If the USA had stayed in Vietnam until all their objectives were met, how long would the war gone on for?

Question

Would we have been able to pull out by the late 80s. That would be my guess.

Answer 1

Actually, it would have ended in 2 to 3 years, tops. The Viet Cong were on the verge of capitulating right up to the point that we pulled out. Even after we left, the South was still winning until the gutless wonders in Congress stopped supporting them financially.

Answer 2

The troubles with Vietnam were:
1) the objective was more ideological than something tangible like real estate. That being the case, it was a war of attrition. Made no sense to get into a fire fight, take the hill and then a month later, give it back.
2) the leadership (from the president on down) was geared so that field commanders could not "make the call" but instead had to refer everything up the chain. Johnson himself felt a need to bottom line every action taken. This suggests a complete lack of trust between the professional military leaders and the "professional" politicians.
3) the Diem administration truly was a puppet regime. And as such, he was not only out of control, but under his "leadership" his troops were less than forthcoming to take charge and fight their own battles.
4) our leadership directed our Secretary of State to tie our military hands in an effort to gain a peace settlement ie: no bombing of the Ho Chi Min Trail between the hours of...

Given those restraints and objectives, the war would never have ended.

Answer 3

The very fact that America's worst fears didn't happen after the US troop withdrawal from Vietnam only shows how futile that war had been. No communists ever marched on American shore, the rest of Asian nations didn't fell to communism contrary to what the CIA and Pentagon had predicted. Vietnam never allowed itself to become a Russian or Chinese puppet. Vietnam is now a fledging country with a growing economy, while it lives in a peaceful co-existence with its neighbors.

Summing it up altogether, what would have been the difference if the Americans stayed and its objectives met, aside from saying that America won the war?. Is Vietnam's political and economic situation now so bad that America felt sorry and resentful for leaving it?. Or is the resentment because Vietnam managed to recover from that dreadful war and establish itself as a stable nation without American help?.

Answer 4

I will guess that if the same rate of lost manpower had continued the NVA would have been an Army without men by 1976.
TET 68 exposed so many of the closet VC that locals loyal to the South killed them in vigilante fashion. The massacres in Hue City rallied Southern rural people to join actively in the fight against the North.

Answer 5

We could have ended the war in 1968 when the Vietnamese Tet Offensive collapsed and the American Army and ARVN Forces were persueing the North Vietnamese to the DMZ. American politians like Ted Kennedy jumped up and demanded we stop chasing the North Vietnamese saying we had no mandate to ender into North Vietnam and bring the war to immediate end. Our enemies are among in more than one way....

Answer 6

I bet you'd be serving over there now, and we will still be chasing people through the jungle.

Native populations resist foreign occupation very well if so motivated, and have all the time in the world to fight. This has repeated itself over and over, with conflicts lasting in the hundreds of years (ex: Ireland, India, Africa, etc.).

Answer 7

how to discuss anything in void? Invitation to build fictions on fictions?

Answer 8

Probably would still be there.

Answer 9

i bet it would of been much longer...