[quadrant]

I am no expert on the application of military force, but I believe that by the late 1960's the war was lost.
If LBJ had made it very clear in 1965 that he was prepared to use all elements of US power (except nuclear weapons) the war might have been won.
Such a declaration would have required an immediate full-scale deployment of the active duty military, a call-up of the reserves and the guard, and a willingness to use air and ground power throughout all of Indochina.
Johnson did not follow this course and tragedy resulted.

[brazzaville]

Good evening.

I say the war was not lost until Nixon's burglars got caught.

After Tet of '68 the communists were badly damaged and ARVN was growing stronger. Even as the antiwar movement grew louder the military picture improved and Nixon had the courage to bomb the pee out of the communists so that it took them more time to recover.

When the communists launched an armor heavy attack in 1972 they were defeated, again, by ARVN and American air power but the attack was portrayed by the DemocRATs and the media as proof that the war could not be won. Was I being redundant there, saying DemocRATs and media in the same sentence?

Nixon launched the bombing campaign and Hanoi was very close to giving it all up. The pressure on Nixon was ratcheted up and Nixon's burglars were organized.

In my opinion that was when the war was lost.

Of course, we all know what opinions are like.

Michael Frazier

[kabar]

Johnson's policy of gradual escalation and ruling out traditional military targets such as Haiphong Harbor, where most of the military supplies came in from China, was a disaster. We could have bombed the dikes and flooded the country. Despite all of this, we never lost a major battle.

At a minimun, we could have achieved a Korea-like solution with the South remaining free. Jophnson and MacNamara micromanged the war and prevented us fully applying our overwhelming military superiority.