Yes so in the end most of us agree on the fact that the US militarily won the war against NV and the VC. Interestingly enough, 98% of the people overhere, if asked about it, would answer "The guerrilla kicked the GI's ass".
That is why I started this thread in the first place. All contributions have been interesting and I thank you for it.

We coldn't have won there, it was too much. Remember the tet offensive where the vietcong captured the american embassy in saigon. If you can't even defend the embassy then what are you doing there? The americans did a lot of damage, but no matter what they couldn't win. I don't like the way GIs were treated since it wasn't their fault, but no politician gave a clear answer as to why it was important to defend a poor a country halfway around the world where there few few US interests.

Originally Posted by WarMachine

No politician gave a clear answer as to why it was important to defend a poor a country halfway around the world where there few few US interests.

Domino theory, allied country.

Try Gulf of Tonkin and false pretense. All the other justifications proved false since all the states of former indochina became communist and it didn't spread to other countries. South Vietnam's govt was an ally, but the people really hated it and i think if you wanted to support democracy, a plebiscite should've been held whehter to change the govt or reconcile with the north.
Sadly, this wasn't about democracy but just anit-communism, which is why crap like this happened during the cold war that we're still feeling reprocussions for today.

Originally Posted by WarMachine

Try Gulf of Tonkin and false pretense. All the other justifications proved false since all the states of former indochina became communist and it didn't spread to other countries. South Vietnam's govt was an ally, but the people really hated it

Wrong. My best buddy is Vietnamese. Left his country by boat some years after the commies took over and is an American now (similar to 5.56's story). If you go to Orange County and meet and talk to some Vietnamese-Americans you will learn how no comparison could be done between the southern government and the northern one. The people did not hate their government in the South.

If the South was sympathetic to the North, how do you explain the existence of ARVN? If they all loved the North so much then why did they all join up with ARVN to fight against them. They could easily slipped away at night to join up with the local VC unit if they really wanted to fight for the North.

A lot of the peasents joined the VC. It was a war that the peasents wanted to fight, not your city living vienamese you guys are referring to. In any of these countries like cuba or nepal where the govt up front looks good, the peasents are suffering. It was really land reform that they wanted since they were abused by landlords and the govt was no help. Factor in corruption and you have a nice place to set up marxism. That and i think a lot of people would have seen the north as a more legitimate govt than the south because they were the ones fighting the japanese and french for decades in order to gain independence.

I know vietnamese people too, the ones who came here are usually well taken care of either because there were professionals from vietnam or had families that hosted them in order to adapt. That's a case of the ones who didn't want to live in communists, but to a large segment of the population, communism seemed like salvation to them.

I was refering to the majority of South Vietnam. Wherever they lived is irrelevant. I know it's hard to grasp the fact that the majority rules in a day in age when people only car about the minority. The conception that the majority of South Vietnam was sympathetic to the North is yet another of the many myths surrounding the war in Vietnam. Even after the US pulled out, the South Vietnamese continued to fight the North until they had nothing left to fight with because America refused to send any more aid.

Warmachine
I dare you to make that statement to the hundreds of Montagnards that fought the VC at the side of our forces, and continued the fight long after Americans were pulled out of Vietnam. These jungle fighters would have spit in your eyes just before they slit your throat at the suggestion that they would even think of backing the North Vietnamese. They hated them with a fervor that had to be seen to be believed.

As far as the agricultural farmers, they only wanted one thing ... that was to be left alone. Most of these people did NOT willingly join VC forces ... they were forced at gunpoint to join or they and their families would be killed. I believe you could call that a very very good reason to fight for the North Vietnamese wouldn't you???

I think that the south vietnamese were distinct enough to have their own country, but the way north and south were seperated was done very poorly, even with constant aid the south would eventually lose since the north was hellbound to reunite the two sides.

There were soldiers that helped the americans but there were many more that fought against them. I honestly don't believe that vietnam was a strategic priority since there was nothing in the region that was very strategic at that time. It was political and when soldiers die for politics that's the worst kind of war you can conjure up. Not dying for their beliefs or defense of their country thousands of miles away, but because it was important for some serious men.

You know what? I think the vietnamese as a whole would be better off now if they weren't communist, but that wasn't how things were played out and i wish that war never happened since it would have prevented a lot of death and grief that occured for a decade blemishing the US in the eyes of the world.