To: Dayuhan who wrote (12267 ) 9/1/1998 10:33:00 PM From: JF Quinnelly Read Replies (1) | Respond to
What assets did they have that could not have been quickly rebuilt? They infiltrated men, material, and supplies under the most intense bombing the world had seen at the time. If we had invaded, what could we have done? Blow up the Haiphong docks, burn Hanoi, then what? Withdraw? Six months later you're right back to where you were before. I have not read any impartial account that did not conclude that by 1974 the rot in South Vietnam was irreversible. On Strategy is the critical analysis of the war that the US Army itself uses, and would correct the numerous misconceptions that you have about how the war was fought, and the principles of warfare in general. It provides illuminating contrasts to the Unity of Command and Principle of the Offensive that we successfully employed in Korea and WWII. You seem overly reliant on mythology that the North was so excellent at promoting. General Giap, in a lengthy interview with a French journalist after the conquest of the South, boasted of the success that North Vietnam had in fighting a propaganda war in America to remove public support for the South. He credited many in the anti-war movement who travelled regularly to Hanoi during the war, and who assisted North Vietnam with their success. I'll take Giap at his word.
