Your The Man In '68, A New Poll
 

Ok, its 1968, Robert Macnamara has just been fired and you have just been approved by the House and Senate Commities as the New Secretary of Defense. The President is sick of the bad press we are getting on the homefront and the unwillingness of the North Vietnamese to begin Peace Talks in Paris.

You have been given your orders - "You have free reign to do as you see fit. You have full command of the Navy, Airforce, Army and Marine ground forces in country, plus a substantial increase in ground troops to follow any plan of your choosing."

The question is........what would you do?

I call for a U.N. sanctioned vote on unification of Vietnam and let Ho Chi Minh know that we will support his new government. I call a press conference and blame J.F.K. for arming U.S. advisors and assassinating Diem. I tell the press we now realize Vietnam is nothing like Korea and is more a civil war than a Communism vs Capitalism war. I get the troops home as soon as possible.

Aaaah, the problem with that argument is that you were not hired to be Secretary of State or the USA's Ambassador to the U.N.

You were hired to find a "Military Answer" to winning the war in Vietnam due to your amazing grasp of tactics and the ways of war. So please tells us your "Hawkish" answer.

I voted others. In the first year or two years(depends on how things go) i would increase the guerilla training and deploiment of special troops and the training of the south Vietnamese army. In those two years, i would try to ensure my forces the cooperation of native tribes, and of vietnamese. With these guerilleros, i would drop more and more special troops with choppers or river boats, depending the location and situation. I'd begin with South Vietnam territory, then toward the Ho Chi Min trail, then North Vietnam. The goal being to create havoc and confusion in Vietcong controlled territory and North Vietnam territory. I'll feed them with the kind of war they feed us.

After that 1st step, i would gradually increase military pressure. 1st on the Vietcong hideout in the South, then crossing the North border. I'd bring all the manpower possible. I'd built the mightiest logistic organisation possible. Because our troops would need loads of stuff. By increasing the military pressure, i mean the we push them Viet before us. After each week of advance, a massive camp would be built to support the push. By massive i mean with an airfield capable of supporting our choppers and even supply planes. After our advance, the South Vietnam would keep our rear secure. Note that above i mention South Vietnam troops training. I would also give them fire experience by incorporating some units within our OOB, all that depending of the opinion of my officers in charge of the training.

Once the south have been "cleared", we'll massivly invade North Vietnam. If all goes well, the North is already "soften" by our guerilla tactics. Note that before going north, we'll be sure the HoChiMin trail isnt funtional at all. I wouldnt make massive bombardement on the North, but maybe once or twice devastating drop to make an "exemple".

At first i wouldnt send troops in Cambodia or Laos. I'd fight there with special troops only. If no other option available i would enter these countries with my forces.

There's lots of stuff i'm thinking of, but you have the picture.:bigun2:

ps. sorry bout the typo

Orderly Withdrawal = Other
 

This time is still very real to me, as I became a high school junior in the fall of 1968.

With 20-20 hindsight, I would recognize that Ho was much more a nationalist than a piece of the communist monolith--or more accurately bipolar communism, as it had spit into Soviet Union and China parts by 1968. With that recognition, I would withdraw all US forces and allow Vietnam to work out its own destiny--more or less similar to following Star Trek's Prime Directive.

An additional bonus may be that Pol Pot would not have taken over in Cambodia, or at least his horrific deeds would not have reached the same proportions as they did.

Mine the harbors and bomb every railroad track, road, goat path, etc. that led from China to North Vietnam and keep them that way. Use the additional troops to take and hold ground rather then chasing the VC/NVA off for them to return later. Start securing villages in the interior and work my way towards the borders. This would deny the VC recruits and places to hide/gather intelligence/resupply. Seal off the borders or at least make it costly as hell to move from Laos or Cambodia into Vietnam. At some point if this hadn't gotten the job done then you start bombing North Vietnam until their isn't two rocks standing on top of each other.

At the risk of sounding ignorant, as I only have a cursory knowledge of the Vietnam war-
From a strategic viewpoint, it seems the logical military solution would be a carpet bombing campaign in conjunction with a continual naval bombardment. Vietnam's curving "S" shaped coastline varies in width from just 30 miles at its center to 370 miles along the northern border. I really don't see the problem. A great many of our battleships from WW2 were still in service. Start with a firebombing/deforestation campaign & burn down North Vietnam first. It takes longer than a nuke, but you basically get the same desired result. Why fight in the jungle if you don't have to? They could've dropped or indirect fired ordinance in an air campaign for a couple years before firing up the first tank engines. Which of course would drive north down roads constructed from North Vietnamese labor camps.

Ofcourse, we could've also forced the Japanese as part of WW2 reparations to raise a few divisions & fight the Vietcong along side us. I'll bet they would've loved that.

My response is a carbon copy of Jags
Let the vietnamese work it out on their own and
get Americans the hell out in a hurry

by this time with support so low for the war, I would leave out an all out invasion of the north, as much as I would love to do it. I would stick with unrestricted bombing of all relevant military targets until they came to the peace table and agreed to stay out of the south.

Why would any of you want to abandon Vietnam? Didn't the U.S. have an obligation to stop the spread & oppression of Communism in the world?