was vietnam a mistake?
 

many references to Vietnam are at the details of Vietnam, the soldiers experience, tactical/strategic, maybe new technologies that emerged from the war, etc?

but do you think that, as a whole, it is generally thought of as a mistake? a bad decision (or series of), something that we should not have done? As far as our goals went, my understanding is that we went in there to stop the spread of communism, as china had recently became communist, and the North Vietnamese (communist) were fighting the south and we wanted to curb this momentum.

End result is that we left and the north took over, we paused the inevitable for a number of years, Ho Chi Minh took over?was there any benefit to us from the war?

It seems to me, vietnam was more about fighting the russians by proxy.

So if it held off a russian war, good enough.

all in the name of democracy...how come America always end up in a wrong war!

besides the creation of some very good music

true, war always brings out the best in music

think about the years during & right after desert storm

nirvana, pearl jam etc.

sure, not as good as the doors, jefferson airplane, hendrix etc.

but alot better than anything from the 80's

Most folks on here are too young to remember or know much about that war.

It was horrible. We were using napalm on villages with women and children, dropping bombs on non-military targets. American POW's were brutally tortured when captured. Amazing that here we are 30 years later and 1,807 Americans are still unaccounted for as MIA's.

A friend of the family was captured while on patrol. They tied his hands behind his back, put a burlap sack over his head, poured honey on his head from the top, then put a bunch of big rats inside the bag and tied it shut. He managed to escape a couple days later, but came home all fucked up in the head from it all.

It was another one of our fucked up wars that did nothing except make a lot of money for the military industrial complex.

58,226 American soldiers were killed.

1 Million Vietnamese troops killed and 4 Million Vietnamese civilians killed. 200,000 Vietnamese troops are still listed as MIA. 153,000 American troops were wounded, and 600,000 Vietnamese troops wounded.

:(

interesting stat, i did not realize that the civilian to troop ratio was so high

amazing

Ask someone who was there if it was a mistake. It's not for us to make that call.

I wasn't there obviously but in retrospect it looks like it made about as much sense as Iraq.

Must be why they don't teach you about it in Highschool US History classes anymore...

yes...wasn't there but definately a mistake.

all wars are a mistake

offcourse a mistake
Everything that kills , gives causilty or just stupid war is a mistake

everything usa has done war wise has been a mistake!

yooooooooooo need to talk to you, hit me up!

Right, and don't forget to include China.

saw a few 'nam movies yesterday :)

Exactly what it was. Just as Afghanistan was a few years later after USSR invaded.

"All wars are started from a misuderstanding"..can't remember who said it. However if you go and rent the DVD "The Fog of War" you can clearly see how Robert McNamara details the misuderstanding of how the war in Vietnam started.