You are the first person I have ever heard from who suggested that we lost to the VC because they had superior firepower. Quite the contrary. We had overwhelmingly dominant firepower, kill ratios that almost exterminated the VC and we still managed to lose because we fought the wrong war for the wrong purpose. The only folks who didn't know that were LBJ, Gen Westmoreland and, now, struggling in across the finish line, you.
"Cultural Darwinism" and "white man's burden" aren't European inventions - the words are different, but the concepts have been a propaganda staple of state- and empire-building since the first tribal leader annexed his neighbor tribe (i.e. killed the menfolk and took their hunting grounds and women). Heck, people in Mesopotamia and Mohenjo Daro were doing it when European were running around in animal skins and living in caves. They're just new labels. Do you really think the Chinese and Javanese empire-builders said outright that we're here to steal your land and take your women? Spare me the nonsense that Europeans invented empire-building, and that what they did was uniquely bad. It wasn't.
You are the first person I have ever heard from who suggested that we lost to the VC because they had superior firepower.
I don't know what you're talking about. We exterminated the VC during the Tet offensive. After that, it was NVA participation all the way. The VC did not take Saigon in 1975. It was the NVA that crossed the border with tanks, Migs and heavy artillery.
The South Vietnamese lost because we cut off their supplies even as the Soviets handed billions of dollars of new tanks, heavy artillery and Migs to the North Vietnamese. The South Vietnamese were defeated by superior firepower just as much as the South Koreans were initially hurled back by the invading North Koreans in 1950. The difference is that unlike South Korea, South Vietnam did not have the US 8th Army waiting in the south of the country to pull their chestnuts out of the fire. Just prior to the invasion in 1975, guerrilla activity in South Vietnam was non-existent. This is why uniformed NVA took Saigon using brand new Soviet tanks, not black pajama clad VC using AK-47's.