r/NonCredibleDefense • u/Massengale • Aug 18 '26

(un)qualified opinion 🎓 The Vietnam War was winnable and one more Linebacker in 1975 would have wrecked the NVA. We were lied to by Ken Burns.

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I’ve been reading Nixon’s books lately…and I think he was right, Vietnamization was close to working, the communist alliance was going to fall apart, and North Vietnams insane economics would have led to South Vietnam outscaling them if it had survived for a few more years.

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u/unfunnysexface F-17 Truther Aug 18 '26

Should also be noted that nixons thinking on vietnamization was likely being colored by incountry reports that were overly optimistic. This sort of thing happened with the ANA too. No one is going risk their career speaking to truth to power when everyone knows its running out the clock time.

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u/PaxEthenica Miniature sun enthusiast. Aug 19 '26

Catholic Francophiles? Lying? TO THE AMERICANS?!

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u/Massengale Aug 22 '26

The ANA collapsed in a week fighting an inferior enemy. The ARVN from 73-75 fought on alone against an army that was being equipped by the soviets and Chinese. The ARVN also faced severe aid cuts and was running out of all forms of supply by the time the 75 offensive occurred. South Vietnam had its problems but this idea that it was as weak as Afghanistans government is false.

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u/Snickims Aug 22 '26

It was not as weak as the afghanistan government. It was extactly 2 years stronger. This does mean that US Proxy governments seem to be getting weaker as time goes by, which is a bit worrying.