Quote from piezoe:
Actually you have this entirely wrong. The South Vietnamese defended themselves valiantly against the American invaders. The Vietcong were on the other side for a very good reason, as were their families in the South Vietnamese countryside . Why should they fight against their own interests and on the side of a puppet government set up by a foreign power? They shouldn't --you wouldn't have, I hope-- and they didn't. They wanted their country back.
They defeated the French in a war that was 80% paid for by the American taxpayer, they Defeated the Americans in a war that was 100% paid for by the U.S. taxpayer, and they no doubt would have defeated the Japanese invaders as well, had that been necessary.
Your criticism is misplaced, it should have been directed specifically at the U.S. directed puppet government forces. But should they be blamed for their, shall we say, lack of enthusiasm?
Quote from piezoe:
There is zero chance of U.S. regular troops being involved in a ground war in North Korea. And there is very little chance of a war with North Korea. There is a big chance, however, of billions being spent and wasted on military build-up, and posturing. The Military industrial complex, and Senators from States with major military bases would love it, but such must be avoided. Some of the recent rhetoric has been childish and rather absurd. The U.S. will work quietly behind the scene with the Chinese to calm the waters. We have extremely competent leadership in the State department as of now.
Quote from BlueTurtle:I forget, but I think we went in to suppress communism and something about Indonesia or something was also part of the equation.....sorry, no time to check now.
Quote from atticus:
NK has ~30 days in fuel reserves and shit for air-power. Regime change and millions of NK dead if the worst-case scenario of NK lobbing a small nuke at Seoul. MAD doesn't apply here. Take out 300-500k in Seoul and they would lose millions in NK.
They can move on Seoul, but we would obliterate Pyongyang. This is a game of "Risk" that they simply can't win. A unified Korea would be a huge boost due to reconstruction and global growth. Look at Germany, post-reunification.