[LoneRangerMassachusetts]

... I've seen interviews with South Vietnamese who claimed they were sharecroppers under the old regime with no possibility of owning land, that the VC split up and old plantatations and pretty much gave them the land that they'd been working forever...

Really? Communist gave the land to the peasants? How does that work? The state owns the land under communism.

... A real war between the US and North Vietnam should last a year, tops.

Vietnam started out as a proxy war and stayed that way for fear of all out nuclear war. Those were the rules in the 1960's, limited warfare. Learn your history.

...Moreover, there is no rational way anybody can ask draftees to fight in such a thing...

At the time, the US Military was made up of volunteers and draftees. Fighter pilots and most servicemen in responsible charge of men or important equipment were volunteers. Do you think the NVA were conscripts or draftees?

[killjoy]

Really? Communist gave the land to the peasants? How does that work? The state owns the land under communism.

Foreigners are now being allowed to buy houses (and land?) in Vietnam. Vietnam is very much capitalist at this point.