Lets discuss the Vietnam war. One theme of the 10 part series Vietnam was we lost the war. Nobody ever said that back when we watched the war on tv.. I was 15 when the nva tanks rolled into Saigon and hung their flags everywhere and changed the name of the city to Ho Chi Ming city. Didnt seem like we had won. Nixon let the nva keep troops in the south. Nixon told them we would give them air support if the nva attacked. Watergate removed nixon. No way Ford would re enter the war. What we got in the deal was over 500 pow's were released. Called it a draw in when we air lifted our people off the roof of the embassay.
Vietnam
- Thread starter sistersville
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We never lost a battle in Vietnam. We actually would decimate the enemy when we fought.
The problem was we were not taking and holding ground. We were involved in a multi faceted civil war. Take ground and give it back.
Militarily we were dominate. Politically it was a clustered mess.
Plus, South Vietnam was a cluster fvck, so even had they gone in and destroyed the North, eventually, Vietnam would have ended up going Red.
Not to mention, the other big countries we needed to support the effort turned us down. We should have just tucked tail early on, and conceded the Nam to the chinks, and drew a line elsewhere. Problem was, back then, the fear of communism taking over the entire continent of Asia was in play, and there simply wasn't an easy solution.
Playing Monday morning QB, we probably should have taken our chances and went into full ass-kicking destruction mode, but the fear of China sending in 3,000,000 troops stopped them from doing so.
Not to mention, the other big countries we needed to support the effort turned us down. We should have just tucked tail early on, and conceded the Nam to the chinks, and drew a line elsewhere. Problem was, back then, the fear of communism taking over the entire continent of Asia was in play, and there simply wasn't an easy solution.
Playing Monday morning QB, we probably should have taken our chances and went into full ass-kicking destruction mode, but the fear of China sending in 3,000,000 troops stopped them from doing so.
We need to stop doing that stuff. There's no way to "win". Now that ISIS is almost kicked out of Iraq and Syria there is going to be a civil war between Kurds and the Iraqi government. Who do we back? We installed the Iraqi government but the Kurds are our friends. It's a big no-win situation.
I don't give a **** as long as it ties the ragheads up and they kill each other.
Problem is we will be in the middle of that shit.
Military we won. There is no doubt about that.
Long range we won and the Vietnam Vets deserve a lot of credit because it showed the Commies that we would take a stand somewhere. It tied their resources up for a long time.
Problem is we lost 50,000 men and Vietnam went Commie anyway. But, the honest assessment at the time was the domino effect of communism. As Michigan Herd said we can Monday morning QB it, but I could see where the leaders going back to Truman looked at that as a viable threat globally.
It hurt us because of how it divided the people. The military needed rebuilt after Vietnam and it took until the Gulf War to see how the military changed for the good.
Herdman I would love to believe that when the wall came down and the soviet union broke apart the vietnam warbhad a hand in it. No doubt we could have marched all the way to Hanoi but our hands were tied. Terrible management. Extreme bravery by our soldiers. They did their jobs.
