Vietnam War

They had the likes of Harkins.

They also had some excellent people who had a clear vision what was going on and had ideas on how to turn the tide. However :

1) the ARVN district commanders where almost universally corrupt and more eager to fill their pocket than to kick Charlie's ass. In fact, filling their pockets was often a objective in contradiction with fighting the commies. They stayed blind until the very end.

2) Their voices were not often heard in the white house as their ideas were on a collision course with those of influent people.

I think the war was lost very early, probably as early as 62-63 when the VC was allowed to grow while it was weak. By the time the US involvment increased dramatically I wonder if it was not already too late.

Let's sing on the tune "On top of old Smokey"

We were called into Tan Hiep
On January 2,
We would never have gone there
If we'd only knew
We were supporting the ARVNs,
A group without guts,
Attacking a village
Of straw covered huts.
A ten-copter mission,
A hundred-troop load,
Three lifts were now over
A fourth on the road.
The VC's start shooting,
They fire a big blast,
We off-load the ARVNs
They sit on their ass.
One copter is crippled,
Another sits down,
Attempting a rescue,
Now they are two on the ground.
A Huey returns now
To give them some aid,
The VC's are so accurate
They shoot off a blade.
Four pilots are wounded,
Two cremen are dead,
When it's all over,
A good day for the Red.
...

Nice military folclor.I see one time the "green berets balade",sorry i dont haved to posted.

How was the war considered in Rumania at the timeby the ordinary people in the street ?

let me try

Here are several possibilities :

1) Go US ! We maybe under Yvan's boot but we root for the good guys (even in a bad war)

2) We enjoy seeing the arrogant, imperialistic, capitalistic, bombastic and corporatistic US being kicked in the ass by a bunch of peasants.

3) Who cares, it's not Moldavia.

4) Go Lenin ! Victory to the glorious Communist People of the Unified Vietnam !

Please combine no.3 with no.4

I am a bit more complex than just no.3

i do not believe that more than 20 percent of the population knew about it....and those who knew did not give a damn..........

I thougth you would combine 3 with 3 to make 3²

The formations operating in South Vietnam could not take the North's AA network with them, hence any numerical superiority was negated by overwhelming US air power.
To give an example, at Khe Sanh the US forces were at least 3 times smaller than their enemy forces, but for each american soldier 240 kg of bombs were dropped each and every day. That means each vietnamese had to face 80 kilograms of bombs each day, delivered to his trail, to his bunker, to his area of operation.
And I'm talking only about the airplane-delivered ordnance, the US also had plenty of artillery up there.

The jungle was pretty big and those 80 kg per person fell many times in places where there wasn't actually anyone. Take for example the numerous air raids on the Ho Chi Mihn Trail, which failed to cut the flow of supplies going South from the North.

Yes, they even had enough left over for some of the enlisted men to frag their officers with.

Say what you want, right or wrong, left or right; it's real hard to win a war with an army and civilian population mostly or even significantly opposed. (regardless of the numerical ratios on the ground.)

That's ONE lesson the U.S. military learned in Nam, and one reason they are now coming down like gangbusters on any vocal rumblings in the (all volunteer) ranks today, in u-know-where.

(I also think even the Russians leaned that one in Afghanistan, their Vietnam?)

Are you disputing the impact of US airpower on the outcome of Khe Sanh battle?
Besides, the jungle may have been pretty big, but the vietnamese had to garrison somewhere close to the US base, as well as eventually engage it. In each of these actions they were exposed to airpower. Electronic sensors made their movements even more vulnerable.

And most important of all - China! I noticed none of us mentioned China's generous support for the North.

Hallo Imp,

The U.S.A. Military spent millions on developing sensors, sensors dropped from aircraft disquised to look like plants, supposedly sensitive enough to tell the amount of people or trucks passing by, the problem was they could not tell the difference between water buffallo, elephants or trucks.

With so much "Agent Orange" being sprayed around, the painted Green sensors stood out like a sign post against the back-drop of the defolitaed jungle, the V/C and NVA used to tiptoe around them.

Another wonder device was the Electronic People Sniffers, a big piece of equipment strapped to a soldiers back, while the soldier held out in front of him the probe which tested the surounding air content for traces of sweat and other assorted body smells. Worked fantastic back in the lab, never so good in the field.

But mainly the grunts in the field relied on Dogs, and the Mark 1 eyeball and the old method of hanging a ration can, containing stones in the wire, this too often was by-passed by the V/C and NVA.

Kevin in Deva