Posted on 09/09/2014 8:06:24 AM PDT by grayhog
Agree with you. I’d like to see it myself.
Touche’. Almost.
“Back in the 1980s I read a book called A Bright Shining Lie about John Paul Vann”
I’d take that book with more than a few grains of salt.
“That this led to the US doing their fighting for them.”
South Vietnam was rudderless and spinning out of control when Lyndon Johnson sent in American ground troops. John Kennedy had set the chaos in motion with the assassination of South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem in November 1963.
Lyndon Johnson and Robert McNamara took charge of the war and fought it badly, giving the Communists sanctuaries and putting valuable targets off limits. LBJ was only half committed to the war and didn’t want it to interfere with his massive domestic programs, his Great Society.
Lyndon Johnson wasn’t committed to victory once he committed American troops. There was no invasion of the North, no destruction of their cities, no encircling and killing of their armies. It was a defensive and reactive strategy.
When Nixon took office he set in motion the ‘Vietnamization’ of the war, turning over more of the combat to ARVN. He did finally bomb Hanoi and mine Haiphong harbor but he didn’t do it quickly. All the same the ARVN fought and defeated a large NVA invasion in Easter of 1972.
South Vietnam was capable of defending itself at that point as long as America supplied it with equipment and ammunition. Congress brought this hopeful situation to a dramatic end when they passed the Church Amendment in June 1973. South Vietnam could no longer get replacement parts for their weapons, they could no longer could get ammunition, they couldn’t even get gasoline from America.
Once North Vietnam realized that the South was now defenseless thanks to the U.S. Congress they began rebuilding their forces and launched a massive armored invasion of South Vietnam. There were traffic jams on Highway 1 due to the amount of heavy vehicles the NVA sent south. If the US Navy had been given free reign at that point they could have delivered a Highway of Death that would have destroyed the NVA. But Ford wouldn’t act without the permission of Congress.
Good description, its been while and was a long book.
I recall seeing a movie version on HBO ~ 1998 long after reading the book.
The part of the book I remember was long before that about 10 years earlier, about what led to the US doing their fighting for them in the first place.
It was that which led to the political environment where the US abandons them completely, much like 2008 and Iraq .
I don't see much unity with Dems on what to do about ISIS.
Those videos have put them in an uncomfortable position.
Ping
Kerry is not going to read it and he is blind to truth.
Nobody let the VC retreat - they did their best escape anytime we found them. The only time they would attack would be when they believed that they had a huge advantage over the US force and even then, they wouldn't stick around until daylight to wait for the inevitable response force.
The primary method we used was to use whatever intel we had to locate them, infiltrate into their backyard usually at night to show up suddenly when they didn't expect us (the army used helicopters to do the same thing in the daytime), use a blocking force to pin them in place, soften up their defenses with air and artillery once we had them located and then assault what was left. If we kept the back door closed, they were destroyed. We almost always wiped them out in any direct fight - most of our casualties came from mines and booby traps, ambushes of small units.
I remember our activity and proficiency very fondly but I also remember that had a high casualty rate. Very few of us came home unwounded.
Also, those lies are still being taught in liberal psychology college texts. Very maddening. Very. Some didn’t make it through class, some were sold back with “notes.”
Is the truth told in at least a couple of books? There are hundreds at the book store but what are the best?
Interesting how LBJ was able to destroy black America, and at the same time destroy Southeast Asia.
“The part of the book I remember was long before that about 10 years earlier, about what led to the US doing their fighting for them in the first place.”
The Gulf of Tonkin Incident occurred in August 1964. US ground combat troops arrived in February 1965. This was after JFK had managed to get President Diem assassinated and South Vietnam was left leaderless.
One might as well say that America did South Korea’s fighting in 1950. We did, because otherwise they would have been overrun. No one disputes that afterwards South Korea has been able to build an effective army.
Without our help in the mid ‘60s South Vietnam would have been overrun, but by 1972 the ARVN was an able fighting force. That was all pissed away by the Democratic Congress that passed the Church Amendment leaving South Vietnam defenseless.
The Viet Cong were wiped out as an effective combat force when they launched the Tet Offensive of January 1968. After that the primary military forces opposing the USA and ARVN were North Vietnamese regulars.
Had Goldwater won the 1964 election I think that we would have employed an offensive strategy to break the back of North Vietnam and the Viet Cong. Johnson lied and understated the extent of our involvement to win the election and afterwards ramped up the war but did it in a piecemeal fashion that allowed North Vietnam to remain undefeated.
On Strategy: A Critical Analysis of the Vietnam War by Harry Summers
The 25 Year War: America’s Military Role in Vietnam by General Bruce Palmer
Easter Offensive: The Last American Advisors, Vietnam, 1972 by Col. Gerald H. Turley
Street Without Joy by Bernard Fall
Why We Were In Vietnam by Norman Podhoretz
“Interesting how LBJ was able to destroy black America, and at the same time destroy Southeast Asia.”
Never underestimate the ability of liberalism to pave the road to Hell with their good intentions.
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