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

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

[xm177e2]

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.

[glockmeister40]

I think we would have won if we let the military do its job. That would have included invading north vietnam and wiping out the root of the problem.

[elbucko]

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

YES.

[TomGuy]

It became a political instrument, used by politicians for political purposes. Had the military been allowed to conduct it as a "war," it would have been won. But they were subjected to the political persuasions of the politicians who were micro-managing and conducting it from their offices in Washington, DC.

[SauronOfMordor]

The US concentrated too much on "body counts". The Communists weren't that much concerned about bodies -- they had lots of cannon-fodder. What they DIDN'T have that much of was cash.

If the US had concentrated on economic targets (destroying the dikes in North Vietnam and ruining the rice harvest; taking out the warehouses in Haiphong; etc) and gotten the North too busy keeping its own people from starving to look for trouble down South, things might have been different

[freedomtrail]

We NEVER lost the war. We left.

[Tuco-bad]

Walter Cronkite sold out America February 28, 1968, when he stated that we could not win in Vietnam.

4 years later we implemented Linbacker II, after North Vietnam walked out of the peace talks.

After intensive bombing of North Vietname (known as the Christmas offensice), the North Vietnamese ran back to the peace talks and signed the peace agreement.

We did NOT lose in Vietnam.

[Mom_Grandmother]

I agree. I'v got a question for anyone that would care to answer. All of the fighing seemed to be focused in South Vietnam, why. Would we today, if we declared war on North Vietnam, take it to North Vietnam, instead of killing the South. It was the South that wanted free of the North.

Now I certainly am no expert when it comes to war, but I would have knocked the he** out of the North. It was politics, right, all politics? Seems to me we were totally destroying the wrong part of Vietnam.

[verity]

they were on their knees and had prepared to negotiate a "surrender.

This is not a credible statement!

[Mom_Grandmother]

Your so right, they were pulled out! To this day my husband will never understand. Vietname 70'-74'.

[Mom_Grandmother]

I don't understand, if we won, why is the South still overrun and ruled by the North and Russia. I have a friend that came here by homemade boat in 1983, she said it became unbearable and dangerous because of the North and the Russians, their's and their children lives were in danger all the time. They stayed hungry and desperate, who's lying? Thank you.

[RLK]

We had that war won and snatched defeat from victory at least three times. The first defeat for us was Kennedy's assassination of Diem. The second was McNamara's defeatest military strategy. Nixon's bombing of the north was bring about capitulation until it was shut off here.

go here

http://freedom.orlingrabbe.com/lfetimes/rlkocher_index.htm

for a 190 page analysis of the Viet Nam War complete with recently released Kennedy tapes documenting the assassination.

[Mom_Grandmother]

This statement was make by "Senior General Vo Njuyen Giap" NVC commander. It is in his book.

[Mom_Grandmother]

Thank you RLK.

[OldEagle]

The truth is that as of October 1967 the war was over, in that North Vietnam could not win it and they knew it. Tet 68 was their last gasp and if we had not been sold down the river we would have won AND we would not be wondering today about MIA's and a lot of other things. The veterans of "the conflict" would have been treated like heroes and Hanoi Jane would have been... (I guess I was just dreaming)

[uncbob]

maybe Cronkite would not have just assumed they were lying when they told him Tet was a failure. 2 posted on 3/17/02 3:29 PM Pacific by xm177e2

Cronkite is an avowed Socialist

[xm177e2]

True enough...

[Recon by Fire]

We NEVER lost the war. We left.

We left = We lost the war in Vietnam

[SMEDLEYBUTLER]

Gene Kuentzler is either lazy or relies on Doris Kearns Goodwin to do his research. According to records, by the end of 1967 there were 19,560 KIAs alone and by the end of 1968 there were 36,152 KIAs.