Posted on 03/17/2002 2:25:49 PM PST by Mom_Grandmother
Is It Possible, Could America Have Won the Vietnam War In '1968?
By '1968, North Vietnamese morale was at it's lowest point ever. The plans for "Tet" '68 was their last desperate attempt to achieve a success, in an effort to boost the NVA morale. When it was over, General Giap (Senior General Vo Njuyen Giap) and NVA viewed the Tet '68 offensive as a "failure", they were on their knees and had prepared to negotiate a "surrender."
At the time, there were fewer than 10,000 U.S. casualties, the Vietnam War was about to end, as the NVA was prepared to accept their defeat. Then, they heard "Walter Cronkite" (former CBS News anchor and correspondent) on TV proclaiming the success of the Tet '68 offensive by the NVA. They were completely and totall amazed at hearing tha the US Embassy had been overrun. In reality, the NVA had not gained access to the Embassy--there were some VC who had been killed on the grassy lawn, but they hadn't gained access. Further reports indicated that riots and protesting on the streets of America.
According to General Giap, these distorted reports were insperational to the NVA. They changed their plans from a negotiated surrender and decided instead, they only needed to persevere for one more hour, day, week, month, eventually the protesters in America would help them to achieve a victory they knew they could not win on the battlefield.
Remember, this decision was made at a time when the U.S. casualties were fewer than 10,000, at the end of '1967, beginning of '1968. Today, there were 58,000 names on the Vietnam Wall Memorial that was built with the donations made by the American public.
Although General Giap did not mention each and every protester's name in his book, many of us will never forget the 58,000 names on the Wall. We will also never forget that names of those who helped in placing those additional 48,000 names there: Jane Fonda, Tom Hayden, Walter Cronkite, and other's.
Gene Kuentzler, '66-67, S-3 Operations 19th Combat Engineer Battalion
It was called an armistice.
All sides agreed to the end of military actions, with the South Vietnam government intact.
2 years later, the North overran the South (the U.S. did not provide any support to the South for this second war).
The really sad thing is that the whole thing could of been avoided if Truman had agreed to join up with Uncle Ho to throw the French out of Southeast Asia. In retrospect, I would of liked the Vietnamese as allies over the French for the last 40 years.
Southeast Asia war Games, Second Place '72-73, Special recognititon ribbon for never being in Cambodia. sarcasm off.
I pray for President Bush everyday, I pray he will always "say what he means and mean what he say's". Bless him, he is not the most perfect person on earth (there are none), but he is the best we have fighting for us now.
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Forget? Every time I think of him and about a hundred more it sends me to the dentist for new fillings after gritting my teeth. Likewise when Clinton awarded communist folk singer Pete Seeger the freedom prize. Forget? Never.
Phase one of the Vietnam war: 1945 to 1954---Ho Chi Minh using the Viet Minh (a conglomoration of communist and other nationalist forces) fought the discredited French (the only French to rule in Viet Nam during WWII were the pro-Vichy forces who later were thrown over by the Japanese in 1945). Most of the fighting started in 1946. Defeat for the French at Dien Bien Phu by the Viet Minh under the command of General Giap. Geneva accord in 1954 with a military (but not political) division at the 17th parallel.
Phase 2: 1957 to 1975---Viet Minh in south renamed Viet Cong as a PR tactic by the American advisors. Big gains in the Mekong Delta by the Viet Cong. Corrupt Diem regime detested by most South Vietnamese overthrown with CIA help (and much acclaim by South Vietnamese) in November 1963. Soon Ngen Cao Ky ruled followed by Thieu (whose corrupt cousin raked in incredible amounts of booty). Unwinnable War of attrition thanx to McNamara. Tet offensive in 1968 finally broke the will of the American people and began calls for withdrawal.
This is just a quick summary. Want more?
Doris Kerns Goodwin served under LBJ.
As Dr. Doris Kerns, who became an associate professor of history of Harvard, she did have sex with that ballot-box stuffer and major benefactor of Brown & Root, Lyndon Baines Johnson.
The Texas Connection, Craig I. Zirbel, Warner, 1991, page 90, from It Didn't Start With Watergate, Victor Lasky, Dial, 1977, page 203.
I confirmed this by e-mail last year with Lasky's agent, the much-maligned confidant of Linda Tripp.
LBJ was doing America, and Doris was doing LBJ. Political bedfellows betraying everything but ambition.
Thank you for the infomation.
The best poetry is brief.
This may have been the difference between Vietnam and other wars in former colonies. Where the British or French turned over authority to locals, most of those governments could crush communist rebels. In Vietnam, they already had half the country recognized as their own and undercut the security and legitimacy of any goverment we could get.
We could defeat them in the field, but could we stay in Vietnam for years and dercades to keep them from coming back? The good news is that the seventies were the high water mark and the beginning of the end for communism.
Well stated.
I notice you didn't address certain of my serious questions, out of necessity. Pack up and go home.
I'll end with one question, what were the boundaries of Viet Nam in 1920, versus 1960?
Also in Vietnam you had the Vichy French forces in Vietnam cooperating with the Japanese. Then when the French switched sides the Japanese tossed them over. That made a big impression on the Vietnamese. On top of that, it was the Viet Minh who took over Vietnamese institutions and cities when the Japanese surrendered in 1945. Then the French came back and asked for it all back. The French did this in part to restore their faded glory (which was lost in 1940). Oddly enough, even the French Communist party at that time demanded that the French return to Vietnam. Go figure.
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