Thread: “Do they wish Cambodia’s soldiers to fight with Thailand using slingshots?” he said.

Originally Posted by watterinja

Originally Posted by mtone9317

It is a misconception that the US lost the war, the US forces withdrew under pressure from the people of the US. The government at that time was very unpopular.

Bollocks... they lost fair & square.

Indeed. Apologists are difficult to convince.

It was the TET offensive that finished it off, a military disaster for the Viets but a big political victory. It was the news coverage of that time, and imparticulary those of what happenend at Hue and in Saigon of the VC etc running riot in the south that were beamed back to the states that sealed it.

The writing was already on the wall but the TET offensive sealed it. Westmoorland was a general from WWII who was fighting a chess game with those older tactits but general Jaap was fighting a game of controling as much land as possible with the least number of forces or engagement.

The US was beaten, not in a conventional way, but were out-thought by the Vietnamese who did, and were prepared to in the future, sacrifice 10 times as much as the US in lives and equipment. The Viets had more "stomach" for it that the Americans did.

The Viets followed the principles of Sun Tzu which can be learned and viewed on the series 'Art of War' on History Channel. This Chinese guy's thoughts/principles/tactics/philosophies regarding war are now taught to officers of all western military academies, including West Point.

Many countries, not just the US, learned much from that conflict regarding operations/tactics and the influence of the political situations, not to mention the problems of drafting/conscripting soldiers, voluntary armies all round in the west these days.

However, I've strayed way off topic here, oops.

Originally Posted by mtone9317

the US forces withdrew under pressure from the people of the US

its only a matter of time here in the UK before history repeats itself over Afghanistan . I don,t particularly like Gordon Brown but I do feel sorry for him over this mess our Tone left him with

Originally Posted by Spitfire

It was the TET offensive that finished it off, a military disaster for the Viets but a big political victory. It was the news coverage of that time, and imparticulary those of what happenend at Hue and in Saigon of the VC etc running riot in the south that were beamed back to the states that sealed it.

Did you see the beemed back pictures? Hindsight is a wonderfull thing. You were shown what you were supposed to see, and have based your interpretation on that alone.

That is, of course, a valid point and you are right about hindsight but historians generally agree that that is the case and I don't form that view on the pictures alone, this has been diagnosed/debated for a long time and I enjoy reading about history, there is much to said about truth/fiction/right/wrong being a point of view and from which direction you look at it from, sure the Vietnamese historians see it differently to the western ones and teach accordingly. It was the begining of the closing chapter, even though the war went on for some time afterwards, I suppose, it's what is called the main "tipping point", rather like Midway was for the Japs and Stalingrad was for the Germans in WWII, downhill after that.

Not sure what mtone smokes but it must be good.
Of course the US lost the war,viet casualties were acceptable because they were fighting for a cause.
Body counts were no way to measure success.
As for cambodia,I something about this-i have been to prey vihear twice in the last year.Initially the khmers were badly equipped,now they have all new gear including AKs,they have 38 tanks up there at the moment and heaps of newly imported US trucks.
They also have several stalin organs-crude but effective.
They have heaps of anti aircraft and radar controlled mssiles.
They also have a very powerful friend in vietnam.
Dont kid yourself that anyone would help thailand-hun sen is on the front foot now and loves taunting the thai.
PS-cambodia has about a dozen MIGs that cant fly and two russian choppers-hun sen taxis.

Originally Posted by Plan B

I expect Cambodian forces to thrust inland at an alarming rate, until they hit Pattaya and get sent packing by all those ex-SAS/marine/Delta/Commandos.

Pattaya sure seems to have a high proportion of the worlds military elite. Last year i met a guy in a soi 7 beer bar who told me he was a top sniper with the French Foreign Legion but got kicked out because he was killing too many folk.