People did die and many people left Vietnam in a hurry as the North Vietnamese Army arrived in Saigon, but there was no widespread, vengeful "bloodbath". As I posted to you a few months ago, if you can provide me credible evidence that a bloodbath occured I'd like to see it. I've been there twice and my next door neighbor's family fled when he was five years old and nobody has ever suggested to me that there were widespread killings like those in neighboring Cambodia.

Still, the myth of a Vietnamese bloodbath is persistent in this country, and you're not the only one who believes it happened. The story is important to those Americans, elected officials and ordinary citizens, to continue the "I told you so" rationale for our ignominious retreat from the country we invaded and occupied for ten years.

Unfortunately, Iraq won't require the same fiction. This time, I fear, the bloodbath is for real.