The entire Vietnam War, whether you are referring to the French or the American conflicts can be simplified into a simple statement.

The Vietnamese wanted a sovereign state independent of foreign intervention or domination. They were willing literally to fight forever to achieve that goal. It was an excellent example of self-determination as expressed by Thomas Jefferson in the Declaration of Independence. It exemplified that fact that a determined population can overcome any adversity in securing their own independence.

There are those that believe that the US military could have won the war against the Vietnamese People if the politicians had not intervened. They are deluded in their beliefs because you cannot defeat an enemy that refuses to be defeated. Had the US not finally withdrawn the war would have continued to this day even had we invaded and occupied N Vietnam. The Vietnamese were that dedicated to their own independence. They fought the French when they were a colony and they would have continued to fight the American military even had we occupied all of their lands.

We saw the same thing in Afghanistan when it was occupied by the USSR. I believe that we will eventually see the same thing in Iraq where the Iraqi People will, when the time is right, overthrow the US imposed government. We see the same thing in Afghanistan today where the US has imposed a government of the minority Northern Alliance which is opposed by most in that country.

Generally speaking the People of a nation do not accept the imposition of foreign control over their country. The will fight literally forever to overthrow the domination of a foreign power. It is a history lesson that people need to learn.

You are a romantic. When I consider Geobels, it is as a club footed little freak with the heartlessness to kill his own little beasts, but without the German ASS to backup his big mouth. It does not matter what any one says. Propaganda makes nothing better, but only more precarious. Sooner or later the people guess the truth, and once the people are lost, they stay lost.

They won in vietnam for more reasons than you mention. They had internal lines of communication. It is harder to fight at long distance than it is to hold a rake out level with one hand. Battles are won and wars are won with a multitude of supplies, including men. Without victory the supply of men runs out.
Morale and determination are only good for so much in a war. Sure, the Muslims are difficult to defeat only because life has little value if God is great. And It would be easier for us if we did not create more fighters than we kill. As long as the persistent cause is there to fight us there will be some kind of Jihad. I think we are training our enemies to a high technology while not taking from them any low tech ability.

The Vietnamese had been fighting for independence since 1941 and at least one entire generation had been born and gone to war by the time the US became heavily involved. The belief that they would have stopped fighting after already being involved in a war for their independece for over 30 years is absurd. The next generation was already committed to the fight for independence when we finally withdrew.

well, WAR in general is the last thread of a disagreement. Usually between two people birthed into power and have different insights on how to conduct or destruct their populous or others populous... "to understand the power of love you must overcome the love of power" - jimi hendrix
our first world leader should be a chimp witha rolladex of cards of all of the peoples "world's issues" and have him address 5 in the morning... and have the people resolve 5by dinner. I think 9 billion sick and healthy self centered and overgiving people can handle 5 "world's issues" problems a day giving the fact the monkey is the raffler.


I like a monkey puppet
rather than a human puppet
the debate whether or not something
is going on behind the curtin
would make it rather glassy
-Preston

Agreed the bloke is a twat. Yet interesting none the less and was very good at what he did.

All wars are about false images and propaganda.
There's no difference between a war of aggression and humanitarian interventions. They use propaganda all the time, and Goebbels by the way, probably has dreamed about the possibilities of propaganda politicians/media have today.

“Oh, that is all well and good, but, voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in any country.”

In an interview with Gilbert in Göring's jail cell during the Nuremberg War Crimes Trials (18 April 1946)

This made me laugh, really. If you hear that and compare it to today, you see they still do the same. And you don't even need Göring or Goebbels for it.

Agreed, you cant deny the man knew his stuff