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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: cnyndwllr who wrote (131641)	5/5/2004 7:52:54 PM
From: Hawkmoon	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

In the populated areas the VC hid out among the population and were indistinguishable from the harmless villagers. Not sure when you were there, but the VC, according to my historical and personal sources (buddies and friends who were there), the VC ceased to exist as a viable fighting force after Tet (1968). After that it became a North versus South struggle. And it was only when Vietnamization commenced that the Southern leadership, and the population, finally got serious about defending themselves. But they were completely outflanked by the North's invasion of Laos and Cambodia and by that time the NVA had built large defensive lines to prevent any cutting of the Ho Chi Minh trail... Face it.. we let the enemy have the ability to dictate the terms and location of the battle. And we left his sanctuaries (aside from 1970) relatively intact, without permanently establishing a similar presence to prevent further incusions (apparently because we feared direct Chinese and Russian intervention in Indo-China).. We fought with one and half arms behind our back in a war of attrition against an opponent who was able to dedicate his entire national effort to conquering the south.. And they were able to do that because of direct subsidization of nearly their entire economy by China and Russia. You don't "force [a government] to take their own defense as seriously as [we think] they should..." No.. but you stipulate that there is no place for them to go if they don't muster their entire will to fighting and defending their country.. That's a pretty strong message... And something tells me that, via 20/20 hindsight, if the South Vietnamese knew then, what they know now, about how their next 30 years of their lives were going to turn out, they probably would have fought a hell of lot harder. Hawk