Vietnam War Question

[Bengalzona]

(10-07-2017, 02:08 PM)Nebuchadnezzar Wrote: I think Johnson had the "Who in their right mind thinks they can beat the United States, Especially some third world and backwards people like those in Vietnam?"

What I don't understand is why Westmoreland used a defense strategy and didn't go on the offensive and invade the north. I get that he may have been afraid of China and what happened in Korea but by not invading the north, Westmoreland created a "Safe Space" while the north ran all over the south.

We didn't invade North Vietnam because we didn't want the the war to escalate and include Chinese and Russian troops, which would have also expanded the war to the Korean Peninsula and Germany and probably would have involved nuclear weapons at some point.

We were in South Vietnam at the invite of the South Vietnamese government. A government can invite another country to send their troops to help defend them. By the same token, North Vietnam could have invited Russia and China to send troops to help them if they felt there was a need for it. That was what happened in Korea. When we pushed deep into North Korea, the North Koreans requested aid from China and China sent millions of troops across the border. Eventually, we stabilized a line and were able to negotiate a ceasefire with the Chinese and North Koreans (after we threatened to use nuclear weapons).

When we started bombing targets in North Vietnam, they responded by ordering air defense radars, missiles and guns from China and Russia and created one of the most advanced air defense networks our airmen have faced to date (which is why we lost so many aircraft during the war). There is no doubt that if we had invaded with ground troops, they would have responded with requests to Russia and China for combat troops.

That is why we took the defense and set our goal only on preventing incursions and insurrections in South Vietnam. And that probably would have been successful if the South Vietnamese would have had a government that wasn't full of corrupt and nepotistic turds and dumbasses representing only a small fraction of the South Vietnamese population.