Post by Swampy on Oct 22, 2012 10:00:24 GMT -5
One of the many things that irk me about the VN war is how the US tied its own hands behind its back.
Consider the Soviets who were shipping missiles and other supplies to the North Vietnamese via the Haiphong Harbor. That country was a free-fire zone, and, if one country was to ship weapons of war to Vietnam, its ships should have been subject to attack.
The harbor was eventually mined by the US, when Nixon was in charge, and he gave the Soviet ships time to leave. That is fair, but he should also have said that, if they were going to continue, their ships would not be protected from American bombs.
This came on the heels of the Cuban Missile Crisis, so the US wanted to avoid a nuclear confrontation, but the Soviets should also have wanted that, and they didn't.
Consider the Soviets who were shipping missiles and other supplies to the North Vietnamese via the Haiphong Harbor. That country was a free-fire zone, and, if one country was to ship weapons of war to Vietnam, its ships should have been subject to attack.
The harbor was eventually mined by the US, when Nixon was in charge, and he gave the Soviet ships time to leave. That is fair, but he should also have said that, if they were going to continue, their ships would not be protected from American bombs.
This came on the heels of the Cuban Missile Crisis, so the US wanted to avoid a nuclear confrontation, but the Soviets should also have wanted that, and they didn't.