My grandpa was in the Vietnam war fighting for the south. He was working as a Vietnamese “marine” as almost all of the missions he went was almost 100% death rate. When my grandpa’s dad tried to pay for his exemption from the army because my grandpa always write back that he was scared to die and didn’t want to fight anymore. They paid tons of money for his exemption but they still won’t let him go asking for more money. Showing how corrupt the south government is. When they paid again my grandpa’s own friend shot off my grandpa’s right pointer finger then saying something along the lines of “You are a coward and now without a finger you cannot pull the trigger” but now hes alive then he had my dad and my dad had me. But my dad has a large hatred for the US Army and how much suffering and war crimes they committed. Even though im in JROTC and not the army he hates the uniform and thinks of it as a symbol of death. I respect his opinion and the story fully shows why.
there would be many ups and downs to that like we learned alot of lessons both politically and tactically in Vietnam but we shouldn’t of have been there anyway
I have often said that with regards to Vietnam, the US completely forgot it's own history. 188 years prior to entering to Vietnam the 13 colonies were the ones going against a major colonial power that fought with guerrilla tactics on it's own ground. In 1945, Lord Louis Mountbatten the Supreme Allied Commander for the Southeast Asia area urged the French government to allow the Vietnamese to governed themselves. They didn't listen. Can you imagine what that area of the world would look like if a unified Vietnam and a unified Korea were constitutional republics? It seems that the US government routinely has this habit of backing bad people simply because they are not communists out of fear. Any decision based on fear will have consequences of which you should be afraid. I think your presentation was spot on. Well done.
The U.S. didn't really do well. Ex. After a siege that began on April 2, 1780, Americans suffer their worst defeat of the revolution on May 12, 1780, with the unconditional surrender of Major General Benjamin Lincoln to British Lieutenant General Sir Henry Clinton and his army of 10,000 at Charleston, South Carolina.
Poor Mountbatten. I remember reading a lot about him & being a big fan, but if I recall correctly he was assassinated like many other rational thinkers during the mid 1900’s
as the old saying goes, money talks.....American has often supported governments that ally with the US, whether honest democratic countries or countries set up by the CIA. as long as we had their support they were our friend. In countries where the CIA set up that puppet government the dictatorships followed and a brutal security force ensued as seen in Iran and Ukraine.
France basically blackmailed USA into supporting it during the French-Indo China War. France basically stated that instead of joining NATO, it would consider either staying independent or side with Russia. Not a serious threat in hindsight, but at the time, enough to bring the USA into France’s side of the war.
And nowadays France also did this similar blackmail technique onto countries like Libya, Mali and most ex-French colonies in Africa. Vietnam would not be the first to be affected by this anyway, it would have affected Africa anyway.
As a vietnamese, This is not very surprising to me, yet somewhat surprising. Vietnam is a very resilient country, they fought off so many forces, you’d an search up Vietnamese history and it will be explained.
I find it strange that as an American my country never declared war which is just surprising because I have no clue if it counts as a war or a conflict it’s a strange strange conflict
I agree that the US has a bad habit of not giving itself permission to just win. We fail to press advantage, and so we make huge openings that loose us the long game
And the US feels like it needs to fight a 'clean' and moral war, as though there ever was such a thing. If they were more brutal and more warcrime-y, they could just raze the enemy cities to the ground. Act like a horde of Mongols and strike fear in hearts, but be benevolent to those who surrender without a fight.
@@politicalmess8955 Not yet. The US still militarily occupies all of Europe, South Korea, and Japan and that's 75 years after the end of the war. Our real endless war isn't in the Middle East, but in Europe and East Asia.
I say the biggest US mistake in Vietnam was incompetent tactics and strategies with the Air Force and Navy. At the beginning of the war, the USAF and USN were prohibited from bombing the cities of Hanoi (North Vietnamese Capital) and Haiphong (Largest port city in North Vietnam). These 2 cities were the most important to North Vietnam as Hanoi housed the entire military and civilian leadership and many weapon factories and infrastructure. Haiphong was also the city where all soviet supplies came from. All soviet equipment and aid coming to North Vietnam went through the port of Haiphong. At the beginning of the war, these 2 cities were also undefended and didn't have significant anti-aircraft defenses. Had the USAF and USN not used limited war as a tactic, they could have obliterated these two cities and critically impact the North Vietnamese war effort. By the time the US realized this and bombed these two cities towards the end of the war, the cities were now too defended as North Vietnam deployed anti-aircraft batteries and had been preparing the cities defenses for years. Other air operation mistakes were not attacking North Vietnamese air bases (The USA didn't bomb any North Vietnamese air bases because they believed if the North Vietnamese Air Force was destroyed, China would use their own Air Force to support them. This allowed the North Vietnamese Air Force to pick their battles and gave their planes a safe-haven) and Terror-Bombing (USAF and USN bombing missions were meant to lower the morale of the North Vietnamese people and make their government end the war, however, this did not work and US bombing missions just angered the North Vietnamese and encouraged more people to join the military or the Viet-Kong). These mistakes and many restrictions on air operations made USAF and USN efforts useless and just caused America to lose hundreds of planes for no reason.
Their biggest mistake is the toothpick hypothesis. They thought that bombing the forest and reducing the trees into toothpicks would discourage the vietcong's. And also a quick war would do no good for the military industrial complex,longer wars means more profits.
7 million tons of bombs dropped across Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, killing 700,000-1 million civilians and you said the AF was prohibited ---> nonsensical
@@cudanmang_theog đọc kỹ chưa ông nội ? " At the beginning of the war...", "By the time the US realized this and bombed these two cities towards the end of the war,..."phát ngôn bừa vậy người ta cười đó.
as a Vietnamese this is a very well made video. It covers all the points that the majority of ppl tends to overlooked. Vietnam was "forced" to becomes Communist. We were just trying to reunite our country and begging for help. Anyone who provided helps would be "friend" for the time.
@WhoAreYou905 Humiliate? The USA chose to divide us in half and we have to do our job. The USA chose this humiliation when they supported the French against our independent movement. They are not fighting communist, they are fighting nationalist. Vietnam's fate is decided by the Vietnamese, not the USA, China nor anyone else
“I am not going to lose Vietnam. I am not going to be the president who saw Southeast Asia go the way China went.” -Newly inaugurated President Lyndon Johnson at a White House meeting on November 24, 1963 responding to U.S. ambassador to South Vietnam Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr. telling him that Vietnam “would go under any day if we don’t do something.”
Johnson almost had a treaty worked out, but Nixon got his unfortunately long nose involved and promised they'd get a better deal when he was president, so he crashed Johnson's souffle.
“I think we have all underestimated the seriousness of this situation. Like giving cobalt treatment to a terminal cancer case. I think a long protracted war will disclose our weakness, not our strength.”-Deputy Secretary of State George W. Ball answering President Lyndon Johnson’s question at a White House meeting on July 21, 1965 about whether the United States could win a war in the “jungle rice-paddies” of Vietnam.
Limited war might’ve been a flawed strategy, but expanding the conflict would’ve been far worse. Bombing China directly during the Korea War would’ve made it nearly impossible for the U.S. to establish diplomatic relations later on. Regarding the Vietnam War, China was actively involved, sending aid and soldiers to North Vietnam. China had a vested interest in Vietnam, and would’ve expanded operations if the U.S. escalated the conflict.
@fuckyoutubepolicy staff China's involvement was a key reason why the U.S. lost in Vietnam. Up to 170,000 Chinese soldiers were present in Vietnam, which was enough to counteract the U.S. soldiers present, whiched maxed out at 549,500. This doesn't even factor in the equipment and arms China sent. Of course, the North Vietnamese and the Viet Cong did much of the real fighting, but China helped maintain their edge over the United States.
@@1223steffen Does that even matter? China sent over a hundred thousand soldiers to fight in Vietnam, not to mention weapons and equipment. They didn't want the United States right at the Chinese border.
I am a Vietnamese born and been living in the North of Vietnam. Solution number 1 was simply not true. While the oppression seen by the outside world was vivid thanks to the freedom of the press offered by the South Republic, the oppression we the people from the North suffered much worse, yet no one was allowed to report that. However, the people do know, as the matter of fact, millions of Northeners flocked to the South in 1954 as a deal was struck to allow the people to choose which part of the country they wanted to live in.
Hearts and minds, the way to win a war as the invader is to win over the citizens. Give them food, medical support, rebuild the damage caused by the war, the US did the complete opposite
Vietnam is a multiethnic country and not 🚫 a nation. The Vietnamese Kinh (Vieto-Katuic/Northern Vietic/Viet-Muong) only accounted for 80% of population
In Basic training, we learned all of this. And that we could have ended the war at any point. Our airforce alone had the capability to end the war by itself but we wouldn't target certain bridges or buildings.
@@diollinebranderson6553 logically saying, if the US were to win the Vietnam War, then China will definitely interfere as they don’t want another NATO ally be next to their border
The biggest issue was then what it is now. Politics getting in the way of victory. This is why we set ourselves up for failure every time we have no defined enemy.
I can't remember which late 90's PC game it was, but I vaguely remember the difficulty settings listed as something like: 1. Easy 2. Normal 3. Challenging 4. Difficult 5. Vietnam
Remember, the reason US waged war was to contain communism, and this happened due to the untrustworthiness of the Soviets, the both Roosevelt,Churchill and Truman despised Stalin but they had to work against the Axis Powers, not only that, The Truman Doctrine is basically Communism bad Democracy good Containment is needed. The Viet Cong was also adapting communist ideals, especially during at a time on Cold war was raging the most as Decolonization happens, I do respect Nukes shouldn’t be used but since at a Era where 2 Ideologies rage, It seems logical for them to intervene, plus Lyndon B Johnson (the President at the time ) Feared the Domino effect where he felt that if Vietnam falls, will South east asia become communist? And even India becoming communist was a possibility thats why he was pressured to intervene.
@@DAYLIGHT_SEASON Doesn't justify going to war when Vietnam never targeted the US directly like Japan did in ww2. Who even appointed the US as world police? Each time the US tries to 'liberate' a country now ends with it being worse off, worse for the US and the innocent natives. Just look at Afghanistan.
Isn't it funny......US wanted no part of the world wars. European "allies" talk the US into it. Then Vietnam....then British intelligence said, Iraq (a British mess with its own complex history) had wmds. Really seeing a pattern here, one that does not favor the US.
it does but this is not the case for vietnam, governments back then were terrified of communism because communist constantly tried culturally subverting nations towards communism. saying that profit was the motivator is misunderstanding the nature of the vietnam war, it was a was based on fear, its important to understand that or else you're more incline to enter another vietnam type war
As a Filipino, we are envious of Vietnam, because they stood their ground and never surrendered to the enemies. We should've won the Philippine American War, if not for the traitor, Emilio Aguinaldo. If only the Philippines stood her ground, we would be retained our Latin culture and influence up to this day.
It often surprises me how many Filipinos deny any of their Spanish heritage. Don’t get me wrong: They’re NOT Spaniards, they’re East Asians. But they have a blatant Spanish component to their heritage and culture and tastes and values.
The question is, wich side was correct and who was not. For example, we learned that U.S.A. was the wrong one, but every country can change the way they tell history ( I'm from México, not from Vietnam)
We asked for help from the Americans to not become a French colony again. Unfortunately the Americans supported the French to re-invade Vietnam and we had to defeat both of them
Someone asked me why did America beat the Japanese in the jungles while they couldn't beat the Vietnamese in theirs. The answer: vastly different terrain and circumstances. For one, Vietnam was surrounded by other countries while the Japanese primarily fought in islands. There was no escape for the Japanese so they could he hunted down to the last while the Vietnamese could escape through sovereign borders.
more like they couldnt so they dropped the nuke on them. america didn't even fight much on the main islands of japan anyway. they already had so much casualties from the fights in the pacific and okinawa
Japan resign right after that nuke by order of king hirohito. And funny enough, if hirohito didnt order to forfeit, america will face the worst revenge in the history, not only military action, but civilian action, and terrorism will born a several decade earlier. That couple of nuke could make japanese a vengeful spirit and doomed usa to the last japanese in a different timeline.
Been teaching in Vietnam for the last 3 years. I'd rather be here than in the US. Here I won't be shot or mugged at 2am in the morning. Yes here you don't have to look yourself up for safety reasons. I have also not seen 1 homeless person. Unlike some US states. (California).
@@Donavan37 Well I can tell the US media got rent free in your head when you said that you had to fear being shot. 80% of deaths by firearm are between people with criminal records in the US. Also, places like NYC, Detroit, Chicago, Florida single-handedly increase the deaths by firearm. Go to Utah or Michigan or Connecticut or even Mass and you'll be fine. Oh and plus yeah Cali is nasty.
I don’t always totally agree with some of these videos but in this one you got it exactly right. I remember being in high school in the late 1960’s watching the war in living color on my TV and wondering what they thought they were going to accomplish. I did not think it was going to end well and it didn’t.
@@04cassius-jake I think beaconite is saying that he agrees with this video about the Vietnam War but he doesn't agree with all of the videos that this channel makes. America would have been better to make friends in Vietnam and bond over our mutual dislike of European Colonialism and China.
Imagine if the US had given all those money to the North instead, instead of wasting on that aggressive war. Vietnam would have been the 2nd richest nation on Earth by now.
I remember that part from the book Chesty where Chesty Puller in his golden years wrote a letter while retired to the armed forces about how he'd win the war singlehandedly by leading one batallion of us marines armed with nothing but BAR's (in his opinion the best rifle ever made).
As a fan of the USAF, it saddens me that, while Operation Desert Strom was a great use of shock & awe tactics, other campaigns were just downright inhumane. For example, Operation Rolling Thunder is one of the grimmest mistakes (& war crimes) committed by America's ariel capabilities.
Operation Desert Storm was really NATO, USA was involved, NATO won the war, if US was involved by themselves, I believe that Saddam Hussian army would have defeated the USA military
@@enrico4818 USAF committed war crimes that it charged and convicted the NAZI's of in Korea including the bombing of Dikes. They dropped so many bombs that nothng over two stories high was left standing. Macarthur wanted to use nukes on Chinese cities and came back to the US to publicly campaign for that. That is why Truman relieved him from duty after making a careful review on Presidential power over the military. He would later say his plan was to create a necklace of Radioactive cobalt at the Yalu river. The Rosenbergs were murdered in a revenge killing for the loss of American lives in Korea. It was an Imperialist war from the day Macarthur set foot on Korean soil after the defeat of Japan and the signing of surrender on the American
I wonder if the hippies and marxist infiltrators that bend policy in the communists’ favor are part of that complex? They’re the ones who ensure that new problems are created while old ones are never solved.
Yeah the entire war was pointless and in the end was just a proxy war with no real goal in mind the end of the Cold War was important this war was kinda like the saying lose the battle win the war
and their ultimate goal is to saw Vietnam in half but they failed miserably, that is a defeat. A war just can not be won depends on the body count alone.
Oh yes call of duty the game that says you don't need cover to fight the enemy and you shouldn't fear for your life and you should just charge the enemy guns blazing real war isn't like the game in real war you have to look for cover and if there's no cover you're dead
I don't Condone War unless it's for Defense. Regardless of if our Troops had a right to be in Vietnam or not... They all Served with Distinction and are one of our Bravest and Best
I'm sorry, but I disagree entirely that Iraq/Afghanistan is comparable to Korea/Vietnam. We achieved total victory in both Iraq and Afghanistan. I believe we failed to understand that both country populations considered us to be 'conquerors' and not 'liberators'. Our mistake in policy was the overblown ego that we could change the minds of a people that have been living the same way for hundreds of years. How would the United States population react to Mexico 'liberating' us from our current government and expect us to conform to our way of life in a single generation? The Iraq invasion should never have happened since it was based on flawed intelligence. Afghanistan should have been an invasion based on the complete destruction of all terrorist infrastructure. Then with the warning of future destruction and isolation if the government sponsors those who will attack the U.S. again.
i wonder if after defeating the military of both of those countries the US had just gotten out and left it to the country to try to fix things up themselves.. what would have been the outcome.... i can see where the US had to smash those regimes... but trying to assist the country... surely that should devolve to the UN (they always seem to complain no one lets them do enough...lol) .. i don't know... benefit of hindsight i guess.... but then again it was good to see the US take out their militaries in weeks ... and we see the russians tried to do the same to ukraine... yet have failed... and this time it was not us vs russian military equipment but russia vs russian equip... an interesting comparison.. although what mess will russia leaves behind when they eventually get kicked out (or leave) ... will the failure of the Russian war machine convince other countries russia has subjugated to go for freedom now?.... now if the time it seems....
Ah yes, farmers with guns, mostly has no experience with firearms, defeating highly trained soldiers taught skills in battle by one of the most, if not THE most powerful men in the world's entirety at the time. Fun. Edit: tH4nKs f0r 69 lIK3s!1!11!!
"Not real communism." Well if a century of attempting real communism has only lead to horrific failures then maybe real communism doesn't exist. Nevertheless I agree that being friends with Vietnam would've been the right choice since they gave way to peaceful capitalism very quickly anyway. There never was much of a threat posed by them.
Ehhh, I dont know about "only lead to horrific failures". They've made some significant accomplishments. For example- the USSR went from a poor agrarian nation to being a global superpower for half a century, they defeated the Nazis, put the first man in space, developed the first fast-neutron nuclear reactor (and a long list of other big Firsts in science/tech), provided higher education and healthcare to all citizens.. and they managed to do all of these feats and many others whilst being being struck with tremendous sanctions and assailed from every angle since before they even began. The US, Britain, France and other capitalist nations were fighting against them in Russia back before the Bolsheviks had even won the Russian Civil War, and they never really stopped attacking/undermining the USSR, apart from brief respites (during WW2 and such). I'd say that's pretty impressive. It's a bit akin to a bunch of grown men beating up a toddler from the moment he can stand, and yet somehow that toddler tucks his chin and manages to hold on and survive thru the years of assault, until he matures into a man and is able to fight them off and stand his ground.
I’ve been saying this forever!!! The U.S. after WW2 continues to fight “limited wars” with not the full commitment to win!! Afghanistan and Iraq are prime examples!!! And of course Vietnam
The US still hasn't learned from the Civil War. If it weren't for persistent generals like Sherman, they would have lost the war while the majority of people and industrial power were on their side.
They did do a total war in iraq and win,but because they have a clearly reason is to save Kuwait from iraq. But when the country attack itself on civil war ( north vs south) ( taliban vs Afghan) The US will not have any clear goal to wage a total war neither have a clear goal how to win
I think the US would had won if they used special forces units designed to fight a unconventional war like in Vietnam and kept a low profile and not made a big televised show of it like the Brits in Malaysia.
@The Fish Dude, she meant the media coverage on the war effort. You know, the newspapers and video footage in Vietnam that showed the reality of brutal warfare conditions and mass casualties, etc.
The US only has a battalion sized guerilla army(for the most part) so i doubt they would even affect the outcome. also even in mass mobilization mode there are only a few branches that could be converted to guerilla.
They kinda did in the beginning, then realized that the South Vietnam government and armed force were unreliable in containing the insurgent VC, thus had to get more involved. The increasingly unpopular Ngo Dinh Diem government is an example.
Another usefull video, because nobody can change that event and remember that the reality from field, IT s very different of what we see in films (sth from the internet or tv).
WW2, was fully of ironies. The West did not care about Japan until Japan started getting onto area where they had interest in. Per example here. Japan invaded Vietnam and kicked out the French. Vietnam officially became the Empire of Vietnam, and there were actual Vietnamese leaders that welcomed the Japanese because they were just tired of the French treatment. After Japan lost, the French still wanted Vietnam back and the USA backed this idea. When Japan lost, Britain wanted back Hong Kong and the USA supported this idea too. Imagine that, Americans fighting a war to stop countries from taking over other countries just so they can keep the countries they took over. French wanted Vietnam back. Britain got HK back. And the US got the Philippines back.
This is what always really irks me about the US military. It has the funding, tech, troops, equipment, and training to dominate most enemies in war. What holds it back are cowardly and inept leaders. More often than not, it's the civilian leadership that time after time fails to press advantages or make strategic decisions. Two recent examples are when Bush ordered us forces to cease bombing at the highway of deatg. This gave the impression that the US was weak willed when it could have served as a extremely terrifying show of strength. Second is Biden's pull put of Afghanistan. It's become clear through congressional examination that the actual military heads told Biden how to approach Afghanistan, and that he completely ignored them and made a mockery of the US. The US needs to stop getting involved in wars it's not actually trying to win.
The US just loves to get involved in things it has no reason to, we should of fully left Afghanistan once we took out Bin Laden, we got our justice/revenge for what he did, we never went to build a nation or remake it's government, it wasn't our goal and it was foolish to assume we could, the fact the the Taliban took over so fast once we left only proves that we don't know how to nation build because if we did that wouldn't of taken over so fast.
The thing is the US military didn't hold back as much as you "think" in Vietnam, "Between 1965 and 1975, the United States and its allies dropped more than 7.5 million tons of bombs on Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia-double the amount dropped on Europe and Asia during World War II. Pound for pound, it remains the largest aerial bombardment in human history."
@@ishhyyyy That's because, as the video states, the US tried very hard to fight the war only from the air. Instead of capturing territory from the enemy, they tried bombing it so hard that there would be no enemies left in it. This in no way contradicts the fact that the US avoided attacking certain targets that, they feared, would bring China or the USSR into the war. Also, these don't contradict the fact that it would've been better off for everyone if the US hadn't supported South Vietnam.
Honestly should’ve just used the Air Force like in the beginning of the war. That being said, collateral damage would’ve been high and the war would’ve been more unpopular.
@@ongba5890 well unlike the soviets, the US Air Force was actually highly effective in the beginning of the Vietnam War, however it was TOO effective in killing civilians too since the Vietcong liked to hide among them, so the US scaled back its air power after much outcry from the American public
Or just massacre the natives of a foreign land. "Americans Conquest of the Philippines -1899" I'm sure that will increase the chances of winning the war, since killing civilians boosts the morale of Americans.
@@superiortoall22 US didn't scaled back its air power, US dropped so many bombs on Vietnam it surpassed doubled the bombs dropped in WW2 and is the largest bombardment in history.
(as a preface, I view Chinese (authoritarian/meritocracy) and Russian (Marxist/socialist) communism as 2 radically different things) I'm not gonna lie... as a US citizen, I was always taught that we entered Vietnam to support their (s. Vietnam's) independence, after France abandoned them as a colony, against a north that had already sided with Russia (before France pulled out) and Russia was pressuring them (s. Vietnam, who believed it was an issue to be sorted out between the north and south and only enlisted the U.S.A. because the north had the Ruskies and the south had been abandoned by the French and Brits) to enter the Comintern, and once we had pushed them (n. Vietnam) back to within 25 or so kilometers of the china border, Russia had applied some form of political/military pressure against China to get them to side with the Russo communist party and oppose the U.S.A. on the grounds that we (the U.S.A.) were going to keep pursuing the n. Vietnamese soldiers well into China's territory and we were going to keep/"gift to Vietnam", all Chinese territory we captured, because their allowing of n. Vietnamese soldiers into Chinese territory might have been misconstrued by the U.S.A. as tacit support on china's end. So TLDR: France abandons s.Vietnam -> U.S.A. intervenes (intentions unsure, but claimed to support of independence of s. Vietnam) -> U.S.A. goes light handed against n. Vietnam because of Russia's intervention and U.S.A. not wanting to escalate -> U.S.A. still pushes Vietcong back to 15-25km from Chinese border -> Some form of communication between Russia's and China's consulate takes place, then china intervenes on Russia's behalf and issues ultimatum of declaration of war with U.S.A. if they do not pull back their troops from the Chinese border despite U.S.A. insistence that no U.S.A. "soldier shall trespass upon china's sovereign territory under any circumstance" -> and that's why Vietnam looks more like Laos or Cambodia as opposed to South Korea.
Vietnam in itself did win the war. Before they were two countries north and south now they are united as one country so technically Vietnam succeeded becoming united.
Well, Americans were just European descendants. It's expected. Just like what they did to us Filipinos. Introduced themselves as liberators, but choose to side the opppessors (Spaniards), didn't do anything and committed an ethnic cleansing in 1899.
It wasn’t an easy choice. American leaders saw the irony in supporting a European monarchy against independence fighters in a colony, but the fear of communism was too strong.
It isn’t tho. It’ll always become authoritarian tho. But Karl Marx’s communism isn’t authoritarian rather a classless society. Still not a good system.
so the ultimate goal of communism is to establish a classless and equal society, where "each according to his ability, to each according to his needs", but everyone had different theories of how to achieve this goal. Authoritarian communism is just one of the theories, there are other un-authoritarian communism and even anarcho-communism
I never knew that the North Vietnamese were cozier to American ideals. My plan would be to help the North Vietnamese kick out the French and then America can have influence in the area. Using deplomacy and economic assistance the North could be coaxed into a less authoritarian mindset.
The North didn't really have a more or less authoritarian mindset than the US did though honestly. Xenophobia and hubris was the downfall of the US in Vietnam, they could have negotiated an end with France and helped Vietnam gain control of itself and spread American ideals throughout the region. But the US has never really cared much about those ideals, and it has proven that historically time and time again.
When as a teacher when teaching a high school class about the Vietnam war I used an analogy: What if your football team played a class AA team ranked below your team in supposed skill and strength. Now suppose your team was only allowed to pass on third down and could only play for a tie and not to win, do you think your team would be successful?
still, the USA had lots of advantages, such as their MANY, MANY POWERFULL BOMBS THAT THEY FREQUENILY USED EVEN MORE THEN BOMBS THEY USED IN WW2. The USA not only committed war crimes by dropping these powerful bombs on civilians but also somehow lost. also your football analogy does not fit the situation at all, the USA had a clear goal: defend south Vietnam(which was led by a awful dictator who brutally treated his opposition) from north Vietnam (which was much less cruel) they were not playing for a tie, they just needed to make some sort of deal like the one they made with North Korea by severally damaging the enemies forces. Edit : its also not like the USA was forced to make it a draw, if they really wanted to, they could have put much more effort and resources to the war to get the north to capitulate. You cant say "they were only allowed to" when they made the rules, they made their goals for the war
@@sodpati America’s goal was always a stalemate to ensure South Vietnams survival. It worked until North Vietnam violated the agreement 2.5 years later by attacking America’s Ally and attempted to finish their long standing Civil War with South Vietnam
America never lost, hear me out here. As a Russian, I feel like I would have the best unbiased view for America, if not opposing America. but for crying out loud America slaughtered half of the population of veitnam and destroyed 20% of all vegetation! THESE ARE REAL STATS! America may have lost the war on paper, but really, aside from America's pride all they had to suffer were some mental patients, which is really bad don't mis get me, but compared to what vietnem faced it was nothing. America only lost cause they wanted to. Info graphics made a video about that too :). Thanks for reading through that mess.
That's true, most would blame the hippy movement creating disapproval for the war that cause usa to pack up and go home, korean war wasn't a complete failure eaither as half the country was saved. On a side note, most westerners low key love Russia and wish our leaders would just chill the fk out, hope they at least agree on keeping China on a short leash...peace from canada
they lost the war, simple and plain the goal from a far was to impose democracy on a communist country in fear that communism would spread, and today vietnam is a communist country. fail look at the withdrawal from saigon doesnt it remind you of the withdrawal from afghanistan? how ironic anotheer fail. the us of a need to relax with imposing western traditions on to countries they have no business in apart from profit and killing civillians. i hear your point though.
@@thetheta7580 it's not about what America gained, it's about how much more vietnam lost. No matter what, nobody wins in a war, and America won in the sense that it didn't lose nearly as much as vietnam
The reason why US lost Vietnam war is the same as confederacy lost to union. They have more armies and they have the moral high ground bcoz they are fighting for their country.
The problem wasn’t entirely to do with the military, but more with politics. The. Viet Cong saw a 50% casualty rate after the Tet offensive. The problem was civilians couldn’t stomach a war. Militarily speaking, we had them right where we wanted them, defeated.
I agree, just to a point tho. If it was only a 3 5 years war, no one would complain. Just more than a decade of war fighting a small country and pouring billions, no achievement, would you say the politics still support it?
The sad thing is WE HAD NO REASON TO WANT THEM DEFEATED IN THE FIRST PLACE. We killed many thousands and lost thousands of our soldiers FOR NO REASON. They weren't a threat to us or anyone else. They (the Viet Cong) actually admired the USA and thought we would be on their side because they were seeking freedom from oppression from tyrants. Instead we lead a long, destructive war AGAINST SOMEONE WHO WANSNT OUR ENEMY AT ALL. This stuff is why so much of the world is disgusted by our behavior.
That was a problem with Korea too. What few realize is that war became EXTREMELY unpopular, many soldiers felt they were fighting a meaningless slaughter (though this changed some when General Ridgway took over and inspired them to fight for "God, Democracy and Freedom", and when the US forces saw what the Communists did to Korean people in terms of attrocities). The anger on the home front was even stronger, as the public felt lied to, thinking it was going to be a brief intervention (like several months at most) and not a full on war. The bitterness even shows in 1950s Hollywood films, where recalled World War II vets and their families vent "We've done our share! Why do you have to do this to us?" "You've taken away my husband! Was one war not enough for you?!" The war is credited with helping destroy the careers of President Harry S. Truman AND British PM Clement Atlee as well. What we also failed to recognize is that western battle tactics often WILL NOT work on Asian peoples. They do not surrender in most cases, they conquer, hold out or die. General Ridgway had to lead some of the most violent combat battles in modern memory just to push the Chinese and North Koreans back and hold them above the 38th Parallel. That war ending strategically well for us was an absolute miracle.
I think this is a very American-centric analysis that overlooks a lot of the wider geo-political nuances. Yes, you didn’t bomb China, but you speak to this as if you had there would have been no reaction from China or the Soviet Union more broadly, that they would have docilely accepted this incursion into their own territory with no repercussions. The Korean War saw China intervene directly because they were concerned that US forces would invade after deposing North Korea. That intervention saw the rout and retreat of US and UN forces against numerically superior forces. If the US had bombed China directly during Vietnam, then there would have been a direct response against the US mainland. Whilst their bombers may not have been able to reach the US directly, if their government had felt that their country was under threat, they would potentially have been inclined to use a nuclear response. The idea that the US can just engage in warfare with no action in response by opposing forces is ludicrous.
Actually, China wanted to send troops into Vietnam since the US intervened and sent troops, but the Vietnamese refused because the Vietnamese people's fear of China was bigger.
“I believe this resolution to be a historic mistake. I believe that within the next century, future generations will look with dismay and great disappointment upon a Congress which is now about to mistake such a historic mistake.”-Senator Wayne Morse (D-OR) on the Senate’s impending vote to adopt the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution on August 7, 1964.
We’re too busy trying to figure out WTF just happened in Afghanistan. Our leaders seemed determined to outfail their predecessors. No wonder patriotism is nearly extinct.
Brits were successful in Malaya in the 1950s in suppressing the Malay CTs - communist terrorists - who were in any case, mostly ethnic Chinese. A Brit officer involved in the Malayan 'Emergency' was invited by the US to advise them on quelling communists in Vietnam, he schooled them in how the Brits successfully dealt with CTs in Malaya. This officer was Robert Thompson, an acknowledged expert on fighting guerillas. He wrote a book about his experiences in Malaya and his experiences with the US. In his book, he states the US made a decision to not follow the successful Brit tactics and strategies in Malaya. The book - 'Make for the Hills' by Sir Robert Thompson. A good read and sheds light on some reasons for unsuccessful US efforts in Republic of South Vietnam.
One political aspect about the post war world that needs to be highlighted is how the world #2 and 3 power will team up to off balance the #1 power. Nixon was able to broker deals with China because of this, as the Soviet Union gained significant strength in the late 70s and early 80s while the US stagnated and China stalled. This dynamic rebalances every 20 years or so, and is why currently China and Russia are so close currently, this dynamic may shift again if China continues to rise. During the Vietnam war the US's power was significantly lopsided against China and Russia, pitting them against us
3 Things America could had done. 1) Not let China fall to the Mao Zedong. 2) Not let Indochina achieve independence. If France is willing to fight in Indochina, then don't let it fall. But in return require the French to Westernize the land for the benefit of the people there not back home in France and have a time table that they can recede. If China does not fall, it will be easier for any Western Presence in Indochina (Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam) to remain present. No Khmer Rouge, not corrupt South Vietnamese Government, not Vietnamese Communism/Socialism. France asked America for assistance and America refused. As much as that seemed to be a great thing to do for America, it sort of backfired when we had to get involved regardless about a decade later. 3) Kick out the sociopaths. Even if you don't touch the hawkish capitalism on the United States nor the racism, if you just kick out the sociopaths, it will be easier to facilitate a system that can work for everyone. People are much more willing to cooperate so long as they are not indoctrinated and not sociopaths.
You forgot to mention the times that the UK and France offer advice on how to fight in the jungles since the USA had no real knowledge on how to do so compared to the UK and France
There was a draft at that time. The rich didn’t have to serve they were deferred if they entered college. My brother and I were drafted on the same day. My brother went to Panama and I went to Vietnam.
The Vietnamese people were stubborn, they fought the Chinese for 1,000 years after being captured (twice as many bombs dropped in Vietnam as in WW2 with the Vietnamese people yearning for freedom so they would fight even if there was no j).
As I see it. The US has to get rid of it's Myopic view of the world in order to stop a Vietnam like scenario from repeating. But I can't see that happening anytime soon. We would need many Vietnam scenarios to happen in quick succession before a major change happens. And I just can't see that happening.
Calling North Vietnam innocent is like calling the Taliban good people, hence why they won victory over the US a few months ago. As a reminder, South Vietnam alone fought millions of Communist troop and insurgents from the four largest Communist alliances at the time (the Soviet Union, China, Korea, and the Khmer Rouge). No chance for them to win without support but I respect them for held off the enemy for 2 years while Afghanistan only for a week after the U.S left, they surrendered without firing a bullet. In short, the whole war in Vietnam, the whole purpose was to make China submissions. The US corporations had set their eyes on China's trillion-dollar manufacturing industry and South Vietnam destined to die.
@@AdrianFahrenheitTepes It was, but it was delivered without the context, and the images popularity drove home a narrative with the actual background of it not being widely as known.
Just gotta say, all respect to our veterans and soliders of today and of the Vietnam war, for I agree that we shouldn't have been in it, however alot of the rightful anger of the American people at the time was misdirected onto the soliders of it, they suffered more than anyone during it.
I think this was a very well written episode. The infographics show had, in the past, provided some rather biased viewpoints which pandered to the American demographic, but this episode took a objective and beautifully concise stance on a sensetive topic in the US, some of whom still believe that they never lost Vietnam. I am usually a critic of the show, but today's was a fantastic step in the right direction!
You know, biased views were not really biased. We have done a lot of great things in our history and it’s not biased to remark on them. And, we were literally winning the war almost the entire time, we crushed them and there country is still feeling the affects of our strong arrival and crazy defense of the South, they are ruined. If it was not for the press and news coverage painting a very negative light on the U.S and causing so much protest, we would have won.
@@arstotzkianarmedforces1057 What great things? After ,ww2 you basically bullied smaller/weaker/poor countries in order to fulfill your economic and political interests.
@@arstotzkianarmedforces1057 this kid still thinks the american could’ve won 💀 Go ask your mom or your most loved one if they could let you go forever knowing you out there dying for just “some reason” and see the answer yourself Going wars for a nation is both offense and defense. The offense ,for most, is the frontline soildiers while its defense is the civilians staying at home If you had said “as of amerca today we could’ve won” then I’d be convinced a little because many of you are existing within, contributing to its current downfall lol
My grandpa was in the Vietnam war fighting for the south. He was working as a Vietnamese “marine” as almost all of the missions he went was almost 100% death rate. When my grandpa’s dad tried to pay for his exemption from the army because my grandpa always write back that he was scared to die and didn’t want to fight anymore. They paid tons of money for his exemption but they still won’t let him go asking for more money. Showing how corrupt the south government is. When they paid again my grandpa’s own friend shot off my grandpa’s right pointer finger then saying something along the lines of “You are a coward and now without a finger you cannot pull the trigger” but now hes alive then he had my dad and my dad had me. But my dad has a large hatred for the US Army and how much suffering and war crimes they committed. Even though im in JROTC and not the army he hates the uniform and thinks of it as a symbol of death. I respect his opinion and the story fully shows why.
we can blame our Politian's for this tho
@@joshuamontenegro4767 the military work for politicians. Those orders they follow come from politicians. The military is not a separate entity.
Do not blame us soldiers for something they had no control over it has always been the governments fault
@@couldawa7114 don't blame nazi's soldiers?
@@mustipunyaemail not all German soldiers were nazis though, grouping the entire military together is wrong.
There are so many “What if’s” in the Vietnam war
In every war lol any little thing “could have changed the tide of the war” as they always say lol
and were supposed to trust this guy
Yeah. Like what if the american soldiers did not abuse our women and children.
Yes there is and my grandfather served in Vietnam PFC Larry green
not really. number one ting like he said was the trail second like we did with afgastain putting awful leaders in charge of the country
How about an episode called "what if US never fought in Vietnam"
Yes!
there would be many ups and downs to that like we learned alot of lessons both politically and tactically in Vietnam but we shouldn’t of have been there anyway
Less hippies, more Moon landings...generally a better future overall.
I wouldn’t be here today..
Then again.. maybe that wouldn’t be to bad
What would happen if the US did not invade Vietnam?
I have often said that with regards to Vietnam, the US completely forgot it's own history. 188 years prior to entering to Vietnam the 13 colonies were the ones going against a major colonial power that fought with guerrilla tactics on it's own ground.
In 1945, Lord Louis Mountbatten the Supreme Allied Commander for the Southeast Asia area urged the French government to allow the Vietnamese to governed themselves. They didn't listen.
Can you imagine what that area of the world would look like if a unified Vietnam and a unified Korea were constitutional republics? It seems that the US government routinely has this habit of backing bad people simply because they are not communists out of fear. Any decision based on fear will have consequences of which you should be afraid.
I think your presentation was spot on. Well done.
The U.S. didn't really do well.
Ex. After a siege that began on April 2, 1780, Americans suffer their worst defeat of the revolution on May 12, 1780, with the unconditional surrender of Major General Benjamin Lincoln to British Lieutenant General Sir Henry Clinton and his army of 10,000 at Charleston, South Carolina.
Poor Mountbatten. I remember reading a lot about him & being a big fan, but if I recall correctly he was assassinated like many other rational thinkers during the mid 1900’s
Well the north Korean fears were legit the Kim family is bad vietnam is a different story
as the old saying goes, money talks.....American has often supported governments that ally with the US, whether honest democratic countries or countries set up by the CIA. as long as we had their support they were our friend. In countries where the CIA set up that puppet government the dictatorships followed and a brutal security force ensued as seen in Iran and Ukraine.
The U.S. did WIN the Revolutionary War. I would say that constitutes "doing well."
France basically blackmailed USA into supporting it during the French-Indo China War. France basically stated that instead of joining NATO, it would consider either staying independent or side with Russia. Not a serious threat in hindsight, but at the time, enough to bring the USA into France’s side of the war.
Hmmmm...
French cunning
And nowadays France also did this similar blackmail technique onto countries like Libya, Mali and most ex-French colonies in Africa. Vietnam would not be the first to be affected by this anyway, it would have affected Africa anyway.
We were Allied with France at the time, and we also wanted France as a Western European Nation to join NATO
As a vietnamese, This is not very surprising to me, yet somewhat surprising. Vietnam is a very resilient country, they fought off so many forces, you’d an search up Vietnamese history and it will be explained.
yes indeed, we were also the only country to stop the Mongolians not once but three times
They forget to mention that the uk never got involved in this, for a reason
I find it strange that as an American my country never declared war which is just surprising because I have no clue if it counts as a war or a conflict it’s a strange strange conflict
Why are these vietnamese always bragging about their mediocre history as if they are the only nation ever achieve those feats?
@@insidiousvictim hey bro did america win the vietnam war? Just asking
I agree that the US has a bad habit of not giving itself permission to just win. We fail to press advantage, and so we make huge openings that loose us the long game
And the US feels like it needs to fight a 'clean' and moral war, as though there ever was such a thing.
If they were more brutal and more warcrime-y, they could just raze the enemy cities to the ground. Act like a horde of Mongols and strike fear in hearts, but be benevolent to those who surrender without a fight.
US need to stop terrorizing other countries
@@lapinchechismosa ya
US itself funded taliban 40 years ago and now US is fighting from 20 years
But well it is stopped now
@@politicalmess8955 Not yet. The US still militarily occupies all of Europe, South Korea, and Japan and that's 75 years after the end of the war. Our real endless war isn't in the Middle East, but in Europe and East Asia.
I say the biggest US mistake in Vietnam was incompetent tactics and strategies with the Air Force and Navy. At the beginning of the war, the USAF and USN were prohibited from bombing the cities of Hanoi (North Vietnamese Capital) and Haiphong (Largest port city in North Vietnam). These 2 cities were the most important to North Vietnam as Hanoi housed the entire military and civilian leadership and many weapon factories and infrastructure. Haiphong was also the city where all soviet supplies came from. All soviet equipment and aid coming to North Vietnam went through the port of Haiphong. At the beginning of the war, these 2 cities were also undefended and didn't have significant anti-aircraft defenses. Had the USAF and USN not used limited war as a tactic, they could have obliterated these two cities and critically impact the North Vietnamese war effort. By the time the US realized this and bombed these two cities towards the end of the war, the cities were now too defended as North Vietnam deployed anti-aircraft batteries and had been preparing the cities defenses for years. Other air operation mistakes were not attacking North Vietnamese air bases (The USA didn't bomb any North Vietnamese air bases because they believed if the North Vietnamese Air Force was destroyed, China would use their own Air Force to support them. This allowed the North Vietnamese Air Force to pick their battles and gave their planes a safe-haven) and Terror-Bombing (USAF and USN bombing missions were meant to lower the morale of the North Vietnamese people and make their government end the war, however, this did not work and US bombing missions just angered the North Vietnamese and encouraged more people to join the military or the Viet-Kong). These mistakes and many restrictions on air operations made USAF and USN efforts useless and just caused America to lose hundreds of planes for no reason.
Their biggest mistake is the toothpick hypothesis. They thought that bombing the forest and reducing the trees into toothpicks would discourage the vietcong's. And also a quick war would do no good for the military industrial complex,longer wars means more profits.
Laughs in Korean War >.>
7 million tons of bombs dropped across Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, killing 700,000-1 million civilians and you said the AF was prohibited ---> nonsensical
@@cudanmang_theog đọc kỹ chưa ông nội ? " At the beginning of the war...", "By the time the US realized this and bombed these two cities towards the end of the war,..."phát ngôn bừa vậy người ta cười đó.
I see why people were so mad about the war.
as a Vietnamese this is a very well made video. It covers all the points that the majority of ppl tends to overlooked. Vietnam was "forced" to becomes Communist. We were just trying to reunite our country and begging for help. Anyone who provided helps would be "friend" for the time.
yah but why humiliate the US
@@WhoAreYou905 humiliate?
@WhoAreYou905
Humiliate? The USA chose to divide us in half and we have to do our job. The USA chose this humiliation when they supported the French against our independent movement. They are not fighting communist, they are fighting nationalist. Vietnam's fate is decided by the Vietnamese, not the USA, China nor anyone else
@@WhoAreYou905 accident happen ;)
"You win every fight you avoid."
- Sun Tzu
Also this ancient Chinese proverb: "No matter how great an empire, it will fall if it concentrates on war"
@@adrianainespena5654 when I think of it, that's true. A lot of empires ended because of war
@@Scout_7647 That old advice from the Sybil "If you go to war you will destroy a mighty empire"
@@adrianainespena5654 wise words yet we (the politician) learned nothing until now
“I am not going to lose Vietnam. I am not going to be the president who saw Southeast Asia go the way China went.” -Newly inaugurated President Lyndon Johnson at a White House meeting on November 24, 1963 responding to U.S. ambassador to South Vietnam Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr. telling him that Vietnam “would go under any day if we don’t do something.”
Thou shan't win against communism.
Johnson almost had a treaty worked out, but Nixon got his unfortunately long nose involved and promised they'd get a better deal when he was president, so he crashed Johnson's souffle.
@@paulmicheldenverco1 thou shan't win against communism.
And it did
@@KAT-hs3xh *Looks at Russia* mhm
The Infographics Show: So this is how the USA could have won in Nam'
USA: Write that down!! WRITE THAT DOWN!!
But its too late now😂😂
@@the_koshur nah time to start the 3rd Vietnam war
@@Makura-MorningStar u mean 2nd
@@jerbs5346 no there were already 2 Vietnam wars
we are friends dude
and that we won't start a new war with nam
“I think we have all underestimated the seriousness of this situation. Like giving cobalt treatment to a terminal cancer case. I think a long protracted war will disclose our weakness, not our strength.”-Deputy Secretary of State George W. Ball answering President Lyndon Johnson’s question at a White House meeting on July 21, 1965 about whether the United States could win a war in the “jungle rice-paddies” of Vietnam.
China is now the richest country
Limited war might’ve been a flawed strategy, but expanding the conflict would’ve been far worse. Bombing China directly during the Korea War would’ve made it nearly impossible for the U.S. to establish diplomatic relations later on. Regarding the Vietnam War, China was actively involved, sending aid and soldiers to North Vietnam. China had a vested interest in Vietnam, and would’ve expanded operations if the U.S. escalated the conflict.
In hindsight we may have been better off not establishing diplomatic relations with the CCP.
@fuckyoutubepolicy staff China's involvement was a key reason why the U.S. lost in Vietnam. Up to 170,000 Chinese soldiers were present in Vietnam, which was enough to counteract the U.S. soldiers present, whiched maxed out at 549,500. This doesn't even factor in the equipment and arms China sent. Of course, the North Vietnamese and the Viet Cong did much of the real fighting, but China helped maintain their edge over the United States.
@@henrycao8528 China hated vietnam though
@@1223steffen Does that even matter? China sent over a hundred thousand soldiers to fight in Vietnam, not to mention weapons and equipment. They didn't want the United States right at the Chinese border.
@@1223steffen Britian and USSR didnt like each other but circumstance forced them into an alliance.
I am a Vietnamese born and been living in the North of Vietnam. Solution number 1 was simply not true. While the oppression seen by the outside world was vivid thanks to the freedom of the press offered by the South Republic, the oppression we the people from the North suffered much worse, yet no one was allowed to report that. However, the people do know, as the matter of fact, millions of Northeners flocked to the South in 1954 as a deal was struck to allow the people to choose which part of the country they wanted to live in.
I am glad to hear the Northerners POV
Hearts and minds, the way to win a war as the invader is to win over the citizens. Give them food, medical support, rebuild the damage caused by the war, the US did the complete opposite
@@phil3038 USA Did not do opposite, VC did opposite
3 sticks traitorous mindset.
@@angkhoanguyen6114 You are being brainwashed by the government of Vietnam to hate the US and southern Vietnamese.
I am the Lorax, I speak for the trees.
The trees are speaking Vietnamese…
Facts
Ah, yes the trees and Rice fields speak of Vietnamese
US soldiers: OH fa-
Vietnam is a multiethnic country and not 🚫 a nation. The Vietnamese Kinh (Vieto-Katuic/Northern Vietic/Viet-Muong) only accounted for 80% of population
Trees: “Chào bạn”
In Basic training, we learned all of this. And that we could have ended the war at any point. Our airforce alone had the capability to end the war by itself but we wouldn't target certain bridges or buildings.
the problem is you guys are too merciful. If it was other countries, theyd bomb the shiet out of vietnam
@@diollinebranderson6553 logically saying, if the US were to win the Vietnam War, then China will definitely interfere as they don’t want another NATO ally be next to their border
@@saulgoodman2780 thata reasonable
The biggest issue was then what it is now. Politics getting in the way of victory. This is why we set ourselves up for failure every time we have no defined enemy.
Us could easily take Vietnam but nobody want WW3 if they allow attack everything WW3 would happen killing 100 millions of people if not more ...
How the US could have won vietnam: “Side with the North”.
Ikr that makes no sense lol
Oustanding move!
You okay bud?
If they did the South would never have exsisted and so the war
200 IQ move
I can't remember which late 90's PC game it was, but I vaguely remember the difficulty settings listed as something like:
1. Easy
2. Normal
3. Challenging
4. Difficult
5. Vietnam
I gues Vietnam is impossible
that was vietcong and it came out in 2003
This is the best video I have seen to summarize this. And it's among the very best videos this channel has produced.
So many “nuke” comments in this video make me worry :/ what’s wrong with people? The US shouldn’t have waged war in the first place :/
@Landon sorry, my friend. I got 25 kills. Incoming.
Remember, the reason US waged war was to contain communism, and this happened due to the untrustworthiness of the Soviets, the both Roosevelt,Churchill and Truman despised Stalin but they had to work against the Axis Powers, not only that, The Truman Doctrine is basically Communism bad Democracy good Containment is needed. The Viet Cong was also adapting communist ideals, especially during at a time on Cold war was raging the most as Decolonization happens, I do respect Nukes shouldn’t be used but since at a Era where 2 Ideologies rage, It seems logical for them to intervene, plus Lyndon B Johnson (the President at the time ) Feared the Domino effect where he felt that if Vietnam falls, will South east asia become communist? And even India becoming communist was a possibility thats why he was pressured to intervene.
It was a civil war
@@Infiltrator_ we know that.
@@DAYLIGHT_SEASON Doesn't justify going to war when Vietnam never targeted the US directly like Japan did in ww2. Who even appointed the US as world police? Each time the US tries to 'liberate' a country now ends with it being worse off, worse for the US and the innocent natives. Just look at Afghanistan.
Do not forget America has a knack for INTENTIONAL blunders for purposes of profit.
If that were so, they would’ve lost the Gulf War as well.
@@angadsingh9314 Securing Kuwait is perfectly logical for the U.S., especially seeing as how it’s give them influence over oil in the region
We inherited that mentality from the Brit’s.
Isn't it funny......US wanted no part of the world wars. European "allies" talk the US into it. Then Vietnam....then British intelligence said, Iraq (a British mess with its own complex history) had wmds. Really seeing a pattern here, one that does not favor the US.
it does but this is not the case for vietnam, governments back then were terrified of communism because communist constantly tried culturally subverting nations towards communism. saying that profit was the motivator is misunderstanding the nature of the vietnam war, it was a was based on fear, its important to understand that or else you're more incline to enter another vietnam type war
Being a active duty military service member I can sure safe that from 2:05 to 2:26 is the truth for most *IF NOT ALL* of our armed conflicts…
"If the Vietnamese villagers didnt hate us when we arrived, they sure did after we left."
we're the oppressors
As a Filipino, we are envious of Vietnam, because they stood their ground and never surrendered to the enemies. We should've won the Philippine American War, if not for the traitor, Emilio Aguinaldo. If only the Philippines stood her ground, we would be retained our Latin culture and influence up to this day.
There's some terrible stories there, but I guess it is not politically prudent to bring them up.
@@GaryHField Latin culture? 🤪
It often surprises me how many Filipinos deny any of their Spanish heritage.
Don’t get me wrong: They’re NOT Spaniards, they’re East Asians. But they have a blatant Spanish component to their heritage and culture and tastes and values.
Latin?
They could've won if they learned that trees and rice fields spoke Vietnamese.
AWe will witness America's downfall this decade being defeated by China fully
@@hermeslein6614 😂😂😂
LOL im viet.namese this is funny. I love these types of jokes. Btw I'm kinda racist to my own race
@@lucasvu1539 the heck is wrong with u, why do u have to be ashame of your own race. Bớt tự nhục
@@kiet3524 I’m not racist to my own race.I actually like vietnam. But being racist to my own race is funny in a way. My humour is much beyond yours.
The question is, wich side was correct and who was not.
For example, we learned that U.S.A. was the wrong one, but every country can change the way they tell history ( I'm from México, not from Vietnam)
Hola
@@crabman8264 i have a spectacular defender against the likes of you
@@crabman8264 ñ
@@crabman8264 y hola por cierto
I thought you are from Israel.
We just had to side with North Vietnam when they asked us for help.
Yep. We asked for US help and they back the France instead.
We asked for help from the Americans to not become a French colony again. Unfortunately the Americans supported the French to re-invade Vietnam and we had to defeat both of them
@@oigioioivn because Americans were racists that time.
Someone asked me why did America beat the Japanese in the jungles while they couldn't beat the Vietnamese in theirs.
The answer: vastly different terrain and circumstances. For one, Vietnam was surrounded by other countries while the Japanese primarily fought in islands. There was no escape for the Japanese so they could he hunted down to the last while the Vietnamese could escape through sovereign borders.
more like they couldnt so they dropped the nuke on them. america didn't even fight much on the main islands of japan anyway. they already had so much casualties from the fights in the pacific and okinawa
Japan resign right after that nuke by order of king hirohito.
And funny enough, if hirohito didnt order to forfeit, america will face the worst revenge in the history, not only military action, but civilian action, and terrorism will born a several decade earlier.
That couple of nuke could make japanese a vengeful spirit and doomed usa to the last japanese in a different timeline.
Edcel Jann M. Corre. also, vietnam received support from china, Soviet union, and others while japan is not.
US could have won if they had brought investers to Vietnam, instead of soilders.
LBJ said if it was Texas he would just throw a lot of federal projects and money at them.
VN is the best
War or not, Vietnam will rise. They are one of the most progressive and hard-working country there is right now.
I can tell you’re Vietnamese
@@royaltyillia1356 Yes. And we know what we do. War cannot stop Vietnamese from rising.
Been teaching in Vietnam for the last 3 years. I'd rather be here than in the US. Here I won't be shot or mugged at 2am in the morning. Yes here you don't have to look yourself up for safety reasons. I have also not seen 1 homeless person. Unlike some US states. (California).
@@Donavan37 Well I can tell the US media got rent free in your head when you said that you had to fear being shot. 80% of deaths by firearm are between people with criminal records in the US. Also, places like NYC, Detroit, Chicago, Florida single-handedly increase the deaths by firearm. Go to Utah or Michigan or Connecticut or even Mass and you'll be fine. Oh and plus yeah Cali is nasty.
@@Donavan37 California is a socialist liberal state so it’s kind of a bad comparison
I don’t always totally agree with some of these videos but in this one you got it exactly right. I remember being in high school in the late 1960’s watching the war in living color on my TV and wondering what they thought they were going to accomplish. I did not think it was going to end well and it didn’t.
Well what do you dont agree im vietnamese and quite interested
Because you "rebels" made fighting the war impossible after the tet offensive
@@cauyawolfe4724 what please explain
@@04cassius-jake I think beaconite is saying that he agrees with this video about the Vietnam War but he doesn't agree with all of the videos that this channel makes.
America would have been better to make friends in Vietnam and bond over our mutual dislike of European Colonialism and China.
responded to wrong comment.
Imagine if the US had given all those money to the North instead, instead of wasting on that aggressive war. Vietnam would have been the 2nd richest nation on Earth by now.
Sorry to tell you but people are just selfish and lookin out for them self
I remember that part from the book Chesty where Chesty Puller in his golden years wrote a letter while retired to the armed forces about how he'd win the war singlehandedly by leading one batallion of us marines armed with nothing but BAR's (in his opinion the best rifle ever made).
Chesty Puller is THE Marine
BARs are too heavy and only carry 20 rounds
As a fan of the USAF, it saddens me that, while Operation Desert Strom was a great use of shock & awe tactics, other campaigns were just downright inhumane. For example, Operation Rolling Thunder is one of the grimmest mistakes (& war crimes) committed by America's ariel capabilities.
Operation Desert Storm was really NATO, USA was involved, NATO won the war, if US was involved by themselves, I believe that Saddam Hussian army would have defeated the USA military
Just like what the USAF did in Korea.
@@kimobrien. bro look at the communist side of Korea 💀
@@kimobrien. The usaf in korea was protecting the south
@@enrico4818 USAF committed war crimes that it charged and convicted the NAZI's of in Korea including the bombing of Dikes. They dropped so many bombs that nothng over two stories high was left standing. Macarthur wanted to use nukes on Chinese cities and came back to the US to publicly campaign for that. That is why Truman relieved him from duty after making a careful review on Presidential power over the military. He would later say his plan was to create a necklace of Radioactive cobalt at the Yalu river. The Rosenbergs were murdered in a revenge killing for the loss of American lives in Korea. It was an Imperialist war from the day Macarthur set foot on Korean soil after the defeat of Japan and the signing of surrender on the American
Maybe we fought in a way to prolong the conflict and never actually win to make more money for the military industrial complex
I wonder if the hippies and marxist infiltrators that bend policy in the communists’ favor are part of that complex?
They’re the ones who ensure that new problems are created while old ones are never solved.
I'm not sure about Vietnam, but the Bush Jr. wars for sure!
Unironically based if true.
Never should have been there in the first place!
Should have sent investors instead of bombs
Pretty good analysis. First problem is that we were on the wrong side.
Message received. Never trust the French :P
Yeah the entire war was pointless and in the end was just a proxy war with no real goal in mind the end of the Cold War was important this war was kinda like the saying lose the battle win the war
Yes Vietnam was more afraid of china
@@CKxperienceWe do not fear China as we fought and defeated them countless times. US forced us to join their side but we never trusted the Chinese.
Actually, the only way the US could "win" the Vietnam war is by letting Vietnamese decide their own future.
But the U.S. won most of the battles. I don't consider that a defeat.
and their ultimate goal is to saw Vietnam in half but they failed miserably, that is a defeat. A war just can not be won depends on the body count alone.
@@NguyenMinh-mp2jx We left because of anti war protests and the government.
@@johnvictor2892Won the battle, lost the war
Fun Fact - The Vietnamese call it The American War
True, but insignificant. No country names a war after itself.
@@cardinalRG the American Revolution has entered the chat
@@cardinalRG Philippine-American War. It's the same story btw. Philippines fighting for independence while Americans are playing occupiers.
If they just played COD for just one more hour they could be so good they could have won
No console allowed at war, only CoDm
Oh yes call of duty the game that says you don't need cover to fight the enemy and you shouldn't fear for your life and you should just charge the enemy guns blazing real war isn't like the game in real war you have to look for cover and if there's no cover you're dead
@@Commissar_Eiven yes but who asked?
@@Commissar_Eiven it’s almost like it’s a joke and of course everyone knows cod is not realistic
@@voidistrash5040 soup I trusted you
Love how planes take off in these videos
We could have won if not for Yujiro Hanma
china wont invade taiwan since baki is next door.
Finally a man of culture
I don't Condone War unless it's for Defense. Regardless of if our Troops had a right to be in Vietnam or not... They all Served with Distinction and are one of our Bravest and Best
I'm sorry, but I disagree entirely that Iraq/Afghanistan is comparable to Korea/Vietnam. We achieved total victory in both Iraq and Afghanistan. I believe we failed to understand that both country populations considered us to be 'conquerors' and not 'liberators'. Our mistake in policy was the overblown ego that we could change the minds of a people that have been living the same way for hundreds of years. How would the United States population react to Mexico 'liberating' us from our current government and expect us to conform to our way of life in a single generation? The Iraq invasion should never have happened since it was based on flawed intelligence. Afghanistan should have been an invasion based on the complete destruction of all terrorist infrastructure. Then with the warning of future destruction and isolation if the government sponsors those who will attack the U.S. again.
i wonder if after defeating the military of both of those countries the US had just gotten out and left it to the country to try to fix things up themselves.. what would have been the outcome....
i can see where the US had to smash those regimes... but trying to assist the country... surely that should devolve to the UN (they always seem to complain no one lets them do enough...lol) ..
i don't know... benefit of hindsight i guess....
but then again it was good to see the US take out their militaries in weeks ... and we see the russians tried to do the same to ukraine... yet have failed... and this time it was not us vs russian military equipment but russia vs russian equip... an interesting comparison.. although what mess will russia leaves behind when they eventually get kicked out (or leave) ...
will the failure of the Russian war machine convince other countries russia has subjugated to go for freedom now?.... now if the time it seems....
You won Iraq but you lost Afghanistan it was a withdraw similar to Vietnam but much worse leaving behind $85 billion worth of weapons.
Ah yes, farmers with guns, mostly has no experience with firearms, defeating highly trained soldiers taught skills in battle by one of the most, if not THE most powerful men in the world's entirety at the time. Fun.
Edit:
tH4nKs f0r 69 lIK3s!1!11!!
Can US troops fight in Asian jungles?
gun go brr 😀
@@Jay-jb2vr we can bomb them from afar
@@Jay-jb2vr Assuming that they knew in advance that war isn't affixed to one type of plain or biome like a dessert, then yes, they probably should've.
@@Frosty_tha_Snowman We? 🤨🇨🇳
"Not real communism."
Well if a century of attempting real communism has only lead to horrific failures then maybe real communism doesn't exist. Nevertheless I agree that being friends with Vietnam would've been the right choice since they gave way to peaceful capitalism very quickly anyway. There never was much of a threat posed by them.
You Muricans decided to support French colonialist rather than Vietnamese who fought for the independence of their country, shame
Ehhh, I dont know about "only lead to horrific failures". They've made some significant accomplishments. For example- the USSR went from a poor agrarian nation to being a global superpower for half a century, they defeated the Nazis, put the first man in space, developed the first fast-neutron nuclear reactor (and a long list of other big Firsts in science/tech), provided higher education and healthcare to all citizens.. and they managed to do all of these feats and many others whilst being being struck with tremendous sanctions and assailed from every angle since before they even began. The US, Britain, France and other capitalist nations were fighting against them in Russia back before the Bolsheviks had even won the Russian Civil War, and they never really stopped attacking/undermining the USSR, apart from brief respites (during WW2 and such). I'd say that's pretty impressive. It's a bit akin to a bunch of grown men beating up a toddler from the moment he can stand, and yet somehow that toddler tucks his chin and manages to hold on and survive thru the years of assault, until he matures into a man and is able to fight them off and stand his ground.
I’ve been saying this forever!!! The U.S. after WW2 continues to fight “limited wars” with not the full commitment to win!! Afghanistan and Iraq are prime examples!!! And of course Vietnam
The US still hasn't learned from the Civil War. If it weren't for persistent generals like Sherman, they would have lost the war while the majority of people and industrial power were on their side.
“Total victory? Are you MAD??? Everyone will call us *iMpErIaLiStS!!!”*
-post WWII leadership
They did do a total war in iraq and win,but because they have a clearly reason is to save Kuwait from iraq.
But when the country attack itself on civil war ( north vs south) ( taliban vs Afghan)
The US will not have any clear goal to wage a total war neither have a clear goal how to win
@JJ Graham Like Korea, Iraq is another military success the left ignores.
We didn’t lose to Vietnam
That’s the most American thing I’ve ever heard
I think the US would had won if they used special forces units designed to fight a unconventional war like in Vietnam and kept a low profile and not made a big televised show of it like the Brits in Malaysia.
@The Fish Dude, she meant the media coverage on the war effort. You know, the newspapers and video footage in Vietnam that showed the reality of brutal warfare conditions and mass casualties, etc.
That wouldn't work because Americans stood out among the viet population while the vietcongs were parts of the population.
The US only has a battalion sized guerilla army(for the most part) so i doubt they would even affect the outcome. also even in mass mobilization mode there are only a few branches that could be converted to guerilla.
They kinda did in the beginning, then realized that the South Vietnam government and armed force were unreliable in containing the insurgent VC, thus had to get more involved. The increasingly unpopular Ngo Dinh Diem government is an example.
We did and it was effective for the most part.
Another usefull video, because nobody can change that event and remember that the reality from field, IT s very different of what we see in films (sth from the internet or tv).
My Grandfather was in Vietnam and received 2 purple hearts and a bronze star has passed away November 15th, 2021
That's unfortunate, sorry for the loss.
WW2, was fully of ironies. The West did not care about Japan until Japan started getting onto area where they had interest in. Per example here. Japan invaded Vietnam and kicked out the French. Vietnam officially became the Empire of Vietnam, and there were actual Vietnamese leaders that welcomed the Japanese because they were just tired of the French treatment. After Japan lost, the French still wanted Vietnam back and the USA backed this idea. When Japan lost, Britain wanted back Hong Kong and the USA supported this idea too. Imagine that, Americans fighting a war to stop countries from taking over other countries just so they can keep the countries they took over. French wanted Vietnam back. Britain got HK back. And the US got the Philippines back.
This is what always really irks me about the US military. It has the funding, tech, troops, equipment, and training to dominate most enemies in war. What holds it back are cowardly and inept leaders. More often than not, it's the civilian leadership that time after time fails to press advantages or make strategic decisions. Two recent examples are when Bush ordered us forces to cease bombing at the highway of deatg. This gave the impression that the US was weak willed when it could have served as a extremely terrifying show of strength. Second is Biden's pull put of Afghanistan. It's become clear through congressional examination that the actual military heads told Biden how to approach Afghanistan, and that he completely ignored them and made a mockery of the US. The US needs to stop getting involved in wars it's not actually trying to win.
The US just loves to get involved in things it has no reason to, we should of fully left Afghanistan once we took out Bin Laden, we got our justice/revenge for what he did, we never went to build a nation or remake it's government, it wasn't our goal and it was foolish to assume we could, the fact the the Taliban took over so fast once we left only proves that we don't know how to nation build because if we did that wouldn't of taken over so fast.
It's best for Americans to stay at home, eat steak, and watch Marvel movies. The whole world will be very grateful to Americans
The thing is the US military didn't hold back as much as you "think" in Vietnam, "Between 1965 and 1975, the United States and its allies dropped more than 7.5 million tons of bombs on Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia-double the amount dropped on Europe and Asia during World War II. Pound for pound, it remains the largest aerial bombardment in human history."
@@ishhyyyy That's because, as the video states, the US tried very hard to fight the war only from the air. Instead of capturing territory from the enemy, they tried bombing it so hard that there would be no enemies left in it.
This in no way contradicts the fact that the US avoided attacking certain targets that, they feared, would bring China or the USSR into the war.
Also, these don't contradict the fact that it would've been better off for everyone if the US hadn't supported South Vietnam.
@@antonteodor6305 What a shame. Only Britain knew what to do.
Americans: "You dont get to decide what is best for you. I do."
-_-
For the rich by the rich.
Honestly should’ve just used the Air Force like in the beginning of the war. That being said, collateral damage would’ve been high and the war would’ve been more unpopular.
Like the Soviets did in Afghanistan? They still lost.
@@ongba5890 well unlike the soviets, the US Air Force was actually highly effective in the beginning of the Vietnam War, however it was TOO effective in killing civilians too since the Vietcong liked to hide among them, so the US scaled back its air power after much outcry from the American public
Or just massacre the natives of a foreign land.
"Americans Conquest of the Philippines -1899"
I'm sure that will increase the chances of winning the war, since killing civilians boosts the morale of Americans.
@@pongangelo2048 “boosts the morale of Americans” you know that collateral damage is what led to a withdraw of the US troops in Vietnam right?
@@superiortoall22 US didn't scaled back its air power, US dropped so many bombs on Vietnam it surpassed doubled the bombs dropped in WW2 and is the largest bombardment in history.
The only way we could have won in Viet Nam was to never have gotten involved.
(as a preface, I view Chinese (authoritarian/meritocracy) and Russian (Marxist/socialist) communism as 2 radically different things)
I'm not gonna lie... as a US citizen, I was always taught that we entered Vietnam to support their (s. Vietnam's) independence, after France abandoned them as a colony, against a north that had already sided with Russia (before France pulled out) and Russia was pressuring them (s. Vietnam, who believed it was an issue to be sorted out between the north and south and only enlisted the U.S.A. because the north had the Ruskies and the south had been abandoned by the French and Brits) to enter the Comintern, and once we had pushed them (n. Vietnam) back to within 25 or so kilometers of the china border, Russia had applied some form of political/military pressure against China to get them to side with the Russo communist party and oppose the U.S.A. on the grounds that we (the U.S.A.) were going to keep pursuing the n. Vietnamese soldiers well into China's territory and we were going to keep/"gift to Vietnam", all Chinese territory we captured, because their allowing of n. Vietnamese soldiers into Chinese territory might have been misconstrued by the U.S.A. as tacit support on china's end.
So TLDR: France abandons s.Vietnam -> U.S.A. intervenes (intentions unsure, but claimed to support of independence of s. Vietnam) -> U.S.A. goes light handed against n. Vietnam because of Russia's intervention and U.S.A. not wanting to escalate -> U.S.A. still pushes Vietcong back to 15-25km from Chinese border -> Some form of communication between Russia's and China's consulate takes place, then china intervenes on Russia's behalf and issues ultimatum of declaration of war with U.S.A. if they do not pull back their troops from the Chinese border despite U.S.A. insistence that no U.S.A. "soldier shall trespass upon china's sovereign territory under any circumstance" -> and that's why Vietnam looks more like Laos or Cambodia as opposed to South Korea.
Or we could have just left Vietnam alone 🤷🏾♀️
Vietnam in itself did win the war. Before they were two countries north and south now they are united as one country so technically Vietnam succeeded becoming united.
Vietnam win against Vietnam and Vietnam lost against Vietnam and Vietnam did something strange with the U.S. so idk what to put here
@@bluephantom1563 Just put the French and Americans failed to defeat Vietnam. But Britain didn't.
@@johnvictor2892 rule Britannia intensifies
They played the long game.
Yeah your first sentence is so right. US should have support Vietnam in the first place but they chose to help France take Vietnam again
Well, Americans were just European descendants. It's expected.
Just like what they did to us Filipinos. Introduced themselves as liberators, but choose to side the opppessors (Spaniards), didn't do anything and committed an ethnic cleansing in 1899.
It wasn’t an easy choice. American leaders saw the irony in supporting a European monarchy against independence fighters in a colony, but the fear of communism was too strong.
You lost me when you said authoritarian communism “isn’t real communism”
It isn’t tho. It’ll always become authoritarian tho. But Karl Marx’s communism isn’t authoritarian rather a classless society. Still not a good system.
so the ultimate goal of communism is to establish a classless and equal society, where "each according to his ability, to each according to his needs", but everyone had different theories of how to achieve this goal. Authoritarian communism is just one of the theories, there are other un-authoritarian communism and even anarcho-communism
I never knew that the North Vietnamese were cozier to American ideals. My plan would be to help the North Vietnamese kick out the French and then America can have influence in the area. Using deplomacy and economic assistance the North could be coaxed into a less authoritarian mindset.
The North didn't really have a more or less authoritarian mindset than the US did though honestly. Xenophobia and hubris was the downfall of the US in Vietnam, they could have negotiated an end with France and helped Vietnam gain control of itself and spread American ideals throughout the region. But the US has never really cared much about those ideals, and it has proven that historically time and time again.
Same with Fidel in Cuba
When as a teacher when teaching a high school class about the Vietnam war I used an analogy: What if your football team played a class AA team ranked below your team in supposed skill and strength. Now suppose your team was only allowed to pass on third down and could only play for a tie and not to win, do you think your team would be successful?
still, the USA had lots of advantages, such as their MANY, MANY POWERFULL BOMBS THAT THEY FREQUENILY USED EVEN MORE THEN BOMBS THEY USED IN WW2.
The USA not only committed war crimes by dropping these powerful bombs on civilians but also somehow lost.
also your football analogy does not fit the situation at all, the USA had a clear goal: defend south Vietnam(which was led by a awful dictator who brutally treated his opposition) from north Vietnam (which was much less cruel)
they were not playing for a tie, they just needed to make some sort of deal like the one they made with North Korea by severally damaging the enemies forces.
Edit : its also not like the USA was forced to make it a draw, if they really wanted to, they could have put much more effort and resources to the war to get the north to capitulate. You cant say "they were only allowed to" when they made the rules, they made their goals for the war
@@sodpati America didn’t lose, it didn’t win either
@@sodpati America’s goal was always a stalemate to ensure South Vietnams survival. It worked until North Vietnam violated the agreement 2.5 years later by attacking America’s Ally and attempted to finish their long standing Civil War with South Vietnam
@@m.c.martin and they did finish the civil war
@@sodpati That’s what I was saying. America didn’t lose and didn’t win. South Vietnam lost.
0:09 "Vietnam remains unique as a war where America snatched defeat from the jaws of victory."
America never lost, hear me out here.
As a Russian, I feel like I would have the best unbiased view for America, if not opposing America.
but for crying out loud America slaughtered half of the population of veitnam and destroyed 20% of all vegetation!
THESE ARE REAL STATS!
America may have lost the war on paper, but really, aside from America's pride all they had to suffer were some mental patients, which is really bad don't mis get me, but compared to what vietnem faced it was nothing.
America only lost cause they wanted to.
Info graphics made a video about that too :).
Thanks for reading through that mess.
That's true, most would blame the hippy movement creating disapproval for the war that cause usa to pack up and go home, korean war wasn't a complete failure eaither as half the country was saved. On a side note, most westerners low key love Russia and wish our leaders would just chill the fk out, hope they at least agree on keeping China on a short leash...peace from canada
they lost the war, simple and plain the goal from a far was to impose democracy on a communist country in fear that communism would spread, and today vietnam is a communist country. fail look at the withdrawal from saigon doesnt it remind you of the withdrawal from afghanistan? how ironic anotheer fail.
the us of a need to relax with imposing western traditions on to countries they have no business in apart from profit and killing civillians. i hear your point though.
@@JustMyOpinion- yeah they're motives were dumb, but it was just mostly the stress of the cold war.
Winning is gaining a reward after the fight, then tell me what did America gained after the war to be called "a Winner" ?
@@thetheta7580 it's not about what America gained, it's about how much more vietnam lost.
No matter what, nobody wins in a war, and America won in the sense that it didn't lose nearly as much as vietnam
The reason why US lost Vietnam war is the same as confederacy lost to union. They have more armies and they have the moral high ground bcoz they are fighting for their country.
The problem wasn’t entirely to do with the military, but more with politics. The. Viet Cong saw a 50% casualty rate after the Tet offensive. The problem was civilians couldn’t stomach a war. Militarily speaking, we had them right where we wanted them, defeated.
Defeated, yet still failed to achieve the goal of the war. It's like winning a battle and losing the war then saying you won the war.
I agree, just to a point tho. If it was only a 3 5 years war, no one would complain. Just more than a decade of war fighting a small country and pouring billions, no achievement, would you say the politics still support it?
The sad thing is WE HAD NO REASON TO WANT THEM DEFEATED IN THE FIRST PLACE. We killed many thousands and lost thousands of our soldiers FOR NO REASON. They weren't a threat to us or anyone else.
They (the Viet Cong) actually admired the USA and thought we would be on their side because they were seeking freedom from oppression from tyrants.
Instead we lead a long, destructive war AGAINST SOMEONE WHO WANSNT OUR ENEMY AT ALL.
This stuff is why so much of the world is disgusted by our behavior.
America still continued to fight for 7 years, then however mostly against the North Vietnamese army
That was a problem with Korea too. What few realize is that war became EXTREMELY unpopular, many soldiers felt they were fighting a meaningless slaughter (though this changed some when General Ridgway took over and inspired them to fight for "God, Democracy and Freedom", and when the US forces saw what the Communists did to Korean people in terms of attrocities). The anger on the home front was even stronger, as the public felt lied to, thinking it was going to be a brief intervention (like several months at most) and not a full on war. The bitterness even shows in 1950s Hollywood films, where recalled World War II vets and their families vent "We've done our share! Why do you have to do this to us?" "You've taken away my husband! Was one war not enough for you?!" The war is credited with helping destroy the careers of President Harry S. Truman AND British PM Clement Atlee as well. What we also failed to recognize is that western battle tactics often WILL NOT work on Asian peoples. They do not surrender in most cases, they conquer, hold out or die. General Ridgway had to lead some of the most violent combat battles in modern memory just to push the Chinese and North Koreans back and hold them above the 38th Parallel. That war ending strategically well for us was an absolute miracle.
I think this is a very American-centric analysis that overlooks a lot of the wider geo-political nuances. Yes, you didn’t bomb China, but you speak to this as if you had there would have been no reaction from China or the Soviet Union more broadly, that they would have docilely accepted this incursion into their own territory with no repercussions. The Korean War saw China intervene directly because they were concerned that US forces would invade after deposing North Korea. That intervention saw the rout and retreat of US and UN forces against numerically superior forces. If the US had bombed China directly during Vietnam, then there would have been a direct response against the US mainland. Whilst their bombers may not have been able to reach the US directly, if their government had felt that their country was under threat, they would potentially have been inclined to use a nuclear response. The idea that the US can just engage in warfare with no action in response by opposing forces is ludicrous.
Actually, China wanted to send troops into Vietnam since the US intervened and sent troops, but the Vietnamese refused because the Vietnamese people's fear of China was bigger.
The policy directed towards Vietnam shows why fear shouldn’t influence policy, it will go wrong sooner or later
We made Russia and enemy and it became an enemy
We made Iran an enemy and it became an enemy
We made North Korea an enemy and it became an enemy
I love your content ❤️🙂
“I believe this resolution to be a historic mistake. I believe that within the next century, future generations will look with dismay and great disappointment upon a Congress which is now about to mistake such a historic mistake.”-Senator Wayne Morse (D-OR) on the Senate’s impending vote to adopt the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution on August 7, 1964.
We’re too busy trying to figure out WTF just happened in Afghanistan. Our leaders seemed determined to outfail their predecessors.
No wonder patriotism is nearly extinct.
"It is one of the wars US lost because of Guerilla fighting"
Afghanistan: Hello.
Brits were successful in Malaya in the 1950s in suppressing the Malay CTs - communist terrorists - who were in any case, mostly ethnic Chinese. A Brit officer involved in the Malayan 'Emergency' was invited by the US to advise them on quelling communists in Vietnam, he schooled them in how the Brits successfully dealt with CTs in Malaya. This officer was Robert Thompson, an acknowledged expert on fighting guerillas. He wrote a book about his experiences in Malaya and his experiences with the US. In his book, he states the US made a decision to not follow the successful Brit tactics and strategies in Malaya. The book - 'Make for the Hills' by Sir Robert Thompson. A good read and sheds light on some reasons for unsuccessful US efforts in Republic of South Vietnam.
I remember the Vietnam War. The fall of Afghanistan was the fall of South Vietnam on steroids.
You're right, Switzerland won again.
Two options for war: 1. To stop an illegitimate invader 2. To make money through profits and continuous taxation from the Military Industrial Complex.
One political aspect about the post war world that needs to be highlighted is how the world #2 and 3 power will team up to off balance the #1 power. Nixon was able to broker deals with China because of this, as the Soviet Union gained significant strength in the late 70s and early 80s while the US stagnated and China stalled. This dynamic rebalances every 20 years or so, and is why currently China and Russia are so close currently, this dynamic may shift again if China continues to rise. During the Vietnam war the US's power was significantly lopsided against China and Russia, pitting them against us
The soviets and China hated each other also
Thanks, really well put 👏🏼
3 Things America could had done.
1) Not let China fall to the Mao Zedong.
2) Not let Indochina achieve independence. If France is willing to fight in Indochina, then don't let it fall. But in return require the French to Westernize the land for the benefit of the people there not back home in France and have a time table that they can recede. If China does not fall, it will be easier for any Western Presence in Indochina (Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam) to remain present. No Khmer Rouge, not corrupt South Vietnamese Government, not Vietnamese Communism/Socialism. France asked America for assistance and America refused. As much as that seemed to be a great thing to do for America, it sort of backfired when we had to get involved regardless about a decade later.
3) Kick out the sociopaths. Even if you don't touch the hawkish capitalism on the United States nor the racism, if you just kick out the sociopaths, it will be easier to facilitate a system that can work for everyone. People are much more willing to cooperate so long as they are not indoctrinated and not sociopaths.
Good luck with that. Indochina will become independent no matter what happened.
My American friend watching this : just nuke it
*proceeds to tell other countries about Human Rights.
You forgot to mention the times that the UK and France offer advice on how to fight in the jungles since the USA had no real knowledge on how to do so compared to the UK and France
Christian de Castries Surrendered
André Trancart Surrendered
Jules Gaucher †
Pierre Langlais Surrendered
André Lalande Surrendered
Charles Piroth †
I think that they thought that since we fought against the Japanese in the jungles we could’ve won
We repeated French strategies, somehow thinking as Americans we could do it better.
Vietnam Bodied USA!
noOo the USA didn't lose the conflict we just failled to win. 😭😭😭🇺🇸🇺🇸
@@FH-rp5ornoo our k/d/a was greater noo
There was a draft at that time. The rich didn’t have to serve they were deferred if they entered college. My brother and I were drafted on the same day. My brother went to Panama and I went to Vietnam.
College students got drafted in July, and many into infantry. If the High School graduates were smart, they could have joined the Air Force.
The Vietnamese people were stubborn, they fought the Chinese for 1,000 years after being captured (twice as many bombs dropped in Vietnam as in WW2 with the Vietnamese people yearning for freedom so they would fight even if there was no j).
❤
Imagine a Vietnam where North and South still existed like with Korea
Love your content!
As I see it. The US has to get rid of it's Myopic view of the world in order to stop a Vietnam like scenario from repeating. But I can't see that happening anytime soon. We would need many Vietnam scenarios to happen in quick succession before a major change happens. And I just can't see that happening.
Calling North Vietnam innocent is like calling the Taliban good people, hence why they won victory over the US a few months ago. As a reminder, South Vietnam alone fought millions of Communist troop and insurgents from the four largest Communist alliances at the time (the Soviet Union, China, Korea, and the Khmer Rouge). No chance for them to win without support but I respect them for held off the enemy for 2 years while Afghanistan only for a week after the U.S left, they surrendered without firing a bullet.
In short, the whole war in Vietnam, the whole purpose was to make China submissions. The US corporations had set their eyes on China's trillion-dollar manufacturing industry and South Vietnam destined to die.
Love The vid
"We didn't loose the war, it was a tie!"
-Red Foreman
We say we tied when we really lose
-America
@Power Alimin says the one whose country most can't even answer 7 continents
@@kakashi5708 Me whose listens to Yakko’s world on repeat for 10 hours
What do you mean 'What went wrong'? Vietnam won, everything went absolutely right.
I love the military videos. Hooah!
What went wrong: false press coverage leading to protests leading to withdrawal.
Walter Cronkite
So the guy being executed by the South Vietnamese cops in the street for fighting with the cops and killing one cop wasn’t real?
@@AdrianFahrenheitTepes It was, but it was delivered without the context, and the images popularity drove home a narrative with the actual background of it not being widely as known.
Vietnam teached every nation on earth how to be free even if the worst criminals are at your door step
Just gotta say, all respect to our veterans and soliders of today and of the Vietnam war, for I agree that we shouldn't have been in it, however alot of the rightful anger of the American people at the time was misdirected onto the soliders of it, they suffered more than anyone during it.
Kinda funny how france used the us for its own advantage and then .makes fun of the us for losing to war.
I want to see what if US would not have been in
1. Vietnam war
2. Iraq War
3. Afghanistan war.
Usa would have much less debt.....
Excellent video!
Staline once said "No matter how much effort you deploy in air superiority it is the ground force who conquer country".
Literally anyone with a mind doesn't believe that it should be peoples will, spirit, and trust will conquer a country
I think this was a very well written episode. The infographics show had, in the past, provided some rather biased viewpoints which pandered to the American demographic, but this episode took a objective and beautifully concise stance on a sensetive topic in the US, some of whom still believe that they never lost Vietnam.
I am usually a critic of the show, but today's was a fantastic step in the right direction!
You know, biased views were not really biased. We have done a lot of great things in our history and it’s not biased to remark on them. And, we were literally winning the war almost the entire time, we crushed them and there country is still feeling the affects of our strong arrival and crazy defense of the South, they are ruined. If it was not for the press and news coverage painting a very negative light on the U.S and causing so much protest, we would have won.
@@arstotzkianarmedforces1057 What great things? After ,ww2 you basically bullied smaller/weaker/poor countries in order to fulfill your economic and political interests.
@@arstotzkianarmedforces1057no we were not
@@aydenee558 Prove it
@@arstotzkianarmedforces1057 this kid still thinks the american could’ve won 💀
Go ask your mom or your most loved one if they could let you go forever knowing you out there dying for just “some reason” and see the answer yourself
Going wars for a nation is both offense and defense. The offense ,for most, is the frontline soildiers while its defense is the civilians staying at home
If you had said “as of amerca today we could’ve won” then I’d be convinced a little because many of you are existing within, contributing to its current downfall lol