Could We Have Won Vietnam?

[vulturesrow]

In a strictly military sense, we won the war. Yes we dropped a huge number of bombs. A good deal of them were on militarily insignificant targets. Many times we struck the same targets over and over, going "same way, different day". This incidentally, was definitely a factor in the number of aircraft that were shot down. Once we made the decision to start striking the heart of the North Vietnamese, there was a marked change of heart on the part of the leadership. There is a great quote on the palpable effect of the B52 raids late in the war from Admiral Stockdale, I'll look it up tomorrow in my books for all of you.

If you dont think Communism was worth fighting in Vietnam, just take a look at some of the actions of the Communist leadership after the departure of US forces. Its not for nothing that we have such a relatively large population of Vietnamese immigrants in the United States. As an interesting aside, in my experience in the military so far (almost 10 years now), there is a small but significant number of Vietnamese people (at least in the Navy).

If nothing else, Vietnam is a testament to the dangers of the civilian leadership to try and completely run a war. I'm not saying we shouldnt have the structure we have in place now, but the once the civilian policy makers make the decision to go to war, they ought to leave the running of it to the hands of the people that are there to do it.

For better or worse, Vietnam left a distinct mark on the US military and one that I feel is only now really starting to diminish in any appreciable respect.