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Originally Posted by WTE_Galway
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Dig deeper, you are only looking far enough to prove your thought.
Rolling Thunder was a failure approved by a moral and physical coward: Lyndon Johnson. Johnson was a bully by all accounts....bullies are usually cowards and he typified the term.
Linebacker was a success. Nixon knew we could win (for all his faults). But we stopped due to internal political pressure concerning the bombing of North Vietnam. North Vietnam agreed to talk, we stopped bombing. Linebacker II got the peace talks started again...North Vietnam agreed to talk again based on the previous talks and we stopped bombing. But political bungling ended the talks and there was a HUGE backlash directed at Nixon from the American left who believed that the U.S. had "carpet-bombed hospitals, schools, and residential areas, committing barbarous crimes against our people".
That propaganda was put out by the North Vietnamese government and soaked up by the left in the US. Bombing worked but some civilians died and we as a nation were not willing to accept the collateral damage.
No matter that the enemy put schools, hospitals, and religious institutions right next to ammo dumps, fuel depots, anti aircraft positions, and communications centers , right?
Minh understood our limitations then. Terrorists understand it now.
Militarily, we could not be beaten then or now. Reagan said, "We could pave the whole country and put parking strips on it, and still be home by Christmas.". He was right, we could have. That's just not our way no matter what the propagandists say.
Bottom line lessons: Don't go to war piecemeal. Don't go to war thinking it is all going to be nice and clean. Don't go to war unless you are willing to accept collateral damage. Don't go to war unless you mean to win. Don't let a war drag on. If you go to war have an objective, conditions of victory, and an exit strategy. If you go to war, end it quick and save lives on all sides.
Kennedy got us into the war by committing "advisors". Johnson threw men and resources into the war bit by bit without a plan to win until it became a huge behemoth. Nixon had the strategy and the means to win the war but let politics on the home front get in the way. I think that all qualifies as a major Charlie Foxtrot of a war in terms of execution. (Bless those that served though, they did their part and the loss was not their fault)
Splitter
10-21-2010, 03:05 AM
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