named Ho Chi Mihn. 
They managered to force the French out of their nation. 
At that time the U.S.A. sort of inherieted their problems. 
He agreed to let the Soviet Union rebuild the northen part of Vietnam, 
while america rebuilt the south. Eventually elections were to unify the nation. 
Ho Chi Mihn chose to lead the northeren part, since the Soviets hadn't 
screwed them over. In the south america appionted a blithering idiot as a 
puppet ruler. If that wasn't enough he was very corrupt and persecuted 
Buddist. (Not a smart chioce when 93% of the people there were Buddist) 
Needless to say when it came time to hold an election the nation would 
have chosen a national hero over a racist tyrant. The South Vietnam 
refused to allow the free election. This resulted in an invasion from 
the north. I think america should have just gotten out of there and called 
it a wash. Instead america was worried that a swamp covered, misquitoe infested, 
jungle waste land full people who hate us, would become Communist. 
Oddly, america was fighting to stop a free election and peaceful unification. 
The north commited a number of brutal war crimes. America had no actual plan 
for winning the war. The concept was something like this: "Hey, if america send 
some of our guys to wonder around a jungel with no clue where to go or 
what to do, maybe the enemy will get tired of ambushing them and surrender." 
Instead the american people got tired of it. Technically america pulled out of 
the war instead of "losing" or "surrendering" but everyone knew South 
Vietnam could hold shit on its own. It fell less than a month after america left. 
The whole thing pisses me off. america could have easily made Vietnam our allie 
by telling France to suck it, when they asked for our help re-taking Vietnam. 
america could have furth strengthed our ties by building some schools, roads, 
giving them food and teaching them how to farm, fish. 
When France surrendered, america should have let Ho Chi Mihn have the whole 
damn thing and washed our hands of it. Or at least set up a good puppet 
lead that didn't persecute the people. 
When the war started, again america should have just pulled out. 
(The south was fighting against a free election) Or if america was going to 
stay in, america should have come up with a plan of action. How about bombing 
and invading the north, cutting off enemy supply lines. 
Capture the enemy capitol, thus forcing a surrender. 
Lastly I think it was terrible to pull out and say to all the dead 
soldiers and families "You guys died for nothing". 
I know they didn't actually say it but everyone knows it. Building 
a black wall with a bunch of names in Washington doesn't change it. 

CUBA-
Cuba had a revolution against its government. 
The people were poor (often starving) , 
while a rich/corrupt upper class held most of the nation's wealth. 
A communist gevernment was formed under Feidel Castro. 
The USA was worried about a Communist nation only 45 miles of the 
Florida coast. President Eisenhower made plans to assist a very 
large group of Cuban that didn't want a Dictator like Castro in charge. 
It would be a ground attack by the Cubans, with Air and Naval support 
from the USA. This was popular with the people of america, since all US 
holdings in Cuba had been seized by the new government. 
Before the attack, John F Kennedy came into office. 
Kennedy disliked Eisenhower's military approach to everything and 
called off our support of it. The Cuban allies were never warned, 
so they made the attack only to be butchered. This slaughter was called 
"Bay of Pigs". I like what JFK did as far as civil rights go
but what he did here was stupid. What followed was the Cuban 
missile crisis and over 40 years of US embargo against all Cuban products. 

        As for Vietnam, there wasn't one smart thing america did in that 
situation.  A total loss. The French ruled Vietnam at the start of WWII. 
When the Nazis occupied France, the French soldiers had to withdraw 
from Vietnam. The Vietlamese people felt this was a perfect time 
to have freedom. They were actually a big help to the U.S. forces 
fighting the Japanese and supplying us vital intellegence for combat 
in south east Asia. Ho Chi Mihn was actually our ally. 
At the end of WWII, France regained its independance from Germany 
and wasted little time trying to retake vietnam and their independance. 
The French did not have airplanes and ships capable of transporting 
weapons and troops to take over vietnam. They turned to the U.S., 
who in turn provided them a ride over there. In doing this america really 
stabbed the Vietlamese people in the back. The French returned to Vietnam 
but the people of Vietnam fought and over threw them. When the French 
surrendered and left the UN divided Vietnam in two parts. 
The north was to be rebuilt by the Soviet Union and the south was 
to be rebuilt by the U.S. Eventually free elections were to 
re-unite north and south. (Clearly the U.N. didn't realize this doesn't 
work after Korea) This was bad since the Vietlamese people already 
disliked us for helping France occupy them. To make matters worse, 
the north was run by Ho Chi Mihn, who was a great friend and hero to 
the people. In the south they appionted a Catholic guy who rapidly 
percecuted Asian and Eastern religions. (Not a smart move since 
Vietnam is predominantly Buddist) Needless to say when it came time 
for the elections, the guy in the south didn't want them to happen, 
since he would lose power. While the USA didn't like his actions america 
was so afraid of the spread of communism that america backed him. 
This is what started the war. The way america fought the war was dumb. 
america kept all the fighting in South Vietnam, so america was constantly 
on the defensive. America made no attempt to invade the north or attack our 
enemy's sources of supplies. People on both sides hated us. 
And america really didn't make any long term strategy for fighting the war. 
Its like if there was a foot ball team whose coach said: 
"I'm not going to select any play, just run around with the 
ball and hope no one tackels you. Maybe if america keep this up, 
they'll get tired of tackeling us and let us score." 
        Lyndon Johnson left office shortly before the pull out. 
As for civil rights movements, he was a great President. 
(Kennedy made a lot of stands but Johnson got equal rights 
bills passed) When it came to his decision to keep us involved 
with Vietnam, he lost a lot of credit. Johnson took over after 
Kennedy was killed. He then ran for his first term. 
He carried every state but Arizona. He did not run for re-election 
because so many people were upset about how he handled Vietnem. 
He called for an imideate with drawl of U.S. troops in the same 
speech where he revealed that he wouldn't run for a second term in 
office. Nixon and his party then began working behind the scenes to 
make sure that they didn't pull out until after the election. 
With the war still going on, it insured that the Democratic party's 
canidate would have no chance in the upcoming election. 
After Nixon was in office he called to remove our troops, 
so he looked like the "hero" that finally got us out of Vietnem. 
(If watergate isn't proof he was a crook read into this) 
Really he prolonged the war three months and left a bunch of 
South Vietlamese and U.S. people high and dry when he just 
pulled out instead of making an official treaty. 
Under a treaty, the U.S. and allies would have had a grace period 
or cease fire to leave but that would of also ment saying america 
lost and it did. It should not have been there in the first place.