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Fox News
01-07-2025
- Politics
- Fox News
MORNING GLORY: A week that changed the world
"If, when the chips are down, the world's most powerful nation, the United States of America, acts like a pitiful, helpless giant, the forces of totalitarianism and anarchy will threaten free nations and free institutions throughout the world." That is an excerpt from President Richard Nixon's speech on April 30, 1970, when he announced the U.S. attacks on North Vietnamese-controlled areas inside Cambodia along the border with South Vietnam. This speech and the decision to strike across the South Vietnam-Cambodian border into the North Vietnamese sanctuaries in "neutral" Cambodia came six months after Nixon's November 3, 1969, speech appealing to the country's "great silent majority of my fellow Americans," and asking for their support as he began the "Vietnamization" of the long-running war he inherited when he took office in January 1969. More than a half million American troops were in Vietnam then, the result of eight consecutive years of escalation of the war and the commitment of combat troops under Presidents Kennedy and Johnson. Nixon knew that he could not simply pull out and allow South Vietnam to collapse, as President Biden did in Afghanistan in August of 2021. Fleeing any conflict and leaving allies in chaos and confusion meant not only defeat, but a crushing blow to America's standing in the world. Russian dictator Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine the second time, six months after the debacle in Kabul. Weakness and retreat by America emboldened our enemies to attack our allies. 10/7/24 was waiting for Israel down the road. An impotent America led inexorably to the massacre in Israel that day and to the Houthis terrorizing the global economy. Nixon also knew so long ago he could not achieve peace in Vietnam while allowing the Soviet and Chinese proxy of North Vietnam to operate out of Cambodia unmolested. Nixon asked for and got the support he needed from the majority of Americans, and it held steady even after the campus upheavals following the attacks in Cambodia. The shootings at Kent State University happened on May 4 following the April 30 address was just one of the many tragic demonstrations, riots and shootings that wracked the country in the years 1967-1972, awful outbursts of violence which included the assassinations of Dr. Martin Luther King and Senator Bobby Kennedy, Jr. Nixon held firm on all fronts in the face of withering criticism from Democrats who had long supported the war in Asia. Despite the violence and the collapse of legacy media objectivity, Nixon maintained his course and even escalated the bombing of North Vietnam when he needed to in order to obtain a peace agreement with North Vietnam, which was signed in January, 1973 after Nixon's landslide re-election in November of 1972. The middle of the country's political spectrum surged to support Nixon in 1972 even as the Democrats lurched left and nominated Senator George McGovern. Now President Trump has "escalated to de-escalate" by ordering the B-2s to fly from Missouri, take out hardened sites in Iran's nuclear weapons assembly line, and fly home. Trump's display of American reach and military power was followed quickly by a Trump-orchestrated cease-fire between Israel and Iran. Rumors of ongoing talks about expansion of the Abraham Accords from Trump's first term continue to multiply, and if they come to pass, "peace through strength" will be demonstrated, again, and a future Trump Presidential Library and Museum has another room to fill out. "Trump derangement syndrome" has taken such a toll on so many in the Beltway that they are unable to applaud this massive win for the United States, or any of the others that the past five months have revealed, but most especially the strikes on Iran's nuclear ambitions. Trump re-established the credibility of the threat of American military power and stood alongside the equal of any of our allies. Trump then rallied NATO to collectively increase their commitments to defense spending. Markets surged and trading partners like Canada retreated from extortionate trade barriers aimed at U.S. companies. At the same time that the president was confirming American power as a genuine and powerful force to be reckoned with abroad, his "One, Big Beautiful Bill" was moving forward with most of his domestic legislative agenda wrapped up within it. A nearly unbroken series of victories at the Supreme Court has also checked the most absurd of the unconstitutional overreaches of federal district court judges. At the same time, Democrats have nominated the most radical major party candidate for a major office —Zohran Mamdani to be mayor of New York City— while their aging hippies-wing held rallies around the country organized around the absurdist slogan "No Kings." June 2025 thus marks a turnaround for America and an energizing series of achievements for the country as we round into our 249th birthday. This month also marks a bottom for the Democrats, though it's a party perfectly capable of falling off a floor. Donald Trump, by contrast, is at the peak of his authority and gaining momentum, having closed the border and followed through on his major campaign promises. June 2025 marked neither a collapse of democracy nor a slide into autocracy for the U.S. It's a return to an America confident of its future, secure in its liberties, and enthusiastic about its future. Hugh Hewitt is a Fox News contributor, and host of "The Hugh Hewitt Show," heard weekdays from 3 pm to 6 pm ET on the Salem Radio Network, and simulcast on Salem News Channel. Hugh drives America home on the East Coast and to lunch on the West Coast on over 400 affiliates nationwide, and on all the streaming platforms where SNC can be seen. He is a frequent guest on the Fox News Channel's news roundtable hosted by Bret Baier weekdays at 6pm ET. A son of Ohio and a graduate of Harvard College and the University of Michigan Law School, Hewitt has been a Professor of Law at Chapman University's Fowler School of Law since 1996 where he teaches Constitutional Law. Hewitt launched his eponymous radio show from Los Angeles in 1990. Hewitt has frequently appeared on every major national news television network, hosted television shows for PBS and MSNBC, written for every major American paper, has authored a dozen books and moderated a score of Republican candidate debates, most recently the November 2023 Republican presidential debate in Miami and four Republican presidential debates in the 2015-16 cycle. Hewitt focuses his radio show and his column on the Constitution, national security, American politics and the Cleveland Browns and Guardians. Hewitt has interviewed tens of thousands of guests from Democrats Hillary Clinton and John Kerry to Republican Presidents George W. Bush and Donald Trump over his 40 years in broadcast, and this column previews the lead story that will drive his radio/ TV show today.
NHK
27-05-2025
- Business
- NHK
Vietnam garment factory ramps up exports as US tariffs loom
In Vietnam, one garment factory has been ramping up efforts to export clothes to the United States before President Donald Trump's pause ends on hiking tariffs. The factory in northern Vietnam has 4000 workers. Now, they're racing to boost production capacity for US-bound goods. Garment manufacturing is one of the country's key industries. It provides about three million jobs nationwide. The US is the largest destination, accounting for about 40 percent of Vietnam's total garment export value. But the factory's president says he's concerned about how the business will handle the future. He thinks importers will have to raise their prices, and if that happens, US consumers will buy less. He says, "We predict purchasing power in the US market this year will decline." He adds that due to the situation he's considering shifting his exports to other markets, including Russia.
Yahoo
19-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Look Back: West Side Catholic basketball standout killed during the Vietnam War
May 18—At 12, Bernard Francis Rupinski was named to the Edwardsville Little League All-Star team that won the district championship in August 1955. As a student at West Side Central Catholic High School, Rupinski was known as one of the best male dancers and a standout on the basketball court, being named to the first team of the Catholic League Central Division his senior season in 1961. After high school, Rupinski attended King's College where he was also a standout on the college's basketball team. Following college graduation, Rupinski became a Naval Aviator, commissioned a lieutenant and flew as a Navy Flight Intercept Officer on the F-4 Phantom jet, stationed on the USS America during the Vietnam War. Lt. Rupinski and pilot Lt. Walter E. Wilber were shot down over North Vietnam on June 16, 1968. While Wilber survived and was taken prisoner by the North Vietnamese, the body of Rupinski has never been found and is listed by the U.S. Defense Department as killed-in action. "On June 16, 1968, a F-4 Phantom with a crew of two was the lead aircraft in a flight of two on a combat air patrol mission over the Gulf of Tonkin. The flight was directed inland to repel enemy aircraft reported to be south of the 19th parallel and encountered enemy MiGs over Nghe An Province, North Vietnam. During the ensuing combat, a MiG-21 fighter fired a missile which hit the Phantom in the fuselage, causing it to explode and crash. The pilot ejected, parachuted to the ground and was captured by enemy forces. The second crew member was not seen to eject and is believed to have died in the crash," according to an article on the U.S. Defense Department's POW/MIA Accounting Agency's website. Rupinski was only 24 when killed and had been in Vietnam for more than one month. Prior to being deployed, Rupinski and his wife, a native of Norway, were living in Virginia Beach, Va., and had a daughter, Michelle. Nearly four years after being shot down, the U.S. Defense Department listed Rupinski, "killed from hostile action," according to a story in the Times Leader Evening News on May 25, 1972. "Fragments of information collected from escaped and a small number of released POWs along with Navy intelligence revealed Bernie had apparently catapulted from the aircraft but never had been reported on the ground," the Evening News reported. Rupinski's name along with 81 other veterans from Luzerne County killed during the Vietnam War are listed on the Vietnam Memorial on the south lawn of the Luzerne County Courthouse, which was dedicated on Feb. 21, 1988.
Yahoo
11-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
The fall of Saigon
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. The capture of Saigon – the capital of America's ally South Vietnam – by communist North Vietnamese forces on 30 April 1975, marked the end of the Vietnam War. The war had been fought between the two halves of the former French colony since 1955. The US had been deeply involved since 1965; almost three million Americans, mostly young conscripts, had fought against North Vietnam, which was backed by Russia and China, and the Viet Cong, the communist guerillas in the south. The US had spent billions of dollars – and 58,220 of its own soldiers' lives – to block the emergence of another communist regime in Asia. Vietnamese losses were vastly larger: about two million civilians and perhaps 1.3 million soldiers were killed on both sides during the conflict. But the departure of the last helicopters from the rooftop of the US embassy in Saigon has gone down in history as a symbol of American hubris and defeat. America's direct military involvement had ended in 1973, with the signing of the Paris Peace Accords. Washington knew that the peace wouldn't hold and the North was likely to win the war, but wanted, in the words of national security adviser Henry Kissinger, a "decent interval" between the US departure and the South's defeat. So the US continued to give financial and military aid. But involvement in Vietnam was by that time extremely unpopular in the US, and President Nixon's political career was soon to be ended by the Watergate scandal. By late summer 1974, Nixon had resigned, and Congress had cut military and economic aid to South Vietnam by 30%. The South Vietnamese government, led by President Nguyen Van Thieu, was corrupt and inefficient; it was struggling with runaway inflation, unemployment and rising rates of desertion from the army, as well as a heroin addiction epidemic. The North duly pressed home its advantage. In March 1975, it launched what was expected to be a two-year offensive to conquer South Vietnam. In the event, the South Vietnamese army soon crumbled. After capturing the central highlands, the North Vietnamese took Hue, about halfway between Saigon and the northern capital, Hanoi, and then Da Nang, the South's second-largest city, sparking a refugee exodus. Its forces pushed on to Saigon, a city largely untouched by the war until then. Realising the imminent danger, President Thieu resigned on 21 April, delivering a furious televised speech in which he accused Washington of having "sold" its ally to the communists. He fled to Taiwan, taking 15 tonnes of luggage, and later lived for a time in Surrey. President Ford, who had succeeded Nixon, had pleaded with Congress to release additional military aid, to no avail. On 23 April, Ford delivered a speech in New Orleans, in which he declared that America's involvement in Vietnam was now "finished". Four days later, Saigon was encircled by 100,000 North Vietnamese troops and Viet Cong. By now, America had evacuated some of its citizens from Saigon; but about 6,000 remained, along with large numbers of South Vietnamese closely associated with the US, to whom Ford said it owed a "profound moral obligation". On the morning of 29 April 1975, US forces launched "Operation Frequent Wind" to extract them. The code for the operation's launch was the declaration on US Armed Forces Radio that "the temperature in Saigon is 105 degrees and rising", followed by the playing of the song "White Christmas". On 28 April, North Vietnamese artillery had shut down Tan Son Nhut Air Base, from which 50,493 people had been evacuated. The only option available, therefore, was to use US military helicopters to ferry evacuees from the embassy in Saigon to 26 US navy vessels stationed about a 30-minute flight away in the South China Sea. A crowd of some 10,000 Vietnamese gathered outside the embassy, desperate for a flight out; some 2,500 more would-be evacuees were in the embassy compound. Marines guarded the embassy, lifting US citizens and a lucky few Vietnamese over the walls. As flights began taking off, the scenes were chaotic. Keyes Beech, an American war reporter, described being caught in the "seething mass" of bodies outside the embassy, "fighting for our lives, scratching, clawing, pushing ever closer to the wall". The military collapse had been rapid; by the morning of 29 April, North Vietnamese tanks were rolling through Saigon. And the US ambassador to Vietnam, Graham Martin, had deludedly believed that South Vietnam would cut a deal with Hanoi, so had ignored advice to expedite the evacuation. In light of this, Operation Frequent Wind was a remarkable feat: in less than 24 hours, the US evacuated more than 7,000 people, including more than 5,500 South Vietnamese. Some pilots flew for 19 hours straight. South Vietnamese helicopters carrying refugees joined US aircraft on the US navy carriers; about 45 military helicopters were reportedly pushed overboard to clear space for new arrivals. The last helicopter out of Saigon, just before 8am on 30 April, evacuated the Marine guards. Thousands of South Vietnamese – intelligence officers, special police – were left behind at the embassy. Although surprisingly few were executed, more than 200,000 South Vietnamese spent between three and 18 years in labour and re-education camps. Many more fled the country. By 30 April, Saigon, soon to be renamed Ho Chi Minh City, was under full North Vietnamese control. By the end of 1975, Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos were all under communist rule – which in Vietnam has endured to this day. In the 20 years that followed the fall of Saigon, about 800,000 Vietnamese refugees safely fled the communist regime, in one of the largest mass exoduses in modern history. Escaping over land was extremely difficult: Vietnam is bordered only by Cambodia (where the Khmer Rouge had taken control), China and Laos (both allies of Vietnam). So most refugees fled in small boats over the South China Sea – becoming known as the "boat people". Many made their way to Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Hong Kong; some reached Japan, or even Australia. Journeys were fraught with risk: boats were often unseaworthy and sank, or ran out of food and water; many were raided by pirates, mainly from Thailand, who raped women and killed those on board. It is estimated that 200,000 to 400,000 Vietnamese died at sea. In 1979, the UN declared a "grave crisis", and urged countries to take in refugees. Some 402,000 were eventually settled in the US; Australia and Canada also welcomed substantial numbers; about 19,000 came to the UK. Despite US public opinion initially being opposed to accepting refugees from Vietnam, 2.3 million people of Vietnamese extraction were living in the US by 2023.
