http://localhost:8080/austrian-anschluss Senior Fellow, Hillsdale College Churchill Project, Writer and Historian Tue, 01 Oct 2024 20:01:13 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9 http://localhost:8080/austrian-anschluss#comment-41691 Mon, 28 Dec 2020 00:48:31 +0000 https://richardlangworth.com/?p=10980#comment-41691 Readers might be interested to learn that in 1968, former President Dwight Eisenhower analyzed Tet too, as did Governor Ronald Reagan, who was running for president for the first time.
During my research for my book, Reagan’s 1968 Dress Rehearsal: Ike, RFK, and Reagan’s Emergence as a World Statesman, the Eisenhower Library granted me access to Ike’s post-presidential diary. In 1944 at the Battle of the Bulge, when Patton had asked Eisenhower for reinforcements to destroy the German Army, Ike immediately gave the order. But in 1968, when Ike had learned that General Westmoreland had the North Vietnamese Army and Vietcong trapped (the actual conclusion of the Tet Offensive) and asked President Johnson for reinforcements, LBJ refused and the North Vietnamese and Vietcong escaped. Eisenhower saw the clear parallels between the Bulge and Tet, and was furious at LBJ’s decision. During this time, Eisenhower had been mentoring candidate Reagan on world affairs, and Reagan then delivered a speech on Tet which attacked LBJ’s decision.

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