[...] That narrative, says Carter, "is popular among American military officers of a certain age, who believe if only they'd had gutsy political leadership, support from the homefront, and a willingness to steamroll North Vietnam with overwhelming force, we might have won the war." As Carter documents (emphasis in original): "It's a good story, but it's wrong. No amount of America firepower could have crushed the North Vietnamese people's will."
What almost always goes unmentioned when this myth is discussed is that one its most faithful adherents is John McCain, and he applies this mentality not only to Vietnam but also to every subsequent military conflict, including the current one in Iraq. [,,,]
That's the very embodiment of the "stabbed-in-the-back" Vietnam narrative. We had our greatest success when we could bomb North Vietnam "not constrained by either congressional or presidential mandate." That's when we almost brought them "to their knees." But incessant complaints about civilian casualties and anger over irrelevant matters such as the bombing of hospitals is what prevented us from winning -- "which still angers him," because the number of dead North Vietnamese wasn't really "exorbitant." There was room for plenty more. Ponder what that means for Iraq, Afghanistan and any other new countries on which a President McCain decides to wage war.
"Bombing them into submission" only helps against industrialized countries whose war factories can be destroyed. The last time this worked was in WWII.
The tonnage of bombs dropped in Vietnam just in the Battle of Khe Sanh alone surpassed the entire tonnage dropped in WWII, and that was a use of strategic assets in a tactical application. I have no idea how much got dropped on North Vietnamese civilians, but I'm sure it was considerable.
It was wrong to bomb civilians as a terror tactic then, and it didn't work to shorten that war. It's still wrong, and it isn't going to work now.
It keeps the bomb factories and jet fuel makers happy, though, and isn't that the most important thing to Repugs?
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