I always find the issuance of Ho Chi Minhs March,1946 Order to be very interesting. He actually authorized the French to come back in (the North) and assisted them in destroying the Nationalist Vietnamese. Thousands were butchered. "Uncle Ho" as the left loves to call him not only was a founder of the Vietnamese Communist Party, but the French Communist Party as well.
The USA entered Vietnam as a member of SEATO. As did other nations. All were duty-bound to do so (come to the assistance of a member state). The North has ALWAYS been covetous of the South. They invaded numerous times in previous centuries. So many in fact, the South construction a couple of walls on the 17th Parallel to keep them out.
This from UNHERALDED VICTORY by Mark Woodruff:
"America's victories on the battlefield up until 1973 were overwhelmed by later events, and the sad fact is that Communist North Vietnam did later invade and conquer it southern neighbor. Those who predicted that the surrounding countries would fall like dominoes were proven wrong, but the world will never know if they might have fallen if America had not acted when it did. In 1994, Singapore's President Lee Kwan Yew noted that America's actions in Vietnam had given his country ten years to strengthen itself against the Communists, ten years without which Singapore might well have fallen. One can only speculate on how many other then-vulnerable states could also be added to the list."
Your points about Cam Ranh Bay are very well met as a deep-water port on the cusp of the western Pacific to the Indian Ocean. Plus, the point you make concerning Singapore can hardly be questioned as asserted from such a unique perspective. One of even my current co-workers in Singapore readily attests to the assistance of the Israeli military in formulating that island's defensive strategies, as no one else had heretofore given them the time of day on that issue.
You'll undoubtedly realize that a good slice of my take on this issue is sociological over even military. This derives from my senses of the Vietnamese people during the war, which - I think to my credit now as I was then a dumb kid - were as greatly reinforced for me during my return trip there in APR 2000 (re#33). You're especially right when you say that, "The North has ALWAYS been covetous of the South." When I went to Hanoi on the final leg of that latter trip, I really sensed their differences. The northerners are decidedly colder and bureaucratic to the point where one could almost feel their notions of superiority.
Yet I'm still optimistic that truth for them will out, and that their latest generation of leaders will yet realize that in order to engage in real terms with the world that their people will have to be freer, because that is the only way that capitalism works. And even in this the realization that capitalism is going to be the way of the world.
I actually hope the same for the Chinese to the north, but still hold out more hope to such ends for the Vietnamese as I truly believe them to be a hardier people.
Everything hopefully as even marking the greater Good to you and yours.