Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Ia Drang: When Ho Chi Minh knew the war could be won.

There you go Dan. Lost the war? No F'ing way. We forced the North to sign off the peace agreement. Should have kept bombing their a$$ for a few more weeks until they surrendered. We were there.

Jim

Wars cost billions. Whenever billions are being spent, someone is making billions. That's what wars are all about.

Capitalism is small consolation when you live in a totalitarian regime.

Odd way to fight a war, body count, not gaining, and holding ground.

1st - I never wore a uniform so maybe I should be quiet.

Wars, IMHO, should be fought 'on the cheap', least expense to get the job done, be it Boots on the Ground, Dollars, Equipment.............. but especially Boots on the Ground!

If you're worried about blowing up monuments you're not 'At War'

If you're worried about how it looks you're not 'At War'

If you're worried about loss of life on the other side you're not 'At War'

I'm thinking that if the events of 6 August and 9 August 1945 had actually taken place on 9 December and 12 December 1941 things would look a lot different...............

JMHO.............

The only good that came from that war was that it effectively ended LBJ's political career........................he ranks near the top of the worst POTUS ever.

It was also him that started the big time giveaways to the blacks that are much of the root cause of todays issues.

MM

Good riddance to LBJ AND McNamara! I still believe if JFK hadn't been killed he would have pulled out any further US involvement in VN. He may have been a womanizing democrat, but he WAS in real combat and he DID keep us out of another world War. And maybe I got it all it wrong....except for the part about LBJ & Mac!

Dan, Rocky, all Who Answered the Call.

Win or lose?
If we won, you all were largely why.

If we lost, it wasn't you.

You all went when called, or volunteered.
The vast majority did their duty to the best of their ability.
With honor.


Thank you!

"I'm thinking that if the events of 6 August and 9 August 1945 had actually taken place on 9 December and 12 December 1941 things would look a lot different..............."

While in theory you would be correct, tell me, how in the hell could we of done that in1941? I don't think "The Bomb" had been invented yet or was only in early stages of development ad second, how in the hell would we have delivered it? Dolittle's raid with B-25s was considered a suicide mission at albeit with a chance for survival. Doing the same with A-bombs in 1941 would have been a death sentence for two plane and the pilots and crew, assuming the bombs were already in existence.

President Eisenhower warned us about the military/industrial complex when he gave his farewell to the nation speech. We didn't listen. With the exception of Grenada, we really have not won a war since WW2. We didn't win in Korea. Nor have we won any other war since with the exception of Grenada. The military/industrial complex wants to keep us in some kind of war someplace on the planet and winning no longer matters. All the military wants is more of the newest and latest toys. The industrial part of the complex is glad to comply as it helps raise the bottom line. It's all about " follow the money!" And it's us taxpayers who foot the bill in the long run, in money and lives.
Paul B.

Thanks, Dillonbuck. That's how I've always viewed it: won, lost, or tied, I did my part to my best ability. Voluntarily.

LBJ had a big share of Stock in Bell Helicopter...."seems like" a Conflict of Interest to me....but They never asked me, ha.

To answer your question.... We couldn't. It was a comment about how war is waged in principle or concept.

Guess you forgot about Yemen and Iraq.

Read "Dereliction of Duty" by H. R, McMaster.

We had no real objectives in that war. LBJ just wanted to keep the lid on until after the 1964 elections and Congress approved his Great Society BS. The joint chiefs thought we would need 500,000 to 700,000 troops for five years but were afraid to say so very loudly. McNamara tried to help out his boss LBJ by agreeing to only a fraction of the troops they needed, saying he might consider more later. The South Vietnamese government was corrupt and incompetent and had little popular support. At one point, General Ky's air force even bombed his own central government. For a long time we maintained the fiction that we were "advising" the South Vietnamese instead of fighting the war ourselves. McNamara thought it was important to put up a good fight and then, even if the North won, everyone would credit us with backing our friends. He thought of the war as a means of diplomacy--don't bomb any important targets but show them that we can do so and they'll negotiate. They didn't.

All that preceded Ia Drang.

Dick Nixon ended the war. He pulled out, gradually, telling the South to fish or cut bait. When the North wouldn't give us our prisoners back, he bombed the sh-- out of them and we went home. That was the Paris accords. If we had bombed the sh-- out of them in 1964 or 1965......?

The US troops fought competently and bravely but they had no chance to win. Lyndon Baines Johnson and Robert Strange McNamara saw to that.

The lesson of Viet Nam was if you fight a war, go all out to win. Kill all enemy personnel you can and destroy all their works. Unfortunately we've forgotten that lesson many times since then.

LBJ: "If we pass this ( voting rights bill? ) the N**gers will vote Democrat for the next 200 years".

Don't forget Congress prevented Nixon from dropping troops into Cambodia and/or Laos BEHIND the enemy buildup just over the border. This pincer movement would have f*cked the enemy big time.

Probably.

We won in Iraq. that is news to me.

But there is no doubt, we whipped Grenada. And don't forget we invaded Panama in 1989 and captured the President.

Grenada and Panama, what a record of victories.

There’s a lotta truth to that.

What did we accomplish? Either place?

For that matter WW1 and WW2 were lost considering that the end result was communism for half the world.

I would almost say we haven't won anything since we pacified the Indian tribes.

A lotta bigwigs here in America made a lotta money.

Right, and we haven't even paid the interest on WW1 yet. Much less the debt acquired then and since.