[WOSG]

"The bizarre strategy of "escalate until they negotiate" violated thousands of years of established warfare strategy which said that victory could best be achieved by annihilating your enemy."


Absolutely true.

This nonsense was the ugly progeny of the 'containment' strategy. The flaw of course is that 'balance-of-power' , "containment" and other high-level strategy concepts are *different* from the concepts you entertain when dealing with a state of war. Once in a war, you need to state your objectives and use maximimum will and power to reach them. And the goal in a war, is not to kill the enemies soldiers, but to destroy his will to oppose your objectives.

[SJackson]

All the more reason to avoid the Korea-like defensive strategy, and go for a more offensive strategy. .... why *didnt* we march to Hanoi, or at least bomb the cr*p out of it until the Communists cried uncle? Or implement an actual Korea strategy, cut the trail and establish a line extending to the Thai border. Would have saved a lot of innocent lives, especially in Cambodia.

And the goal in a war, is not to kill the enemies soldiers, but to destroy his will to oppose your objectives.

You're right, your enemy isn't defeated, until he's been convinced he’s defeated.