What if we had refused to fight in Vietnam?

Question

I just saw a question answered from some gal about what if we had refused to fight a war. Her answer was what if we had refused to fight in WWII. When fighting any war, hopefully a little thought will be used before we get involved. There are wars, which can be thought of as righteous war, and there are those, which are blatantly political wars that have no valid reason for another Nation to be there with bombs and guns. Daddy Bush vowed to get Saddam and he did, with the loss of over 3000 of our soldiers. There was never any doubt about Afghanistan and we should have done more there in chasing and killing bin Ladin. It was nothing more than a good excuse to run next door and grab the guy who dared to stand up against Daddy Bush. Hussein was a butt end but it had nothing to do with 9/11. We should have stopped Bush from sending troops to Iraq in the very beginning and many wanted just that. What if we had refused to fight in Vietnam?

Answer 1

We'd have 57,000 more people enjoying life.

The North would have unified the country, and they would be doing business with us.

Oh wait, that's exactly what happened after we fought in Vietnam!

Answer 2

Many did refuse to fight in Vietnam, we call them draft dodgers. Vietnam and Iraq are different. Vietnam was not a war, it was a military police action and was not sanctioned by congress. the Iraq war recieved the full support of almost all the members of congress. Also, we were asked to come to Vietnam but we invaded Iraq. The only similarities between the two are the overwhelming loss of life for what, in hindsight, was clearly a bad idea. What if we had never sent troops to Vietnam-alot more people would be alive today. What if we had never sent troops to Iraq-alot more people would be alive today. That's the only thing we can say for sure about what if we didn't go questions.

Answer 3

How can anyone say?

What if Wilson had convinced the French and English not to further destroy an otherwise failing German economy after the great War by making them pay reparations they couldn't afford to pay?

No Great Depression.
No Hitler
No Holocaust
No return of the Jews to the Holy Lands creating conflict with the Arabs.

but then what?

Does Communism in Russia succeed or fail in its infancy?
Does the US ever become a world military power?
Does Japan still fight the US over resources?
Who gets the A bomb first?
How many bombs get used and again whom?

I don't think it is possible to predict how such a major event would impact all the events which followed.

Answer 4

Vietnam has oil...and Americans were in John Wayne mode back then...we thought America is the good guy. It took a while then to get the real truth of what was going on to the people then..as it took a while this time. Communism does not work ask the new Vietnamese immigrants, The country knows this now and they have reached out to the west and we gladly gave them favored nation status and NOW have Oil trade shows there every year.

Answer 5

Whether it was right or wrong is all a matter of opinion. If you truly have a conscience and want to avoid service because of some deep moral conviction that's all well and good and and on some level even admirable, but if you truly believed in your convictions you would stand by them and serve your time in jail as Ali did. The people that fled to Canada and Scandinavia had nothing more than self preservation on their minds and used an anti-war stance as an excuse for their shameful and cowardly actions.

Answer 6

This is what kills me. That people don't understand OUR troops have no discernable targets, but they ARE marked for death. Anyone who advocates putting our soldiers in harm's way needs to read how Iraqis killed 5 of our soldiers yesterday.
I wish Bush was out there leading the troops, instead of hiding behind his pathetic service record, and Cheney's was even more unconscionable.

These troops were killed in a planned ambush, by Iraqis wearing military uniforms.

Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, January 22, 2007; Page A01

BAGHDAD, Jan. 21 -- The armored sport-utility vehicles whisked into a government compound in the city of Karbala with speed and urgency, the way most Americans and foreign dignitaries travel along Iraq's treacherous roads these days.

Iraqi guards at checkpoints waved them through Saturday afternoon because the men wore what appeared to be legitimate U.S. military uniforms and badges, and drove cars commonly used by foreigners, the provincial governor said.

Once inside, however, the men unleashed one of the deadliest and most brazen attacks on U.S. forces in a secure area. Five American service members were killed in a hail of grenades and gunfire in a breach of security that Iraqi officials called unprecedented.

Answer 7

Viet Nam was a mess that we got into just like Iraq. Obviously, a lot of you still believe in the Domino theory; that's unfortunate because it is on the unproven, antiquated, very old, very dumb list of theories!!!

In case you hadn't noticed, we didn't "win" in Viet Nam, and the USSR (which was a whole lot bigger than "Russia"--look it up!) is NOT the huge Communist nation that it once was.

The one good thing VN did in America was wake up a lot of complacent people to what their government could do, and it wasn't nice stuff!!! (Shooting college students for free speech, sending thousands to their deaths for oil, lying to the American people, etc. etc.)People learned that we (supposedly) control our own government, and they stood up and fought for that right!!!! Where are they now?? How many more have to die before the wake-up call goes out again??

Answer 8

failure to fight would have had several impacts around the globe. first off the time we held communism back in vietnam and gave stabiltiy to several surrounding nations would not have happened and more communist nations would have fallen. Second we wold have looked week and other nations that accepted our help and aid would have accepted it from the soviets which would allow them to continue to strengthen. Lastly, it can not be overlooked that the finacial drain created by vietnam, began the end of the soviet union. By the time they invaded afganistan they were ready for collapse, which is one of the reasons they did invade, hoping to reap the economic benifits.

Answer 9

Any communist influence in Vietnam would have had to have been propped up by China to continue from the 60s to current day. Look at North Korea, they're a piddly little no-resource country run by communists, and they're hanging onto Third World status by a thread.

Answer 10

Ultimately, we did. The commies flooded in, took over most of South East Asia, and killed over a million people.


If you believe that dictators should be allowed to break conditions of an armistice with impunity, then you're entitled to your opinion. But it's a very dangerous game. Chamberlain and France played that hand and lost.