Re: Could We Have Won Vietnam?
We could have won Vietnam if we had never sent a troop/advisor there. Vietnam was irrelevant in terms of a power struggle between communist and democratic or republic type governments. The best way to win the "war" against communism would be to let it fizzle out through local revolutions.
It is impossible to force a system of government on people who are unwilling to accept it. The only way to succesfully convert a country's government is either: 1) completely destroy all dissidents and opponents by wiping them out (which is cleary impossible to do - killing opponents only spawns more) or 2) Peaceably working with the civil population toward making changes they want to implement. We have done a mix of both in Vietnam, and are currently doing a mix in Iraq. If we continue on our present course with the war, it will end in the same result.
Terrorism / guerilla warfare is a tactic and an ideology, not a state. You can't take on an idea physically and expect to defeat it, which is what we did in Vietnam and what we are currently doing in Iraq.
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