We should never have sent ground troops to Vietnam.
We should have dropped a single Mark 41 bomb on Hanoi in 1964. 25 Megatons.
500,000+ people dead and North Vietnam surrenders. Not a single American casualty.
***We should never have sent ground troops to Vietnam.***
“I will NOT send American boys to fight a war that Asian boys should be fighting!”-Lyndon B Johnson 1964.
Goldwater to Johnson..”You know we will eventually have to send troops to Vietnam!”
Johnson...”I know Barry, but I am out to win an election!”
Though it's odd how these things work out sometimes.
Alot of American then troops have gone back there - including myself and my daughter - who in that porocess impart much about American values especially to those in the South where the majority of them served. This tends to reinforce the differences in the South which have always been different from the North and demonstrably, I believe, give them continued hope and opportunity which has been granted, albeit in stop and go fashion regularly from Hanoi since the "doi moi" ecconomic reforms of 1986.
I personally believe that Vietnam is worth it, and could eventually become one of our greatest allies in Asia. But the United States must retain its greatness for this to happen, and that is thre great question now in the current political enveronment.
Welcome to Free Republic. FYI, we generally don't support the use of the military to commit mass murder here. We also have a lot of FReepers who are VN vets who know that the problem was Democrats undermining the war effort from home, and not any innate military inabilities we had in-country.
However, I share your enthusiasm for the power of the B41. But even something that powerful has to be used at the right time, in the right way, on the right target.
Have a nice day.