Quote:
Originally Posted by bullseyebarb
No, they didn't. Viet Nam was not lost on the ground but in Washington. And many of the same rancid politicians are still up there and ready to repeat the '70's. Millions of people were slaughtered in Southeast Asia as a result of what they did then. Only difference is that the North Vietnamese had no interest in attacking America.
You are right......our kids will be paying for this - if we repeat the same mistakes we made back then.
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Millions of people? Oh DO tell! In Vietnam? What "histories" are you reading?
The Vietnamese people certainly did win their independence on the ground, through the tactics of guerilla warfare. The Vietnamese people, as a group, didn't want the French there, nor did they want us there. While they may not have been able to beat these far risher and more powerful countries, they didn't have to. They just wanted their freedom, the right to decide for themselves what was best for Vietnam. They hung on and outlasted us, much as the Americans did versus the British during the Revolutionary War.
Nobody ever had a workable solution for winning in a country where the inhabitants simply did not want a foreign army on their soil - so long as those inhabitants managed to keep some military force in the field! That's why guerilla warfare works - be it in Vietnam or Iraq.
As an American, I don't want other countries interfering in my life; if I were an Iraqi, I would feel the same way. That's the biggest lesson we failed to learn in Vietnam.