From: aec6699@zeus.tamu.edu (CAMPBELL, ANGELA EVETTE)
Subject: Re: Stockdale is a Bumbling Idiot
Followup-To: talk.politics.misc
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.41    
Organization: Texas A&M University, Academic Computing Services
Date: Tue, 10 Nov 1992 19:10:00 GMT

>I believe that Kim is refering to one objective of the Tet Offensive. Part of
>the plan was to incite a nationwide revolt amongst the populace of South
>Vietnam to overthrow the government. It did not come out as planned, along 
>with the plan to give the U.S. Army a crushing defeat like the French recieved
>at Dien Bien Phu. The former of those two failed because the people of South
>Vietnam, while they didn't like the RoV government, the North was not very 
>popular either. The people mostly wanted to be left alone. The latter of those
>two failed because NLF and NVA forces, by fighting an open battle, put 
>themselves in a position where we could effectively use our airpower. Khe Sanh
>was turned into a meat grinder for the NVA forces beseiging the Marines they
>had surrounded.

Well, as long as we're quoting Giap and all, he's also said that the NVA 
could not defeat the US in open battle, and hence wouldnt try for another
Dien Bien Phu.  ARVN military history records give credit to the NVA for 
devising the battle for Khe Sanh as a diversion, to draw troops away from the
central areas of SVN, which General Westmoreland mistakenly thought he had
secure.  Sure, it would have been nice to win, but it also would have been
nice to drag off a few more battalions, such as, say, those under
Fred Weyland.  


> 
>The main reason for the strategic hamlets and other "brilliant" ideas was 
>mostly because the war was run from Washington by people who had no clue
>as to what they were doing or really wanted. Ask someone who flew during 
>Rolling Thunder or other pre-Linebacker missions about how their targets
>were selected. It's almost amusing, not. 
> 

I'd disagree here a bit.  The Pentagon Papers give the impression that while 
the ideas for the strat hamlets may have come from Washington, they had a 
history already in Vietnam from the French agrovilles.  Diem is portrayed as
being all to happy to take the aid and therefore more support from America,
as long as he retained control and wasnt seen as a puppet.

W.r.t targeting are you refering to bombing the big bldgs in the north, which
as often as not were churches or schools instead of military outposts, or
maybe the extensive bombing in the south, when shacks were targeted in
the earlier part of the '60s to keep up the sortie rates and 'bldgs' destroyed
results reported to Washington, or something else?


>-- 
>Patrick Chester            |----------------------------------------------------
>wolfone@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu |"The earth is too fragile a basket in which to keep
>Politically Incorrect      |  all your eggs." Robert A. Heinlein
>Future Lunar Colonist      |"The meek shall inherit the Earth. The rest of us
>#^%$!! Militarist          |  are going to the stars." Anonymous
>(Of the Sun Tzu mentality) |----------------------------------------------------

A. (your spelling may vary)

Xref: sparky talk.politics.misc:58536 alt.politics.elections:22913