From: Spudboy100@aol.com
Date: Sat Apr 19 2003 - 22:54:52 MDT
John Grigg asked.
<<Even with our current fairly sophisticated level of technology, could we
defeat the Vietnamese NVA and Viet Cong if we were fighting that war today
(and they were getting outside superpower help)? And even if they did not
get massive outside assistance, I still doubt we could avoid being utterly
worn down by guerilla tactics combined with the dense jungle terrain which
gives such great cover for them.>>
My answer is that the amount of technology would not have changed the
equation in Vietnam. The reason was that there was a lack of political will
to take the war to North Vietnam.
1. Johnson was afraid that in Vietnam, like Korea before it, would
eventually bring in Communist China.
2. China has recently aquired the fission bomb in 1964, and had
developed the Hydrogen bomb in 1967 (Krushchev's placing of nuke
missles in Cuba was only in 1962). Johnson and his advisors were
concerned that a nuclear war with China might cost 20-30 million
Chinese lives, and result in a phyric victory for the US.
3. Conversely, the Johnson administration was relecutant to declare it a
no-win situation, because of how this might appear to other states in
the region, thus, creating a domino effect. So we sunk into a
quagmire, unwilling to ruin the enemy, unwilling to withdraw.
By not taking the war to the North Vietnamese (on the ground) there was no
way of effecting their war production, supply, morale, and reaction, except
by an air war, which was ineffectual. Todays JDAM guided weapons would have
made things easier for the military, but would never have won the war on the
ground. The principle of taking the ground, still holds even after 45 years
of technical advances.
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