Vietnam War

[Bengalzona]

(05-16-2015, 11:15 PM)Nebuchadnezzar Wrote: One of the things I never understood about the strategy in Vietnam was why the US built camps in defensive positions and go out on patrols and set up ambushes in South Vietnam rather than go on the offensive and push into the north and crush the the People's Republic of Vietnam. It makes no sense to me why they would do that.

Were the US Commanders afraid of the Chinese crossing the boarder to fight with the North against the US like they did in Korea?

Yes. That was part of the reason.

It was also a question of legality. In the court of the U.N. and in world opinion, our pronounced reason for being there was solely at the request of the South Vietnamese to defend their country. As long as we stuck to that, we were legally in the right and other countries like China and the Soviet Union had not recourse to intervene. An intervention, of course, would have meant a broader conflict and possibly another world war and nuclear war. Staying straight in the world court of opinion was very important.