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| How North Vietnam Won The War |
| 2004-05-01 |
| Found via blackfive.net ELF snip Question: How did Hanoi intend to defeat the Americans? Answer: By fighting a long war which would break their will to help South Vietnam. Ho Chi Minh said, "We don’t need to win military victories, we only need to hit them until they give up and get out." Q: Was the American antiwar movement important to Hanoi’s victory? A: It was essential to our strategy. Support of the war from our rear was completely secure while the American rear was vulnerable. Every day our leadership would listen to world news over the radio at 9 a.m. to follow the growth of the American antiwar movement. Visits to Hanoi by people like Jane Fonda, and former Attorney General Ramsey Clark and ministers gave us confidence that we should hold on in the face of battlefield reverses. We were elated when Jane Fonda, wearing a red Vietnamese dress, said at a press conference that she was ashamed of American actions in the war and that she would struggle along with us. Q: Did the Politburo pay attention to these visits? A: Keenly. Q: Why? A: Those people represented the conscience of America. The conscience of America was part of its war-making capability, and we were turning that power in our favor. America lost because of its democracy; through dissent and protest it lost the ability to mobilize a will to win. snip and the media is replaying it’s role |
| Posted by:Sherry |
#8 No, I don't think we offered them everything they needed; quote source is Jerry Pournelle, at http://www.jerrypournelle.com/archives2/archives2mail/mail264.html The lesson of Viet Nam is simpler: don't entirely abandon your allies. In 1972 the North Vietnamese sent 150,000 troops south. Almost none returned alive. The US lost about 600 men in the entire year. ARVN with US materiel support and US air support devastated an army that came south with more armor than the Wehrmacht ever had during WW II. I would say that lesson was that the US with allies can defeat damn near anything. True, in 1975 the Democrats in Congress voted to abandon South Viet Nam and send ARVN 20 cartridges and 2 hand grenades per man, and no air support; once again an army with as much armor as the Wehrmacht ever had and as many trucks as Patton ever had swept south. This time ARVN was defeated, and Saigon became Ho Chi Minh city, and the Boat People began their exodus to many places -- did any get to Australia? But the lesson was that US clients without US support can't defeat Russian clients with Russian support: a lesson that one might have thought we would understood without running the experiment. |
| Posted by: Phil Fraering 2004-05-01 11:48:45 PM |
| #7 Phil: we offered the South Vietnamese whatever they needed to conduct the fight themselves. Their best military units did anything they could in a fighting retreat that lasted the better part of a year. But their government acted like some banana republic government, trying to steal and export everything of value from the country and let the military fend for itself. The US, for its part, was very accommodating to the bloated swine who ran the place, helping them escape with their fortunes intact, while leaving their country to ruin. The military finally collapsed an entire month before the surrender, finally giving up the struggle and trying to evacuate themselves. This left the rotten, corrupt citizens of Saigon to face their conquerors in just desserts. Even today, Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City), is still the least reformed or progressive or responsible place in Vietnam. Hanoi is a paradise compared to it. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2004-05-01 9:31:19 PM |
| #6 Anonymoose, S. Vietnam didn't really have the industrial capacity to defend itself; we not only withdrew troops, but stopped sending supplies. N. Vietnam had an essentially blank check from Moscow and Beijing to use up however many tanks/bullets/artillery pieces/whatever it took to win the war. |
| Posted by: Phil Fraering 2004-05-01 8:02:26 PM |
| #5 Frank - well said. |
| Posted by: someone 2004-05-01 5:45:25 PM |
| #4 waking up would involve admitting your errors enabled the murder of millions. Some do - see David Horowitz and Nat Hentoff, who writes in Village Voice (not a VRWC-approved medium) |
| Posted by: Frank G 2004-05-01 5:42:22 PM |
| #3 It's also important to remember how the US almost defeated the North Vietnamese and the Viet Cong. The infiltrators, fifth columnists, spies, saboteurs and Viet Cong in the South were almost eradicated by the Phoenix Program. Despite the horrified anguish from the left, the PP worked and worked exceptionally well. (N.B.: in all but name, the PP has been re-activated x 50 in size, scale and scope. It is at this moment wreaking havoc among the terrorists of the world.) The North Vietnamese Army admitted after the war that the B-52 carpet bombing "almost broke their back" and definitely forced them to the bargaining table. A three plane, 153 in count, 500 pound bomb attack is almost beyond what a normal person could imagine. One-half square mile *annihilated*. Ironically, the greatest lack of will was *not* in the US public, as has long been touted, but in the public of South Vietnam. It can truly be said that their heroes were few and noble, and fought hard and brave, but were betrayed by their weak and corrupt government. When Gerald Ford ordered us out, holding our collective noses, the Southern government didn't even *try* to defend its own country--though they had more than enough resources to do so. The left loves to pretend that the people of America left the "silent majority" and embraced their radical ideas. THIS WAS NEVER THE CASE. It is a big lie. And while they did seize power in the democratic party, that was the limit of the popularity of their ideas (that, and "moderate" Republican complicity.) The proof is how the radical leftist candidates of the democratic party have consistently gone down in flames, ever since. Self delusion and public propaganda are no substitute for a real voter base. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2004-05-01 5:41:11 PM |
| #2 When you view the videos of Nazi Germany, you have to wonder, what happened to all of those masses who raised their hand and said, Heil Hitler. Did they ever wake up one day and say, WOW! I was wrong! He massacred millions and I enabled him? And so it is with our new and improved trolls. They raise their bloody hands to enable the tyrants. Will they ever wake up? If history or this article is any indicator, the answer is sadly, NO. |
| Posted by: B 2004-05-01 5:38:35 PM |
| #1 But we have to remember that the Kerrys, the Fondas and the journalists who used the Tet to destroy the morale of the Americans did more than make the US lose the war. They made the people of Vietnam and Cambodia to lose war, freedom and life as they were slaughtered by the NVA and the Khmer Rouge. Never forgive, never forget. |
| Posted by: JFM 2004-05-01 5:11:15 PM |