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Theron Everage POLS 301 March 20, 2003 Why we should not have fought the Vietnam War ** Ask the class, do all wars have a winner and loser: Sometimes the answer to the question who won or lost reminds me of those who, having lost a football game, retort, “We beat you in the statistics.” In football what matters is the final score, not how many first downs, completed passes, yards per carry, or how few penalties a team gets on its way to victory or defeat. USA 90% destroyed, Russia 100% destroyed: Who won? ** They were figthing for something, we were figthing against something -- that requires less dedication Sun Tzu wrote in The Art of War, “What is of supreme importance in war is to attack the enemy’s strategy.” [3] The short answer is that North Vietnam won the war because their strategy was superior to that of the United States and its Saigon ally. North Vietnamese strategy operated at several levels simultaneously to address both total and limited war objectives. Against the Saigon government, Hanoi’s war aims were total. They never relented in their objective of disestablishing South Vietnam as an independent country and unifying the country under a single communist system. He also said we lost because the North Vietnamese were into long term fighting. It did not matter how long the war would take, they were determined to outlast the U.S..
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