Lincoln1976
Senior Member
..we had a HUGE advantage with air and naval supremacy --and the NVA still kicked some ass in Nam..if he wasn't for choppers and air, it would've been a lot different
...no--you hold your horse---the Chinese kicked our asses in Korea--plain and simple--when we had air and naval supremacy!!
..Vietnam was unwinnable --my wife's uncle died in one of the biggest ambushes in Nam.....they gave the USMC a good ass whooping--the NVA were very smart--very smart.....we had amphib carriers and land based choppers plus tanks at that battle AFTER the ass whipping
..considering the HUGE advantage the US had with carriers, amphib carriers, choppers, land based air, the NVA proved they were just as good, if not better
OK...in order to address your points, I guess we have to get into more detail...air superiority is nothing, if you can't see your enemy...foliage was the problem and even when agent orange was used, it often ment shit all....we all know, where the VC hid, right? and yes, that is cunning....yet it wasn't a military success that got them winning the war...it was a PR win..the ted offensive was a desaster for the VC since it led to the death of 80 000 of it's members...basically the whole group was knocked out of action for years to come....thing was, nobody knew that and the US public had made up it's mind that the war was unwinnable...
as for ass wooping: superior training and leadership has played a huge part in the huge losses inflicted on the enemy forces in Nam and that is what it boils down to.
US military doctine has learned a lot from Nam as well..it was a beter army after the war than at it's beginning and that is, what makes the US military so outstanding in the world today....Russia for instance had very few military actions in it's Soviet and post Soviet era...just look at the 90s war in Chechnia and every war thereafter....sure, they won most of them but it took them decades...
Russia still suffers from bad leadership even though the low morale of the early post Soviet era has past.
China is in an even worse position...they have not fought any major battle since the invasion on Vietnam and that back fired badly...they like to show of their latest suff..like that aircraft carrier they got from Ukraine (and never paid the Chinese private businessman for it...lol)
The most effective army beginning of the 20th century was the German army and it showed a lot, what good leadership down to squad level make out and I think the US military is today very much in the same position