What do you think the world learned from Vietnam?

Question

And what do you think the US learned from Vietnam?

Answer 1

That the best way to defeat the USA in a war is make sure as many US body bags as possible are shown on American TV...
The US military and the White House learned this for themselves and ever since have always tried to keep TV cameras from filming American losses - (on the grounds that, as a famous US general once said - "If it ain't on televeision, it didn't happen...!" ) - which is both pragmatic and (used-to-be - 'essentially') true... However - the internet now makes it almost impossible to hide the truth from the public for long - and word will ALWAYS get out... Ask Donald Rumsfeldt...!

Answer 2

The world learned that the United States could be beat. That lesson however, was short lived, probably due to President Reagan who essentially bluffed the world into believing we were the most powerful nation in the world and space. Not saying that was wrong or right, just how I saw it.

At first the US learned silent humility. We believed we won because, we won most of the battles but, world perception was a huge factor. With millions of dollars and thousands of lives lost, North Viet Nam was united. That was Ho Chi Min's victory.

Leaving out the fact that we had a mentally ill liar for president during the most critical time of the Viet Nam experience might have had something to do with the way it ended.

Answer 3

One. Public opinion polls are NOT the way to choose strategy for winning a war. Two. Letting politicians choose targets is like trying to shoot an apple of your son's head while wearing a blindfold and using a 50 megaton nuke. Let the military handle wars, politicians handle diplomatic solutions. If those fail, fight like your life depends on it....it does.

We didn't learn too much apparently. When you are involved in a war, no matter if you agree with it or not, the way to lose it is to not back it, complain all the time very publicly and vocally and to become whiny and impatient even though you have been told that these actions will cost a lot and take time.

Answer 4

I know what i learned, when politicians get involved they screw up a war as bad as they do the country. Iraq could easily be won in a short period of time if the politicians would stay out of the decisions and let the Military fight the way they were trained to fight.

Answer 5

What we should have learned from Viet Nam is that you never
let politicians run a war. Actually we did learn that. Unfortunately
the politicians think they can do it better. Viet Nam lasted 13 years.
Desert Storm lasted 5 Months.

Need I say more.

Answer 6

The world learned that the best means of winning a war with a democratic superior power is to turn their own people against the war.

Answer 7

That given enough resistence with lack of commitment a super power can be fended away. That media exploits by both sides is where half the battle is fought. Ignorance is a very powerful tool.

Answer 8

What we should have learned, from Viet Nam, from our own revolutionary war, from India...is that you can't win a war on foreign soil. Needless to say, while the capacity of human learning is limitless, it is not error free.

Answer 9

It learned that the US policing the world is not always effective.

Too bad Bush cant figure that out!

Answer 10

What the U.S. should have learned is not to go into a war without the will to use the necessary force to win it.