A coworker once told me that the South was doomed because the North had a larger industrial base. I said that sounded like wisdom in English, but it was a joke in Vietnamese.
The south was doomed because a significant portion of their labor hated them. They also had terrible industrial capacity, no international legitimacy, and no asymmetric advantage.
It’s a lot more like when Cambodia invaded Vietnam than when America did.
Not to mentioned the U.S. deployed something like 2.7 million people to Vietnam over the years. ~58,000 U.S. soilders died. Somewhere between 1-3 million people died in the war. Everyone lost that war. With deaths between 95%-98% not being U.S. troops though… It’s hard to argue when someone says the U.S. didn’t lose. We should have never been there, it was horrible… but any proud boy I meet in a bar who knows the numbers is going to call that a win… Because they don’t care about anything other than how many “bad people” died, and they consider anyone who looks/talks/acts different, bad people.
More importantly the US wasn’t waging “war” against the “North”. They were waging a genocidal destruction campaign against all Vietnamese, mainly in the US controlled South as a means to keep the region destabilized and prevent it from emerging as an economic competitor in the sphere of UDSSR/China.
So if you were Vietnamese in the North or South, Rice farmer or of another profession, chance was US being out to kill or subdue you, so resistance was the only option.
I’ve seen this idea from several sources. The British figured that American ‘Manifest Destiny’ would mean annexing Canada eventually. It didn’t cost the Brits a lot to stir up Southern resentments against the North. So they South got played.
A coworker once told me that the South was doomed because the North had a larger industrial base. I said that sounded like wisdom in English, but it was a joke in Vietnamese.
The south was doomed because a significant portion of their labor hated them. They also had terrible industrial capacity, no international legitimacy, and no asymmetric advantage.
It’s a lot more like when Cambodia invaded Vietnam than when America did.
The north Vietnamese had China and the Soviet Union backing them. The US south had basically nobody.
https://richardpoe.substack.com/p/how-the-british-caused-the-american
Many people believe that the British government actively pushed the south to secede in order to weaken the US.
Not to mentioned the U.S. deployed something like 2.7 million people to Vietnam over the years. ~58,000 U.S. soilders died. Somewhere between 1-3 million people died in the war. Everyone lost that war. With deaths between 95%-98% not being U.S. troops though… It’s hard to argue when someone says the U.S. didn’t lose. We should have never been there, it was horrible… but any proud boy I meet in a bar who knows the numbers is going to call that a win… Because they don’t care about anything other than how many “bad people” died, and they consider anyone who looks/talks/acts different, bad people.
Apples and oranges.
Vietnamese had been fighting for twenty years against the French and Japanese. The South thought they would achieve victory with a few battles.
North Vietnam also had industrial bases in the Soviet Union AND China supplying and funding them. It’s not like they were all paddy farmers.
More importantly the US wasn’t waging “war” against the “North”. They were waging a genocidal destruction campaign against all Vietnamese, mainly in the US controlled South as a means to keep the region destabilized and prevent it from emerging as an economic competitor in the sphere of UDSSR/China.
So if you were Vietnamese in the North or South, Rice farmer or of another profession, chance was US being out to kill or subdue you, so resistance was the only option.
So weak, stupid, and with a rigid mindset?
https://richardpoe.substack.com/p/how-the-british-caused-the-american
I’ve seen this idea from several sources. The British figured that American ‘Manifest Destiny’ would mean annexing Canada eventually. It didn’t cost the Brits a lot to stir up Southern resentments against the North. So they South got played.
I suppose when that industrial output needs to cross an ocean. Not so much when it just needs to cross a river.