Quote:
Originally Posted by Flamenspiel
Well , i am not sure that understanding a country, history, or culture is always a decider. The French preceded the American effort, had a very good understanding of all that, and absolutely got their butts kicked by the Vietnamese.
The Vietnamese were stronger and more determined to stay the course, thats why they won. The US effort was limited by congress and had nothing to show but small tactical victories. In addition from a Vietnamese perspective the NVA was a highly motivated military force among the top 6 or 7 armies in the world and had the latest Russian planes, trainers, pilots and SAMs available to them. The Vietnamese went on to what is called at worst a stalemate against the Chinese army in 1979. None of these middle east regimes or even the current threat is even remotely in the same league of opposition.
To me the similarity to the Vietnam war was a total waste of American resources and I wonder if this is another repeat of that, if its not in the best interest of the US they will soon tire of it and pull out before the job is done.
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The French were broke, reeling from the war that had decimated their population and economy, they ended up hiring thousands of ex waffen SS to fight under their flag but were never going to be able to sustain any kind of effort.
The US were deluded into thinking that the country they had created in '54 would really fight against the man who had delivered the Vietnamese from their colonial oppressors, it was tantamount to thinking you could split S Africa and find blacks to fight against Nelson Mandela.
The Viet Cong, while not loved by all, were by no means hated by any, the south was at best neutral about becoming a communist country, which is why they never fought effectively and were run by brutally corrupt puppets who were only concerned about lining their own pockets.
Unfortunately the yanks were caught up in their own propaganda, better dead than red etc but, to this day, don't seem to understand no one else is that bothered by socialism. They did exactly what they screwed up in Iraq, assumed they were liberators when in reality it was just a colonial invasion hated by everyone in the country even if they were nominal allies.