re: What are your thoughts on the Vietnam war?

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But I'm not sure if the war was a total loss either. It seems like it may have become a war to contain a different way of thinking rather than destroy it..

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I view the Vietnam as a total loss. We came into the situation thinking we could contain the north Vietnamese by dropping napalm and some bombs on them. We learned nothing from the previous french conflict in that region and we were just unprepared. Then, we pulled out and tried to just wipe our hands clean of the situation as the south Vietnamese got overran. I don't necessarily think the war was unnecessary as it played into our political policy at the time, but we went about it very poorly

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Well, last time we sat on the sidelines some guys from Japan with some planes decided to drop bombs on a military base in one of our territories.

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I wouldn't consider provoking them with crippling sanctions equivalent to "sitting on the sidelines."

I would suggest reading "Dereliction of Duty" for anyone who wants to understand the politics surrounding Vietnam.

My dad and mom tell me stories all the time and they say it was futile from the start.

The biggest flaw in their opinion was lack of communication from VN soldiers with Americans. Ultimately, it set a chain reaction because nobody knew how to defend properly and execute offensive missions.

But I think of it in a positive sense, if it wasn't for the South and US losing, my candy arse would probably be back in VN still...so thanks America, you guys provided my family a great opportunity.

I can become a doctor and not bring shame to my family.

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We were kinda on the sidelines... sure we were sending supplies, but we were not in the war...at all.

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I was more talking about how we were crippling Japan through oil embargos, freezing of their over seas assets, etc. And we were doing more than just sending supplies to the British. We were letting them come into our ports and rebuild their ships.

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The thought process by many at that time was the same as many had during vietnam and many have during campaigns we get involved in now... let's focus on problems at home, that's their problem... on the other side of the world.

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that was the view of the normal person. Roosevelt wanted to get into world war 2 for a while prior to our entrance and campaigned for increase aid to Britain until our entrance

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that was the view of the normal person. Roosevelt wanted to get into world war 2 for a while prior to our entrance and campaigned for increase aid to Britain until our entrance

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Well yeah... but that kinda runs along the same issues we had with Vietnam.

I'm not saying that those issues are a bad thing, but the media and citizens approval of military decisions are a bigger deal than most want to admit. I think good military decisions like Roosevelt had are hindered by public approval at times... but in turn that is a good thing because really bad decisions can be hindered as well....

That has nothing to do with us being on the sidelines of world War 2 prior to our entrance. We were "neutral" in name only and our roosevelt was doing everything he could to support Britain short of actually fighting.

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Can you give me one example where we were minding our own business and incurred "their" problem?

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Well WWII would probably be the closest... Although we weren't technically sitting by twiddling our thumbs. But if we hadn't gotten involved there's a good chance we would have had to go to war with two and maybe even three very powerfully German controlled continents. Hitler wasn't exactly gonna just stop if he took all of Asia, Europe, and Africa.

I think a bunch of innocent young men got drafted and died for no reason. frick all those people that spit on them when they returned home.

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We underestimated the enemy and overestimated the effectiveness of our air power. We were unprepared to fight in the jungle against an invisible enemy.

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From a military standpoint, the U.S. Inflicted on the NVA one of the most complete defeats in modern history. As for the Viet Cong, we completely destroyed it as a combat force during the Tet Offensive. By the spring of 1973 the North Vietnamese were exhausted. Their army had been bled white, their cities and ports were being pounded daily, and their once formidable air defense system was totally overwhelmed. They realized they had to end the war and that's when the signed the Treaty of Paris and the war came to an end... in 1973.

Two years later in 1975, after the Soviets had helped the rearm and rebuild and the U.S. had left South Vietnam almost totally alone, the North launched a new war. The U.S. did nothing to help the South despite being obligated by treaty to come to their aid. We would not even send them supplies. We abandoned the South and the result was the collapse of South Vietnam.