Could a Single U.S. General Have Doomed the Entire Vietnam War?

[rangerrebew]

February 8, 2020

Could a Single U.S. General Have Doomed the Entire Vietnam War?

Really?
by Warfare History Network

Key point: A slow troop build-up didn't make sense and was very costly. Washington made many mistakes and it would cost them the war and tens of thousands of lives.
 

In 1989, this writer had occasion to interview four-star General William Childs Westmoreland, now 86, formerly U.S. military commander in South Vietnam and at the time of the interview a retired Chief of Staff of the Army.

Not only had I read his memoirs just a few days before our meeting, but I had also served in the Vietnam War myself as an enlisted man of the U.S. Army 199th Light Infantry Brigade during 1966-1967, and thus had my own perspective on the struggle. When I met him in 1989, the general had already been a top soldier, pilot, diplomat, warrior, and confidant of presidents. He was still the ramrod-straight imperial proconsul of my youth.

https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/could-single-us-general-have-doomed-entire-vietnam-war-121411

[TomSea]

This is a good article, I'm not sure if the headline goes along with the article and it certainly wasn't Westmoreland, as I read it, who would have doomed the entire Vietnam war.

But it's a good historic article... it doesn't seem to me to blame anyone in particular. Maybe I'm missing it.

[Bigun]

The Vietnam war was lost before it began by REMF in Washington who refused to allow the men charged with prosecuting it to do so properly.  End of story.

[EdinVA]

The article does not reflect the headline but a good read.
It took all 500+ congress critters and the president to screw up Vietnam, the generals were just the tools.

[sneakypete]

The Vietnam war was lost before it began by REMF in Washington who refused to allow the men charged with prosecuting it to do so properly.  End of story.

@Bigun

And there it is. We won every major battle fought,and still managed to "lose" the war. We DID win it militarily,but lost on the political front.

[Smokin Joe]

The Vietnam war was lost before it began by REMF in Washington who refused to allow the men charged with prosecuting it to do so properly.  End of story.

Walter Cronkite did more damage to the war effort than Ho Chi Minh.

[txradioguy]

Walter Cronkite did more damage to the war effort than Ho Chi Minh.

QFT

[Hoodat]

A single Defense Secretary could.

[Bigun]

Walter Cronkite did more damage to the war effort than Ho Chi Minh.

Absolutely true! Along with his right-hand man Captain Dan the "News" Man Rather!

[Bigun]

A single Defense Secretary could.

Yeah! He's the chief REMF!

[darroll]

I still remember our people going to Can Rahn Bay and stealing ammo from the Navy as our budget was cut by our leaders in Washington. We also bought ammo from the street vendors in Saigon. We made a $100.00 bucks a month and pro pay was another hundred. Some people would write home for money from their parents.. Pitiful...
It had nothing to do with Westmorland, a Great General.

[Bigun]

I still remember our people going to Can Rahn Bay and stealing ammo from the Navy as our budget was cut by our leaders in Washington. We also bought ammo from the street vendors in Saigon. We made a $100.00 bucks a month and pro pay was another hundred. Some people would write home for money from their parents.. Pitiful...
It had nothing to do with Westmorland, a Great General.

I was there long before you @darroll and it pains me to know that!   

And You are right about General Westmorland.

[sneakypete]

I still remember our people going to Can Rahn Bay and stealing ammo from the Navy as our budget was cut by our leaders in Washington. We also bought ammo from the street vendors in Saigon. We made a $100.00 bucks a month and pro pay was another hundred. Some people would write home for money from their parents.. Pitiful...
It had nothing to do with Westmorland, a Great General.

@darroll

Uhhhhh,say WHAT?????

Freaking PRIVATES earned more than 100 bucks a month in VN.

[darroll]

@darroll

Uhhhhh,say WHAT?????

Freaking PRIVATES earned more than 100 bucks a month in VN.

Sorry:

In '68, a drafted E1 made $109.50 per month plus $65 combat pay.

[rangerrebew]

Gen. Giap said they would have lost the war if it hadn't been for Lurch Kerry and his Vietnam Vets Against the War.  For his helping the N. Vietnamese he won a place in the Vietnam Hall of Heroes.

[Bigun]

Gen. Giap said they would have lost the war if it hadn't been for Lurch Kerry and his Vietnam Vets Against the War.  For his helping the N. Vietnamese he won a place in the Vietnam Hall of Heroes.

Here's the quote:

In a recent interview published in The Wall Street Journal, former colonel Bui Tin who served on the general staff of the North Vietnamese Army and received the unconditional surrender of South Vietnam on April 30, 1975 confirmed the American Tet 1968 military victory:

"Our loses were staggering and a complete surprise. Giap later told me that Tet had been a military defeat, though we had gained the planned political advantages when Johnson agreed to negotiate and did not run for reelection.  The second and third waves in May and September were, in retrospect, mistakes. Our forces in the South were nearly wiped out by all the fighting in 1968. It took us until 1971 to reestablish our presence but we had to use North Vietnamese troops as local guerrillas. If the American forces had not begun to withdraw under Nixon in 1969, they could have punished us severely.

    We suffered badly in 1969 and 1970 as it was." And on strategy: "If Johnson had
granted Westmoreland's requests to enter Laos and block the Ho Chi Minh trail, Hanoi could not have won the war.... it was the only way to bring sufficient military power to bear on the fighting in the South. Building and maintaining the trail was a huge effort involving tens of thousands of soldiers, drivers, repair teams, medical stations, communication units .... our operations were never compromised by attacks on the trail. At times, accurate B-52 strikes would cause real damage, but we put so much in at the top of the trail that enough men and weapons to prolong the war always came out the bottom .... if all the bombing had been concentrated at one time, it would
have hurt our efforts. But the bombing was expanded in slow stages under Johnson and it didn't worry us. We had plenty of time to prepare alternative routes and facilities. We always had stockpiles of rice ready to feed the people for months if a harvest was damaged. The Soviets bought rice from Thailand for us. And the left: "Support for the war from our rear was completely secure while the American rear was vulnerable. Every day our leadership would listen to world news over the radio at 9AM to follow the growth of the antiwar movement.

 Visits to Hanoi by Jane Fonda and former Attorney General Ramsey Clark and ministers gave us confidence that we should hold on in the face of battlefield reverses. We were elated when Jane Fonda, wearing a red Vietnamese dress, said at a press conference that she was ashamed of American actions in the war and would struggle along with us .... those people represented the conscience of America .... part of its war- making capability, and we turning that power in our favor."

Bui Tin went on to serve as the editor of the People's Daily, the official newspaper of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. Disillusioned with the reality of Vietnamese communism Bui Tin now lives in Paris.