Replies

I don't know why you would say the Vietnamese War was a doomed effort. The war had basically been won by our side by 1973. At that point, the South Vietnamese were able to fight on their own without American ground troops supporting them and to defeat the NVA in stand-up battles. In fact, during the NVA's 1972 Easter Offensive, ARVN carried out a pretty decisive counterattack which recaptured almost all of the territory the NVA had grabbed in the initial offensive. In fact, the counteroffensive was so decisive and resulted in such losses for the NVA that the NVA wasn't able to carry out another attack for 3 years. When that next attack occurred however, ARVN collapsed because we had cutoff all of the supplies to the South Vietnamese which they needed in order to defend themselves against the Soviet and Chicom supplied North Vietnamese. So to say that South Vietnam was doomed from the get-go is just not accurate.

He died 2 1/2 years ago, but as I recall he was not against it (Iraq). The reason I say it like that is his health was very poor for some time before that and I don't recall talking much about it with him.

Let me also qualify my statement somewhat. We talked about it over the years and I believe he meant not win-able from more than a simple military perspective. He had experience with and a good understanding of the oriental mind. Yeah, yeah, I know we now say Asian, but in those days it was oriental.

He was, IMO, saying several things. Military successes alone wouldn't do it. Guerrilla wars in that type of geography are very difficult. They can drag on for a long time. Asians are much more patient than Occidentals and take a much longer view of this sort of conflict.

Also, the civilian influence of how we fought wars changed after WW2. The political will to win was different. And the amount of micro management of military objectives by the civilians was a growing problem. That has been painfully evident in Iraq. Washington would never have let the military win the war militarily. That was obvious early on.

Occidentals have never really had much success negotiating with Asians because we labor under the assumption that they think as we do. IOW, if I were in their position and the enemy did this, I would react thusly. But they don't.

Anyway, I know I am speaking from hindsight, but I am repeating what he said back in the mid 60's. When he retired in '65 he said Washington was hamstringing the military too much for us to win decisive victories. And it has gotten progressively worse. Marines not allowed to carry loaded weapons when Reagan sent them into Lebanon for example.

I still believe we would never have had complete surrender by the North, followed by any kind of a true peace. The political will was never there.