Sen. John McCain diagnosed with brain cancer

[Dill]

(07-24-2017, 09:24 AM)--Vlad Wrote: After all your research I'll give you partial credit here only because of SSF's word choice.
True, the North didn't actually "invade" the South. Rather the North Vietnam armies "infiltrated" the South beginning in 1964.

The word "invade" implies conducting an assault on another sovereign country in which South Vietnam was not.

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/north-vietnamese-army-begins-infiltration

Although the war in Vietnam didn't transpire from the same set of circumstances, I've always likened that war to Americas Civil War.  Two regions of a nation at odds with each other.

South Vietnams Ngo Dinh Diem was the South's Jefferson Davis.
The Union army of the North infiltrated (invaded!) the Confederate South.

Vlad, glad to see you share my interest in history.

1. If you agree the North did not invade the South because they cannot invade their own country, then the same holds true for "infiltration."  I add that there were thousands of demobilized Vietminh in the South after 1954. When Diem refused the elections, they reactivated themselves subordinate to the DRV politburo, who considered them an arm of the Peoples Army of Vietnam.  They can hardly be thought to infiltrate the communities in which they'd lived their whole lives. Also many NVA regulars were also from the South.

2. I believe your History Channel link refers to the first units of NVA regulars sent south in force and in uniform. From 1959 on, and increasingly, the North sent advisors and equipment, hoping to constitute local, division-sized forces by 1964. Again, many of these folks were southerners who had gone north during the partition, per the Accords, and were now returning home.

3. I partially agree with your analogy to the American Civil War. One big difference, though, is that the majority of the Southern white population were behind their government. Not true for the Republic of Vietnam. Also, the Confederacy did not claim it was the government of the whole US, while the RVN did claim to be the government of the whole of Vietnam, North and South--however delusional that sounds in hindsight.

Hope this little excursion into history of the Vietnam War does not seem to off topic on a McCain thread. But the more you know about the war, the more you understand about McCain's career, not to mention US history-- a good thing in a country renowned for its historical amnesia.

*I confess to an error in my previous post. Diem's coup was in '55, not '56. Going back to change that now.