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

To: Bilow who wrote (132129)	5/8/2004 1:38:16 AM
From: Hawkmoon	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

The South Korean border was short, the South Vietnamese border was long. Carl.. The border between North and South Vietnam was 100 kilometers long and ran along the Ben Hai river. The Korean DMZ is 250 kilometers long and we've managed to defend it without the benefit of a river. I found it VERY conveniently deceptive how you tried to include the entire border of S. Vietnam, which it shared with 3 different countries, while only discussing the actual border between N and S Korea... Your argument only works if we take into consideration that it was permissible for N. Vietnam to deliberately violate Laotian neutrality and build their Ho Chi Minh trail threw it. But if had only been a matter of defending the DMZ area along the Ben Hai, the North Vietnamese would never have been able to invade the South.. And had we opted to violate Laotian territory and conduct an operation similar to Lam Son 719, but far earlier in the war, then we wouldn't have had 1800 kilometers of border to defend and could have accomplished concentration of firepower like we have in Korea, rather than be relegated to having to defend the entire frontier. The North Vietnamese were MORE than willing to violate Laotion neutrality, rendering it mute and using it as the means to attack the South from where ever they so desired. This was a major flaw in our strategy, IMO. As for Iraq, we also don't have to worry about the jungles shrouding the movements of the enemy.. There are very few places for them to effectively hide and muster large groups of forces, except in the cities. And the relatvie security of those cities will come in time. Hawk