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> That the US was kicked out by the same ex-colony… Except that we weren't. We won the Vietnam War: when we left, North Vietnam had pledged to allow the peopl
by wtbob 12y ago
> That the US was kicked out by the same ex-colony…
Except that we weren't. We won the Vietnam War: when we left, North Vietnam had pledged to allow the people of South Vietnam to decide their destiny.
Then they broke their promise and invaded, the Congress refused to aid South Vietnam, and that was all she wrote.
- vacri 12y agoIf you mean the Paris Peace Accords, that was never ratified by the US Senate (is it a promise if the other side don't hold up their end?), and the US had been reducing troops for nearly four years by that point ('Vietnamization') due to domestic public opposition. Ultimately the USA's primary war goal was to keep their puppet state of South Vietnam - a goal that certainly wasn't met. You have to squint your eyes pretty hard and turn your head sideways to claim the US won the Vietnam War.
- icegreentea 12y agoFinishing a war with exit conditions that you can't enforce doesn't really sound like winning in any meaningful sense.
- wtbob 12y agoWell, we promised to assist if North Vietnam broke its promises, but after Watergate the Congress felt it could break that promise. It really was a terrible time.
- dragonwriter 12y ago> Except that we weren't. We won the Vietnam War North Vietnam achieved the political objectives for which it fought the war, the US did not. The US unambiguously and absolutely lost the war. That the US momentarily achieved a pause during which it could claim that it was in the process of securing the aims for which it fought the war does not mean that it won the war.