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Summary: Dispels Many Myths About the War In Vietnam
Comment: I think the "Battlefield" series about World War II and now Vietnam are among the most informative documentaries about those wars available. They concentrate on the hard strategic facts of the wars as seen by the commanders and political leaders at the top. I think the latest series about Vietnam is a fitting continuation of the various series about the Second World War and is generally of as good quality.
A good friend of mine who was active in the anti-Vietnam War movement in the United States watched the series with me and he said that it showed that many of the beliefs he and others who opposed the war were hollow myths. Primary among them was the idea that the war in Vietnam was a popular, people's uprising by an indigenous movement of South Vietnamese who weren't necessarily all Communists. The Viet Cong fighters were idealistic guerrillas who wore black pajamas and lived on a handful of rice per day.
Also among the myths were that all South Vietnamese leaders were incompetant, corrupt people who didn't care about the country, only in despoiling it, and that the ARVN (South Vietnamese Army) was a puppet force that couldn't fight.
Thirdly, there was the belief that this "indegeneous guerrilla force" succeeded in defeating the United States military.
This series shows that these things simply were either not true, or gross overgeneralizations. Firstly, the Communists who defeated South Vietnam in the end were not South Vietnamese Viet Cong guerrillas, but rather conventional North Vietnamese armed forces who were armed to the teeth with billions of dollars of Soviet and Chinese military equipment. The war was won in a conventional, Second World War-style with tanks, artillery and aircraft.
Secondly, there never was a popular uprising against the South Vietnames government. The one big attempt to create one, the Tet Offensive in January-February 1968 failed miserably.
Thirdly, the ARVN, although indeed having many structural problems that were never overcome, improved considerably over the years, and they were the one who contributed the most to the devasting defeat of the VC/NVA forces in the Tet Offensive, which caused heavy damage to the Viet Cong in particular. The ARVN had many fine, dedicated officers and outstanding units. However, as I said, there were numerous problems with the army and its relationship with the South Vietnames government that did contribute to the final defeat.
Fourthly, the United States military, while suffering significant losses, ended up succeeding, along with the ARVN in defeating the guerrilla forces, making the North Vietnamese come to the conclusion that only a conventional military force could bring victory.
Fifthly, the Communist forces, tough, dedicated fighters that they were, were not supermen. They suffered immense losses and had many deserters. Although it is common to point out the corruption of the South Vietnamese government and forces, corruption is no stranger to Communist regimes and this no doubt effected their side as well, although this is not talked about very much. However, the North Vietnamese worried about a collapse of moral, which led them to agreeing to joing peace talks with the US in 1968.
South Vietnam might have had a chance to survive if the United States had not sharply cut back aid following the peace agreement of 1973. All-in-all, the war was a terrible tragedy, and the losses the US and South Vietnam suffered seemd to be for nothing. The question is still open whether the US made a mistake in committing itself to the war in the first place. Ironically, the defeat of the US in South Vietnam led the USSR to start expanding military committments to anti-American forces around the world, in Afghanistan, Mozambique, Somalia, Ethiopia, Angola and other places, leading to civil wars in these places which the pro-Soviet forces were not able to win, leading the USSR to waste billions of dollars in these places...and it was this economic strain that contributed much to the eventual collapse of the USSR and Communist sytems. Today North Vietnam's top backer, the USSR no longer exists and they are begging for Americans to visit and invest in their country. So maybe the US did win the Vietnam War in the long run?
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