James Baird wrote:
> And while the
> Vietnamese were able to inflict some small damage on
> the U.S. war machine, their war was won by convincing
> the US population to withdraw their support from that
> machine - NOT on the battlefield.
Justin is correct that it took the NVA and Soviet support to defeat the U.S. army in Vietnam -- it was something more than a few (or a lot) of peasants with AK-47s. But you are wrong here also. The Vietnamese did defeat the U.S. Army, and while the growing resistance at home surely was part of that defeat, it was not the greater part. The U.S. Army would have fallen a part completely had the U.S. attempted to carry on the war much longer. There are a number of studies by U.S. military scholars on the disintegration of the army. The U.S. withdrew from Vietnam to preserve its arrmy. Someone on this list should be able to cite the relevant studies.
Carrol