If the US were to fight the Vietnam war today, would we win?

[Lancer]

Those AK47s coundnt hit anything.

[DAVOUT]

I wonder if it is enough to convince the young people that you are right in your bellicose stance.

[Sandman]

In any situation where America invaded Vietnam for no reason, they could certainly count on the Chinese and Indians as well as others to supply them with weapons.

I'd also expect that they have reasonable arms manufacturing facilities of their own.

[Lancer]

You don't need a firefight, you just need to know what is right. Lots of Americans went to France in WW1 and WW2 without a firefight.

[Lancer]

Sandman, of course. I should have said that the circumstanses wer the same.

[DAVOUT]

Originally posted by Lancer
You don't need a firefight, you just need to know what is right. Lots of Americans went to France in WW1 and WW2 without a firefight.

Sure, if you tell the young people that war consists of travelling a bit without killing people and without being killed, they will love it.

[uh Clem]

If the US were to fight the Vietnam war today, would we win?

Win what?

Could the US prop up a pro-American regime for as long as American forces were in Indo-China?

Probably.

Would that regime last beyond the removal of American forces?

No.

Could the US kill enough Vietnamese to terrorize the rest into supporting the pro-American government after removal of American forces?

Based on past experience: No. The US does not have either the political or moral will to carry out such a policy. The objections from the military leadership alone would be enough to kill it. Domestic disruptions would dwarf those of the 1960s & '70s.

If Pretzel Boy went before the country and tried something like this (based on some alleged Vietnamese link to "terrorism," for instance), he'd be quietly sedated and retired to Crawford while Acting President Cheney finished out his term. Even Limbaugh's legion of idiots wouldn't buy it. End of debate.

[SlowwHand]

Let the military fight the war, and no question.
But, if you always do what you always did, you'll always get what you always got.

[Shi Huangdi]

Well would the US have more clearly have defined objectives? Because if our plan is to just sit in the South or some other region against while the commies continually attack us, then no. Maybe if we could invade, for totaly victory, and train a pro-US force of Vietnamese that might actually maintain the support of the people, and prop the pro-US vietnamese up to the point where they can be safe from the communist guerillas, the US might win.

[Dis]

It depends on what our objective is. If we don't care what remains in the north, we could bomb them into the stone age. But that isn't possible now due to public resistance.

So I'd have to say no, we cannot win.

[Sava]

Originally posted by Lancer
Damn I hate my last post. Yet it's what I truly think. I have no faith in the young people today, just look at this forum.

Yup... you should have no faith in our ability to blindly listen to a corrupt president. Each young generation is smarter than the previous and we realize our leaders are in it for themselves and not for freedom, democracy, or any other ideals. Kids are smart. They can spot phonies.

[SlowwHand]

[chequita guevara]

No, because we would not have had the lesson of Vietnam to learn from, and would still have totally FUBARed ideas about how to fight war.

[Sava]

That's all right Sloww, roll your eyes, but the US will be a much better place in 20 years when my generation takes over.

[Kramerman]

most definately yes.

With a Soviet Union not there to threaten to enter the war on the side of the North Vietnamese if we were to invade North Vietnam, then we could actually do that. The reason why we lost it originally was not because of military reasons, it was because of political ones. We could not invade and hold ground in the north, because we feared reprisal from china and the SU. with them politically out of the picture (except for maybe china, but i think they would just want to keep chugging that economy along...), the US wouldnt just be sitting in the bog that is South Vietnam, and getting picked to pieces. We could actually have ground forces to supplement our strategic air campaign.

Therefore the US would win, QED

Kman