Re: VIRTUAL JFK: Vietnam Had Kennedy Lived

On Apr 28, 7:32=A0pm, "Gerry Simone" <newdecent...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> "pin head" <longiislandh...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message
> > this is an almost stupid question.....of course it matters.....and
what
> > has history shown us ? to walk the middle is the path to sure
> > disaster......THE ONLY "successful" wars this country has ever fought
ar=
e
> > the ones in which Overwhelming power was NOT held in reserve......The
> > nature of the American Militray is to emplore a quick and overwhelming
w=
in
> > via it's 1st rate technology and fire power.
>
> Are you saying that VN could've been won had overwhelming power been
used?=


I don=92t know what Pinhead thinks but I think if we couldn=92t do it with
half a million U.S. troops more troops wasn=92t the answer, although
noting that the foolish restrictions placed on our combat units didn=92t
help matters.

> I'm Canadian so I'm not an expert on VN but wasn't it a guerilla war?
=A0

It was a guerilla war with a dose of politics thrown in.  The
communist called this =93revolutionary war=94.  You don=92t fight it with
overwhelming power; you fight it by winning the hearts and minds so to
speak.  You do this my giving them a stable and popular government,
securing the villages so the VC can=92t come in at night and assassinate
the chief, giving them medical care, land reform and so on.
Overpowering force gets in the way of this.  Westmoreland squandered
the early years with his large unit search and destroy missions,
Abrams made great progress after he got the command but it was much
too late by then.

> How do you fight that with overwhelming power?

Sooner or later the guerilla has to come out of the mountains and take
the capital.  This is where overwhelming power comes into play.
Examples are TET 68, the 1972 Easter Offensive that the SVN won with
our advisors and air sup****t and again in 1975 when the communist had
overwhelming force.

Bill Clarke