Was the VN war winnable?

[Deleted]

I think any invasion of the North would have had to been a combination of land sea and air , land alone would have been a logistical nightmare road were very poor the land marshy the seaborne invasion would have had to take place at the very northern end of the Country as it was the least fortified , air would take out the air force .

[Sir John]

"air would take out the air force ."


....and China would take out the US Army.

[Swampy]

Jul 2, 2013 18:30:08 GMT -5 Sir John said:

"air would take out the air force ."


....and China would take out the US Army.

I doubt that.

[Deleted]

There is none / no doubt that China would get very nervous about a U.S. venture into N.Vietnam , perhaps another Korea , the Chinese and Vietnamese despised each other and have been at each others throats for thousands of years , but my enemies enemy is my best friend would / could apply here .

[jerryfmcompushaft]

For much too long, the US has been pulling its punches, fearing upsetting China, until the current administration, which gives the impression of being afraid of everyone.....

[Swampy]

Jul 2, 2013 22:24:50 GMT -5 jerryfmcompushaft said:

For much too long, the US has been pulling its punches, fearing upsetting China, until the current administration, which gives the impression of being afraid of everyone.....

That's why Caspar Weinberger said, if the US goes into a war, it has to fight to win.

[Deleted]

The Chinese entered the Korean Conflict 1, Joe Stalin convinced Mao it was a good thing 2, Truman did little to enlighten the Chinese on U.S. goals .

[Swampy]

Another of my many ideas on winning the war is to take out their military bases with division-sized raids. This would not be going to annex the north, but to send in large numbers to destroy the NVA establishments. This would not only destabilize them, it would prevent them from building their military, which is the tactic they used to destabilize the south.

[Sir John]

I can see it now, 20,000 Americans dumped on a NV Army base with maybe 40,000 NVA crawling all over it. As soon as they see what is going on there will be 60,000 people all ready to die for Uncle Ho.

How do they withdraw the US troops? Give the job to the USAF.



SJ

[Swampy]

Jul 7, 2013 23:44:05 GMT -5 Sir John said:

I can see it now, 20,000 Americans dumped on a NV Army base with maybe 40,000 NVA crawling all over it. As soon as they see what is going on there will be 60,000 people all ready to die for Uncle Ho.

How do they withdraw the US troops? Give the job to the USAF.

And who said we'd only have 20,000 facing 40,000? Let's have over 50,000 combat troops facing that 40,000, along with heavy air bombardment.

Even if we only had 20,000 to their 40,000, we'd have air support and logistics, and, combined with the massive Linebacker-type bombing campaign, the NVA would be decimated. The Allies at the Battle of Khe Sanh in 1968 were outnumbered, as far as I know, but they held out; at the Battle of Ia Drang, in 1965, the outnumbered Americans also won. So I don't see the outcome being any different if we hit them before they hit us. Yes, they'd be on their home ground, but, as I said, with a massive strategic bombing campaign, they'd be in no position to fight back.

[Sir John]

You want to put 40.000 Americans into a NV base, and then bomb it with B52s?

[Deleted]

Just for info, US divisions were not, and probably are still not, 20,000. They were considerably less. I can't remember the last time a full division was involved in a battle plan. Possibly in Korea but someone will have to chime in here on that as I don't really know.

[Swampy]

Jul 8, 2013 1:55:43 GMT -5 Sir John said:

You want to put 40.000 Americans into a NV base, and then bomb it with B52s?

Bomb first, then move in, doof.

[Deleted]

The 1st Cav at its height was appox. 22.000 counting all its componets artillery , amour , and everything else , about the size of a corps =2 id .

[Deleted]

One has to understand the terrain in VN , out side of its cities the roads were very poor , very few places armor could operate the you had the mountains a lot of mountains the is no way a full size invasion could work by land .