Quote:
Originally Posted by Ray
Vietnam interests me.
There are too many commentaries on Vietnam.
What is the reality in geopolitical terms, geostrategic terms as also from the tactical terms.
There are Vietnam veterans here as also military enthusiasts.
Could you all comment as to what you feel about the way Vietnam was approached as a case for victory and fought? And why was it not a success when the military might was applied in all its glory against the impoverished Vietcongs who were hardly an enemy that required to be defeated since they were so impoverished looking that the wind could have blown them away.
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Sir,
The National Liberation Front (NLF, aka Vietcong), were broken because of the Tet Offensive in the attempt to move from the second to third phase of guerilla warfare. It was a devestating blow to the cadre ranks, and this provided breathing space to allow a more unified, "one war" approach to flourish under GEN Abrams from 1968-1972. The NLF, while still a minor threat, was no longer the player it once was after Tet. Miracle rice and the land to the tiller program (to name two SVN successes), in combination with the Tet disaster for the NLF allowed the SVN central government to begin reasserting control over much of the countryside.
In the end, it was a conventional force, armed with tanks and anti-tank missiles, that defeated SVN in 1975. It was not an insurgency.
Thus, there is a strong case that it was the strangling of funds and equipment to SVN, knocking out one of the legs of the stool holding up SVN. However, this isn't enough, as there was enormous graft and corruption issues with SVN leadership, and so there were tremendous inefficiencies because of that. Additionally, there was political infighting and cronyism appointments of military leaderships, resulting in inefficiencies there as well.
In the end, a war that lasted 25 years and endured several phases is easily misconstrued.
I've read Sorely and Sheehan's books, and have Karnow's on standby. The rest I actually have on my Amazon.com wish list. So, I may be able to provide a better answer in a few years when all my wishes come true
