The idea of unleashing a sprawling campaign to achieve “decisive victory” by overwhelming the perpetually tottering government in Saigon was not new to planners in Hanoi. Truces would be broken, and the Communists would hold the element of surprise by launching the offensive under the cover of the millions of firecrackers that are traditionally lit to welcome in the new year. At about the same time, he began working on his outline for a massive Communist offensive to be launched during the Vietnamese New Year. He would receive another three years later for his reports outlining the American landing of troops at Danang.
#Vietnam the real war full
One went to the Viet Cong battlefield commander, the other to An.Įnjoying this article? Click here to subscribe for full access. Ho Chi Minh awarded two Liberation Exploit medals, a high honor indeed, following that battle. Get briefed on the story of the week, and developing stories to watch across the Asia-Pacific. defeats of the Vietnam War, and in hindsight a devastating case study of what was to come. Hopes for victory were dashed as the Viet Cong were well armed, well entrenched, and fought back, culminating in one of the biggest U.S. In 1962, while working for the British news agency Reuters, he mapped out information of a pending strike by U.S.-led South Vietnamese troops near a hamlet in the Mekong Delta, southwest of Saigon, called Ap Bac. His track record – a secret that would remain hidden for decades to come – was already formidable. Among them was Pham Xuan An, the foreign correspondent who had joined the Communists during World War II and risen within its ranks to become one of Ho Chi Minh’s greatest spies. There were many key people involved in the planning. How could they have got it so wrong? A Communist uprising across South Vietnam claimed thousands of lives, and their perceived success had turned public opinion against the war by the middle of 1968, an abject lesson in propaganda and its latter day manifestation, “fake news.” Just ask someone who was there if it was a war.In the years that followed the Tet Offensive, one of the Vietnam War’s largest military campaigns, which saw its 50th anniversary commemorated in late January, Americans would torture themselves. If NO country is being fought, if No leadership (President, Dictator, King, Premier, Chairman, etc) is available for negotitions, No standing regular army is being fought, and NO air force or navy is being fought and only violence within the country is being fought, with the intent of returning order and stabilization to that country, with arrests and trials and executions, then it is a "police action." Stop splitting hairs. Both wars were fought against armies & air forces of that particular country.
Both the Korean War (1950-1953) & the Vietnam War (1961-1975) were "Limited Wars" fought against the spread of communism. We wanted Vietnam to remain a "limited war." Involving no other country. We corrected that situation in Vietnam by NOT invading North Vietnam. The Korean War nearly turned into a bigger war, because Red China entered it after the US/Allies invaded North Korea. Limited wars have restrictions on where they can fight, and what weapons they can use: Example the Vietnam War was supposed to remain confined to Vietnam (not any other country), and was NOT to use atomic weapons. The cold war invented the "limited wars." Limited wars have more restrictive rules than all out declared wars (WWII was limited on the use of biological & chemical weapons, by treaty). Because of the "Nuclear age" (same as "atomic age") all out wars like WWII can no longer be fought.without risking "mutual destruction." This brought about the "cold war." A cold war is a non-shooting war. WWII was the US's last "declared war." WWII also brought the world into the "atomic age", when the nuclear weapons were dropped on Hiroshima & Nagasaki in August 6 & 9, 1945, ending WWII. For the grunts in the field it was a war. However, it was perceived by the rest of the world as a war and as a consequence America lost much of its political pull. The Vietnam War was not technically a war (though many would disagree) because Congress did not officially declare war.
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