[RightField]

#2
I am a housewife, approaching seasoned citizen status, and ignorant of the arts of war. But one question has been nagging me about these swift boat incidents. Were these particular incidents of any consequence in the overall scheme of the Vietnam War? Any press coverage at the time?

[Sicvee]

I think Kerry's time in Vietnam pretty much coincided with the apogee of US military success there. I think we had 500,000 soldiers, sailors etc. deployed at the time. All four branches of the service were involved but it would be very difficult to point to any one Army or Marine division, Air Force bombing group, or Navy unit or series of operations that was primarily responsible for our success, which could have simply been a function of superior numbers of troops and firepower. (I was in intelligence at MACV at the time.) At any rate, we couldn't indefinitely support those huge numbers of troops in the field, and when we began withdrawing and handing responsibility to the South Vietnamese forces, we lost the advantage, and thus the war. So the valiant efforts of countless individuals and groups seems to have been in vain.

I don't think that the Swift Boat operation was of much particular consequence, other than keeping the bad guys under control in a specific area. I think the newsworthy part of it was the projection of naval power inland, like on the rivers of China during the Boxer Rebellion.

I am extremely skeptical that Kerry ever got to Cambodia. During that particular time, US forces honored Cambodia's neutrality, even as North Vietnamese forces did not, and US forces did not cross the border. After Kerry's time in Vietnam, and after my own, we were not so restrained.

[wasnova]

Not of any consequence at all. No press coverage that I've heard of - though the existance of the patrols would have rated some minor coverage.