Hell was Five Days Away

[hornet32]

It was just past the mid-night hour Dec.31st 1967-1968 , We had arrived back at CuChi around 9:00pm the CO Maj.Auth had a little celebration planned for the flight crews a make shift grill for what the Army called steaks plenty of warm beer a couple bottles of hooch being passed around , his eminence was in the reclined position half in the bag feeling pretty good , little did he know that hell was five days away at a tiny village called Katum nor did anyone think that by the 1st week in Feb. 20% of us would be dead or badly wounded , in Vietnam you learned to live the moment , though it was passed mid-night and we all went back on duty at 4:30 am nobody worried about that either , nobody worried cause you couldn't do a damn thing about it .

[Sir John]

At least you have something to remind you of that day.


SJ

[Swampy]

If they could infiltrate Cambodia and Laos, we should have done the same thing to clear those rats out.

[Sir John]

I think they did!

[Swampy]

Apr 19, 2014 18:00:54 GMT -5 Sir John said:

I think they did!

Not just the odd time, but to do it consistently. And, of course, make major incursions into North Vietnam, so the enemy cannot maintain a stable presence.

[hornet32]

I probably mentioned this before but it would have taken a million Americans on the ground to have any chance of securing Indo-China , no chance of that happening , one thing the draft was bringing in a LOT undesirables most of them became grunts .

[Swampy]

Apr 19, 2014 19:40:37 GMT -5 hornet32 said:

I probably mentioned this before but it would have taken a million Americans on the ground to have any chance of securing Indo-China , no chance of that happening , one thing the draft was bringing in a LOT undesirables most of them became grunts .

Here we go again with the "Was the VN War winnable?" thread. Anyway, we wouldn't have needed a million men. As Reagan said, pave North Vietnam over with bombs and be home for Christmas. If that doesn't work, cut the HCM Trail, make major incursions into North Vietnam, ensure Haiphong is useless as a harbor, and you're done.

[hornet32]

No doubt all of what you and Reagan contributed had been contemplated and even considered , the fact of the matter was morale among the troops was terrible , I mean bad , the Chain of command and remember the Chain of Command started at the White House , LBJ , had all but collapsed no one wanted to be there , no one .

[Swampy]

Morale was bad partly because they knew the White House didn't want to fight, and also because of the domestic turmoil tearing apart the US. But, while that was very relevant, the point is still that the US could have won if it had fought to win.

[hornet32]

There little or no doubt that the VN war could have should have been brought to a successful conclusion by the RVN it was their war the U.S. was an ally a member of SEATO just like OZ , Thailand and South Korea and others .

[Swampy]

The ARVN needed time to develop itself, which it never got.

[Sir John]

"the U.S. was an ally a member of SEATO just like OZ , Thailand and South Korea and others ."


I do not think that Sth Vietnam was a member of the South East Asia Treaty Organisation.

SJ

[hornet32]

   the U.S. did not support Colonization as the French and the Empire found out ,  the U.S. was the only power at that time that could enforce Colonization and the U.S. had had enough of the Empire and France too .

[Sir John]

I thought the US was dead set in favour of 'de-colonisation'.


SJ

[hornet32]

Hell was 5 days away was to indicate to some that there was no glory in Vietnam unless warm beer and charred steak on the Barbie was it .