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Post by hornet32 on Jan 20, 2014 20:54:13 GMT -5
swampy and I have already determine that at the time of the tet offensive the U.S. had about 90,000 men in the bush at least 20,000 were needed to protect American installations that leaves about 70,000 to conduct the war against 3 times their number so how'd they do it , air and artillery were a big factor , but the biggest factor were helicopters they could move troops from hot spot to hot spot as needed so wherever the enemy was causing trouble there were people in place to confront them this worked well enough but after 8 weeks the machines were falling apart the crews were falling apart and the grunts were on the verge of collapse the Americans had shot their wad they had given all they had , but could give no more .
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Post by Swampy on Jan 20, 2014 22:26:44 GMT -5
And Tet was the battle that destroyed the Viet Cong, so it was a victory.
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Post by hornet32 on Jan 20, 2014 22:37:49 GMT -5
A hollow victory .
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Post by Swampy on Jan 21, 2014 0:23:13 GMT -5
I would disagree. The Allies bought time for the rest of SE Asia to develop and destroy their indigenous communist movements, and, in the meantime, they killed enough Vietnamese communists so they wouldn't think of expanding their rotten empire. |
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Post by hornet32 on Jan 21, 2014 10:22:41 GMT -5
Didn't help much in Cambodia when the Khmer Rouge took over .
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Post by Swampy on Jan 21, 2014 10:38:46 GMT -5
Didn't help much in Cambodia when the Khmer Rouge took over . If the NVA hadn't infiltrated Cambodia, the Khmer Rouge would never have taken over. Or, if the US had gone into Cambodia and Laos to cut the HCM Trail, that wouldn't have happened either. |
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Post by hornet32 on Jan 21, 2014 12:53:17 GMT -5
The entire Indo- China was in the game and there was no way the U.S. could have covered it all , the U.S could maintain status quo in Vietnam with the troops on hand but no more than that , If the South Vietnam military had been anything but useless we could have done more .
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Post by Sir John on Jan 21, 2014 13:47:21 GMT -5
The basic fact remains, the VN war was lost in the living rooms of America.
Every TV news clip of a jet full of flag draped coffins was a defeat for the USA.
It has been so since 1945.
SJ
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Post by hornet32 on Jan 21, 2014 15:55:35 GMT -5
Yes a lot of coffins in '68 16000 or so , many were closed caskets do to the fact that bodies turned quickly in the heat an humidify , bodies would swell up black and greasy looking with fly's and shit eating on them , oh the glory of war .
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Post by Swampy on Jan 21, 2014 19:43:37 GMT -5
The basic fact remains, the VN war was lost in the living rooms of America. Every TV news clip of a jet full of flag draped coffins was a defeat for the USA. It has been so since 1945. SJ That was the sad reality, and, if America had fired up the public will, it could have destroyed the NVA along with the VC. |
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