Russia Wants to Avenge US

Originally posted by deltaboy

More like war of conquering. The NVA failed to conquer South Vietnam many times, since the U.S. military was in the way. So they used the VC has means of hit and run attacks and sabotage and inflicting casualties until the American people decided enough was enough. Effective strategy. After the U.S. pulled out, North Vietnam succeeded in taking over South Vietnam.

Well I doubt that's how they saw it - they saw it as a war to kick out a corrupt colonial puppet dictatorship (which is pretty much exactly what it was) in South Vietnam and reunify the country under local leadership. The funny thing is, long before Ho Chi Minh allied himself with the Russians, he sought help kicking the French out from - guess who? - the good old US of A...

In the end, with the help of the Russians, he kicked the French out, and later chased us out as well. Their one offensive military action since was kicking the Khmer Rouge out of Cambodia - something I don't think the Cambodians were too unhappy about - the Khmer having killed somewhere between 20% and 25% of the country's population.

Vietnam, while hardly a model of democracy, hasn't been doing much "conquering" since - in fact I seem to recall a certain US President paying a friendly visit there quite recently - as peaceful US-Vietnamese trade continues to grow.

Xmotex, countries like North Vietnam or North Korea would use propaganda to justify in conquering their neighbors. Same thing for Saddam's invasion of Kuwait which he supposedly said to take it back. Same thing for North Vietnam or North Korea when invading their neighbors in belief of rejecting American imperiailism and their puppets. And of course Vietnam ain't going to invade other nations after taking over South Vietnam, after all it does not have the ability to do that, same thing for NK, after all who is NK going to invade after succeeding taking over SK in theory? Japan? China? Soviet Union at the time? Hardly....

Not to mention that the North Vietnam supported the Khmer Rouge ironically. The border conflicts and the refugees fleeing to Vietnam, as well as Pol Pot's invasion of Vietnam, forced Vietnam to invade the country and remove the govt. from power, not saving the Cambodians. Vietnam didn't do anything until that time.

Originally posted by maloy

Originally posted by deltaboy
More like war of conquering. The NVA failed to conquer South Vietnam many times, since the U.S. military was in the way. So they used the VC has means of hit and run attacks and sabotage and inflicting casualties until the American people decided enough was enough. Effective strategy. After the U.S. pulled out, North Vietnam succeeded in taking over South Vietnam.

They didn't try to "conquer" South Vietnam, but instead to unite the country which should have never been separate in the first place. French Colonialism and later US interference created the tension between Vietnamese factions, as they wanted to partition the country. Similar things happened in many post-colonial regions, where countries that have historically been together as one were split apart by the leaving colonial authorities. India and Pakistan were partitioned, and that resulted in a bloody struggle that continues to this day. Israel and Palestine were patitioned- and we all know how great that worked out. Yugoslavia was split into a dozen small unrecognizable states as the result of pressure from NATO.

US wanted to divide Vietnam, for its own benefit in the Cold War. This was not for the benefit of South Vietnamese, but for the benefit of Western influence in the region. Russia did not get involved untill the US got involved. If US stayed out, and let the Vietnamese settle their differences, it would have never escalated to a conflict that resulted. Why can't the Vietnamese, or anyone else for that matter settle civil disputes in their own nation? US states settled their differences in the Civil War. The lesson is- stay out of civil affairs of other countries. Whatever intervention you attempt, you will only make it worse and prolong the conflict, and make yourself new enemies.

We had a policy on communism and it had to do with the domino effect. That's why we went to Vietnam if we didn't, then the US would embarras itself to the world.