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Three tactical nukes wouldn't have done much to save a bankrupt colonial empire nor stop the communists. Hell, we killed something like 2 million of them. All it would have done is draw the condemnation of the world and get the Chinese more involved.

Quite likely, and it certainly would have opened the doors to others more freely using nukes in conflict - perhaps, and likely, against the U.S.

They were bankrupt before the even got started!

A show of American force in 1954 might have really slowed the march of especially the Chinese and Russian influence in Asia.

It might, probably would have, but politically that would be a tough sell to an American public that had the horror of WWII fresh in everyone's mind plus having fought the Chinese to a draw only one year prior. IIRC the sitting president got his job partly on a campaign promise of "going to Korea" to end that war. Not a good idea to risk or even to be seen to risk starting another one a year later.

What Chinese and Russian influence in Asia? Far from the main tenet of the Domino Theory, the communist movements in East Asia are/were pretty independent and national in nature. They got nominal material support, but they definitely had their own characteristics. Today, even after we killed millions of their citizens, Vietnam would rather deal with us than China.

We had a hell of a "show of force operation" on Okinawa in 1961. We were told that it was for the benefit of some S.E. Asian leader that we were pressuring to join SEATO. If we were told the name of the country, I've forgotten it.

Most of us had joined the Corp thinking we would be going back to Korea to finish that deal.

But the domino theory promised a wider war which was in the interest of the "MIC" Ike had warned about a couple years earlier.

Then... Cuba caught 'em all by surprise.

hillbillybear,

Have you read Thomas DiLorenzo's "The Real Lincoln"? If so, what did you think of it?

I haven't read that one yet. What does he say about Dishonest Abe?

Agreed. One of our biggest mistakes was assuming that all Communists were the same and in league with one another. The Chinese and Russians hated each other; they only allied because of us. The Norks have always been batschit. The Vietnamese wanted nothing to do with the Chinese as they were and are age old enemies. NO ONE trusted the Khymer Rouge (for good reason). We could have - and should have - played divide and conquer instead of lumping them all together and trying to hash it out militarily.

I've not read it - yet - either. Dr. Walter Williams of George Mason speaks highly of it, though. "In his recently published book, “The Real Lincoln,” Thomas DiLorenzo marshals abundant unambiguous evidence that virtually every political leader of the time (1861) and earlier believed that states had a right of secession. ... DiLorenzo does a yeoman’s job in documenting Lincoln’s ruthlessness and hypocrisy, and how historians have covered it up."

This was one of if not the primary defining premise on which US Foreign Policy was constructed in the 1950's- 1960's


NSC-68:

https://www.trumanlibrary.org/whistlestop/study_collections/coldwar/documents/pdf/10-1.pdf

Before we get too far ahead another WWI exam question:


Identify the highly decorated young German Lieutenant from the Italian Front who later became one of the key generals in WWII.

How did he impact the events of WWII and how did his WWI experience influence his thinking and decision making?

This sounds like a must read. Dr. Williams is usually spot on with his assessments of things.

Erwin Rommel.

His experiences in Italy in WWI lead him to rewrite German doctrine on infantry maneuvers and tactics; leading to the highly advanced use of small units, fire-and-maneuver, assault, and basically everything else the Germans did that was groundbreaking in WWII in terms of infantry and armor.

and.... answer the whole question. You are as bad as a Freshman.

Edited to add that, Professor.

That is More Better

I almost had you

Here's a quiz question for you, teach...

What famous Civil War commander only won one fight, though in many, prior to the War and that win via firearm use landed him in jail, where he then started the study of law - a profession he held prior to and after the war?