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Old 10-06-2016, 04:06 PM
 
14,993 posts, read 23,824,916 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Ralph_Kirk View Post
The support of North Vietnam was not from China but from the Soviet Union. China was never an ally of significance. The Soviet Union was nearly as involved in Vietnam as the US was, and for the US, the war was really about containing the influence of the USSR.


As it was, when the US pulled out of the South, the Soviets rolled back their support of the North (and only shortly later rolled back their support of North Korea as well).


Had the US remained in Vietnam it would have continued a resource drain on the USSR that may or may not have hastened the collapse of the Soviet regime...depending on whether they later invaded Afghanistan anyway, whether the US would have been capable of continued military growth in other areas, whether Reagan would have been elected president by the time the "old guard" in the USSR was passing away, et cetera other events.
I have to disagree at least with the aid that PRC gave all the way from the 50s up until the late 60's - we may never know how much but some estimates I have read say 3/4 of total military aid to N. Vietnam was from China and that 300,000 red army troops severed there in both support and active military roles, 1,000 were KIA.
Yes the Soviets were a factor particularly later in the war, The N. Vietnamese leaders were clever enough to play the Soviet's and Chinese against each other and use both for there purposes. but China was the 1,000 pound elephant in the room, and one reason why the war was held in S. Vietnam and no ground offensive was pursued into N. Vietnam. No one should ignore the significance of N. Vietnam having a secure supply source that they actually shared a border with, as opposed to the S. Vietnam ally being 7,000 miles away.
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Old 10-06-2016, 04:46 PM
 
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Quote:
Originally Posted by xsboost View Post
You're not the only one. Some believe (me included) that if the war would have ended if the bombing campaigns had gone on a little longer.
and our targets like their MIG bases weren't restricted in the early years..

hard to tell..guerilla warfare fought by a tenacious, politically indoctrinated people, who have only known a Spartan life.. ready to give it their all against foreign 'aggressors' no matter how well equipped and fed has been a repetitive theme globally since Viet Nam.

I am a Viet Nam era Vet..never left Stateside ( Thank you God, and a saving MOS) 85% of my unit was deployed to SE Asia. .

Most of my buds quit High Scool, enlisted in the USMC, after a Silver tongued Marine Sgt. in Dress Blues was allowed to recruit on Career Day at my HS. :-)

2 KIA, 3 wounded in Action, one in 4 different offensives...One total mental breakdown...one chose the USMC as a career...'lifer'

2 came back unscathe...one is a retired NJ State Trooper, one is a retired State Senator.
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Old 10-06-2016, 05:48 PM
 
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Quote:
Originally Posted by mr.magoo View Post
hard to tell..guerilla warfare fought by a tenacious, politically indoctrinated people, who have only known a Spartan life.. ready to give it their all against foreign 'aggressors' no matter how well equipped and fed has been a repetitive theme globally since Viet Nam.
It's not as though they had anywhere else to go, and as far as they were concerned, it was just the "American phase" of a single war against foreign aggressors that they'd been fighting for a couple of generations.
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Old 10-06-2016, 05:55 PM
 
Location: Ohio
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Marleinie View Post
I should preface by stating the U.S getting involved in Vietnam at all was a stupid mistake and never should have happened. However, hypothetically had the U.S had a "We don't care how many U.S soldiers die, or how much money is spent" mentality, do you think the U.S could have won the Vietnam War, had they been willing to fully engage in war all through the 70s, and possibly beyond?
The US failed to fully prosecute the war. Had the US used the same tactics in Korea or WW II as it did in Vietnam, the US would have lost both of those wars.

Winning the war required only that the US continue bombing Hanoi; blockade Haiphong Harbor; and penetrate the North to block movement down the Ho Chi Minh Trail.
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Old 10-06-2016, 06:43 PM
 
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Ralph_Kirk View Post
It's not as though they had anywhere else to go, and as far as they were concerned, it was just the "American phase" of a single war against foreign aggressors that they'd been fighting for a couple of generations.
About 10 years after the Vietnam War ended, PBS interviewed a North Vietnam general.
They asked him if he ever had doubts and he said........." No, we knew we would win. It might take 10 years, 25 years, 50 years, or 100 years. "
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Old 10-06-2016, 06:46 PM
 
Location: Honolulu
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Geographically it is much harder to defend South Vietnam than to defend South Korea.

South Vietnam map is like a long scarf with extended border and has numerous points of vulnerability. South Korea is surrounded by water on three sides and its border with North Korea is much narrower. Moreover, tropical vegetation is abundant in Vietnam which facilitates guerrilla warfare while except the mountainous region bordering China, Korean peninsula is relatively flat which is advantageous for traditional warfare.

In late 1940s, Kim Il Sung also had many sympathizers in the South. Syngman Rhee was as corrupt as Nguyen Van Thieu.
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Old 10-06-2016, 07:09 PM
 
696 posts, read 901,861 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Jaggy001 View Post
We won the war by pulling out. Now Vietnam is a friendly nation with ever closer links to the USA and a natural ally against Chinese encroachment in the area.
Keep telling yourself that buddy.
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Old 10-06-2016, 07:16 PM
 
Location: Flippin AR
5,513 posts, read 5,230,375 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Marleinie View Post
I should preface by stating the U.S getting involved in Vietnam at all was a stupid mistake and never should have happened. However, hypothetically had the U.S had a "We don't care how many U.S soldiers die, or how much money is spent" mentality, do you think the U.S could have won the Vietnam War, had they been willing to fully engage in war all through the 70s, and possibly beyond?
Nope. We could have stayed forever and spent infinite amounts of money, but unless you wiped out the native population and filled it with Americans transplanted from the mainland U.S., you would never achieve anything that could be called "winning the war."
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Old 10-06-2016, 07:29 PM
 
Location: Honolulu
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The principal difference between Korean War and Vietnam War is that US tied its own hands in the latter war.

In Korean War, General MacArthur did not hesitate to cross the 38 degree and capture the Northern Capital Pyongyang. If he had been more prudent and did not advance further north into the mountains in the frigid winter of 1950, a consolidated and enlarged South Korea would be even a stronger deterrent nowadays.

But in Vietnam War, US and South Vietnamese troops never crossed the 17 degree while their adversaries didn't hesitate to penetrate south. How could US win the war? If US had launched an amphibious landing in Haiphong, most likely it could force the North to come into a genuine peace accord.
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Old 10-06-2016, 08:15 PM
 
Location: Honolulu
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The turning point of the Vietnam War is the Tet Offensive in 1968. After that incident, US army started to lose morale and the anti-war sentiment flourished.

If an amphibious landing was launched successfully at Haiphong in 1969 (like the Inchon landing in Korean War), the victory would have greatly restored the morale. And the North Vietnamese Army would have to be pulled back to the North to fortify its capital which relieved pressure on the South.

And 1969 is the year that Sino-Soviet relationship was at its worst. They almost went into nuclear war over the Damansky Island skirmish in Amur River. Neither country would likely intervene.
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