If we "won" the Vietnam war, it didn't happen during our stay there. But rather sometime after... Let's say 1979. Nothing to do with casualties or
other costs of conflict, but rather something about the mindset of the people. Something about finally geting some degree of national independence and
wanting to keep it.
Yeah, you think communist Vietnam would be all hunky-dory and cooperative with communist China after all that help. But guess what?
Vietnam was all like... GET OUT!!!
Interesting piece of history...
Sino-Vietnamese War (Wikipedia)
My suspicions are that the group that wanted independence from foreign influence for Vietnam turned commie as a matter of convienience. To rally
assistance in order to kick out the French, and then use that same support to kick out us Americans for the same reason. I'm sure they had their
reasons, and probably saw the southern half as way too soft to foreign demands. But then once it turned around the other way, they're pretty much
"Ah-ah... Not you either." And at that time they're well armed and experienced enough to take care of their own business. (And Russians were
stirring things up too, despite having supposedly similar idealogy to China. They were all commies, right? So maybe it was a Russian win? But what did
they get?)
After all that, how Vietnam appears to be these days it doesn't seem like they turned out too bad for it. (Although unfortunate neigbors Cambodia and
Laos were probably made whipping boys for a good while after because their foreigner friends.) Now they're all about commerce and making a buck (and
off of us dumb foreigners!) and growing some kind of middle class, just like their neighbors. So putting most of that past behind them and being good
neigbors seems like the smart thing to do. The only thing that might rile them up now are areas involving coastal oil finds and fishing rights. And
even then, they're more likely to be diplomatic about it.