Quote (CarsV @ 25 Jul 2019 00:51)
Dare I say the US even won Vietnam militarily, but lost politically. A lot of people's perception of that war is skewed by Hollywood and other BS where Americans are constantly shown getting their asses kicked. In reality the US military hammered the shit out of the North Vietnamese and broke the back of the Vietcong so hard they had to resort to unconventional methods to maintain resistance, like the territories of undeclared countries to wage their war. Not that I think Vietnam was a good thing, it was a shitshow that Sauci's fucking French dragged us into. It helps to remember that more people died in Vietnam AFTER the US pulled out than the duration of the US war involvement. But according to Hollywood and "fuck America!" jack-offs, all we did was smoke weed, surf, and kill babies over there.
well, the US could have turned all of vietnam into a depopulated wasteland by using a ton more napalm and agent orange - but this would have been a huge propaganda loss in the greater scheme of things.
so when only looking at vietnam itself, one can argue like you do and say that the US could have won this conflict if they had really wanted to, but chose against it out of political reasons. but that's obviously missing the greater picture of the cold war. within the context of the cold war, Vietnam was a clear loss for the US.