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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Hoa Hao who wrote (111239)	4/26/2005 8:19:21 AM
From: michael97123	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 793931

The Thai didnt have the stomach for that if i am remembering correctly. Dont think that was even discussed in any serious way. mike

To: Hoa Hao who wrote (111239)	4/26/2005 9:56:56 AM
From: TimF	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 793931

I'm not saying that the Thai army couldn't have had a positive effect on the situation, or even that the move might not have made sense in terms of military strategy, but I am also not so sure the Thais would have been eager to enter the war, and if they did I don't see how it would have been easy or all that simple. Maybe it could have happened, maybe it could have worked. But I think you are presenting the situation as far simpler and easier than it would have been even in a strictly military sense and your barely touching on the politics of the situation (internal Thai politics, reactions from America esp. the left, Vietnamese and Laotian response, any increase of support for the South East Asian communists from the USSR and China, world reaction ect.) at all. The NVA was in a sense tied down with the US army and the ARVN, but since we were not going to invade the north they could control the pace of operations allowing them to move a lot of their forces to counteract the Thai invasion of Laos. If they didn't have the power to defeat the Thai army in direct conflict (which might well be the case considering the Thais would probably get American air support), they still would have the capability to disrupt the Thai's operations, mount guerilla attacks, probably control some territory and otherwise work to keep the Ho Chi Minh trail open, while shifting some supplies to other routes. If the US invaded Laos from the other side you would have more chance of sucess, but the politics might become even more complex. Certainly it wouldn't have been popular in the US. To sum up - I'm not saying its a bad plan, just that it wouldn't be simple and the results might not have been perfect. Tim Tim