Is It Possible, Could America Have Won the Vietnam War In '1968?

Article by: Gene Kuentzler '1999 ^ | 3/17/02 | Gene Kuentzler

[Mom_Grandmother]

Is It Possible, Could America Have Won the Vietnam War In '1968?

By '1968, North Vietnamese morale was at it's lowest point ever. The plans for "Tet" '68 was their last desperate attempt to achieve a success, in an effort to boost the NVA morale. When it was over, General Giap (Senior General Vo Njuyen Giap) and NVA viewed the Tet '68 offensive as a "failure", they were on their knees and had prepared to negotiate a "surrender."

At the time, there were fewer than 10,000 U.S. casualties, the Vietnam War was about to end, as the NVA was prepared to accept their defeat. Then, they heard "Walter Cronkite" (former CBS News anchor and correspondent) on TV proclaiming the success of the Tet '68 offensive by the NVA. They were completely and totall amazed at hearing tha the US Embassy had been overrun. In reality, the NVA had not gained access to the Embassy--there were some VC who had been killed on the grassy lawn, but they hadn't gained access. Further reports indicated that riots and protesting on the streets of America.

According to General Giap, these distorted reports were insperational to the NVA. They changed their plans from a negotiated surrender and decided instead, they only needed to persevere for one more hour, day, week, month, eventually the protesters in America would help them to achieve a victory they knew they could not win on the battlefield.

Remember, this decision was made at a time when the U.S. casualties were fewer than 10,000, at the end of '1967, beginning of '1968. Today, there were 58,000 names on the Vietnam Wall Memorial that was built with the donations made by the American public.

Although General Giap did not mention each and every protester's name in his book, many of us will never forget the 58,000 names on the Wall. We will also never forget that names of those who helped in placing those additional 48,000 names there: Jane Fonda, Tom Hayden, Walter Cronkite, and other's.

Gene Kuentzler, '66-67, S-3 Operations 19th Combat Engineer Battalion

[onedoug]

I won the Vietnam War.

[PJ-Comix]

Surely there may have been something in-between as far as weapons are concerned.

What? Don't you get it, if you don't have a willing ally in place a war is as good as lost. We won against the Taliban in Afghanistan. Why? Because we had allies (the Northern Alliance) who were willing to fight. Imagine the hell it would have been if we had unwilling allies in Afghanistan. Plus we were able to defeat the Taliban with a minimal number of ground US forces because of those allies. Fortunately the US military has gotten a lot SMARTER since Vietnam days.

[Mom_Grandmother]

Yes people, what is it with the French. I had uncle's in Germany and France during WW11, they cleared the Germans out of France and I think we even helped rebuild their city. Why the knife in our backs when Reagan needed their air space when he went after Libya, and all of the belly aching today, they should be backing us and glad to do it, for their sakes as well as ours? Thanks

[Check6]

What do you mean, "possible"? If Barry Goldwater had been elected in '64, the Vietnam War would have been a dim memory by 1968. By now, South Vietnam would have been rivaling South Korea economically.

[RLK]

Diem was so loved that those Buddhist monks set themselves on fire. One problem was that you had the Catholic Diem family ruling in a nation of mostly non-Catholics.

-------------------------------

That a hand full of deluded fanatics burned themselves misses the point. The reason the Buddhists killed themselves was because of the effectiveness of Diem's pograms and the irrelevance of Buddhism. Catholocism brought litteracy, medicine, and other advancement to the country. The Buddhists were becoming irrelevant. People were turning from Buddhism. It was a dying organization. In protest, a few Buddhists committed suicide. They were the Taliban of the area who couldn't adapt to the present time. So be it.

[saminfl]

In the movie, "The Hanoi Hilton," a Vietnamese officer tells an American POW, "Your journalists are going to win this war for us." I remember this movie was supposedly based on actual interviews of 100 POWs.

[rightofrush]

This is a war that could have been won two or more years earlier if some geographical changes had been made: Haiphong Bay and Hanoi Harbour.

[Mom_Grandmother]

"I won the Vietnam war."

Best one yet, Thanks.

[RLK]

...And Ho Chi Minh and Chairman Mao also celebrated when Kennedy had Diem assassinated. They knew Kennedy destroyed the South in the act. They thought Kennedy was nuts.

[Mom_Grandmother]

Look, I'm here to learn, not to be preached at because of something I may not know, there are lots of things I don't know, so kindly talk to me, not down to me. Thank you.

[secretagent]

(1)I thought that ARVN suffered enormous casualties, and that the NVA targeted them over the U.S. forces.

(2) I've heard that the South would have held even after the U.S. left, if Congress had just supplied them with arms to match the Soviet Union's aid to the North.

[PJ-Comix]

Now, when you talk about the Mongs or the "yards"...now your talking first rate fighters.

Trouble was that they were detested by most ARVNs for ethnic reasons.

Another piece of work was the cousin of President Thieu, a Lt. Colonel named Hoang Duc Ninh. In addition to levying tribute on almost every commodity in his province, he fired artillery shells aimlessly into rice patties so he could sell off the brass shell casings, he freed VC prisoners for payoffs, and even sold artillery barrages to support besieged ARVN troops. However, no payoff, no supporting shellfire.

And he was just one of a corrupt many.

[Mom_Grandmother]

I refer you to post #112. Thanks.

[PJ-Comix]

I've heard that the South would have held even after the U.S. left, if Congress had just supplied them with arms to match the Soviet Union's aid to the North.

They were supplied but how many of those supplies were sold off for cash? Bottom line, we had a terrible ally. Corrupt and not really willing to make battlefield sacrifices.

[saminfl]

And if the military had been honest with the media from the start, maybe Cronkite would not have just assumed they were lying when they told him Tet was a failure.

You give Cronkite too much credit for honesty. I think the military already knew what the American Journalists were and were afraid to tell them anything.

[PJ-Comix]

I'm not talking down to you. But the bottom line is there was NO WAY we would have used nuclear weapons in Southeast Asia. On top of that we had a corrupt ally unwilling for the most part to fight to the finish. The NVA were willing to make the sacrifices.

As I posted before, Vietnam was probably the WORST place on the planet to confront the communists.

[tubebender]

then, they heard "Walter Cronkite" (former CBS News anchor and correspondent)

Later in the war I still remember Cranktite saying we must get out of Vietnam and I exloded in rage. I had just finshed drinking a can of beer at the time or I would thrown at the TV. It was the last time I ever watched him to this day.

[PJ-Comix]

...And Ho Chi Minh and Chairman Mao also celebrated when Kennedy had Diem assassinated.

You make it sound like Ho and Mao were bosom buddies. They weren't. Read Vietnamese history. The overall theme was the paranoia the Vietnamese had over being conquered by the Chinese again. Notice that when the Vietnam war ended that the Chinese and Vietnamese had a number of battles on their border. No, I'm not crazy about Vietnamese (or any other type) of communism but they did keep China out of Southeast Asia. We acted under the illusion that they were all a solid front.