In the OTL Vietnam War, it was the US that sent forces and equipment in large numbers to help the South fight the North. Is it possible for the USSR to do what the US did, sending its armed forces in numbers to aid the North. Basically having them switch roles during the war. Would this possible and if so, could the war have ended differently or would the result be pretty much the same?
EternalCynic;6974129 Kissinger wrote that Deng told him that Vietnam was planning to go Pac-Man on all of Southeast Asia said:Yeah, quite hard. Cambodge, yeah, they had a moment. Laos maybe, but Thailand had USA soldiers around for all Vietnam war, and could be easily backed up. At best, they would have stopped there.
Unless maybe surprise surprise, Burma, but WHY and HOW...
Methink Kissinger was still in his 'red scare' mentality there. Sounds typical 'dominos theory'.
So would it be at all possible for LB to support Vietnam more than in OTL? Maybe having him want to be more proactive in spreading and supporting communism or have a different premier in power. I just thought that it would be interesting to see Soviet T-64s fighting ARVN M-47s and Tu-16s with Tu-95s overhead B-52 style.Henry Kissinger revealed in his latest book that in 1979, China invaded Vietnam without any intention to overthrow the Vietnamese government, but hoped to embarrass the Soviets into failing to back its ally and to further strengthen the relations with the west. Deng in fact had visited several Burma, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Japan, and the US to gain support for his adventure. Kissinger even hints that Brezhnev's failure to support the Vietnamese made him turn his sights on Afghanistan to compensate the Chinese insult to Soviet power.
Following the Vietnam War the Viet Cong did force a "Friendship Treaty" on the Pathet Lao, turning Laos into its puppet. The Vietnamese invasion of Cambodia was seen as the next step in Vietnam's ambitions, which led to US/Chinese support of the Khmer Rouge.Yeah, quite hard. Cambodge, yeah, they had a moment. Laos maybe, but Thailand had USA soldiers around for all Vietnam war, and could be easily backed up. At best, they would have stopped there.
Unless maybe surprise surprise, Burma, but WHY and HOW...
Methink Kissinger was still in his 'red scare' mentality there. Sounds typical 'dominos theory'.
Avoiding the Six Day, War of Attrition and Yom Kippur Wars could help or have those conflicts happen with the Arab states not having Soviet support.
The Soviets would still want a place to test out their equipment in combat conditions so you could see many more Soviet pilots and ground personal serving in Vietnam rather than in Egypt or Syria.
This brings up an interesting topic. There were Soviet-American proxy wars, but what of Snio-Soviet ones?You forget one important detail who may screw one side or other.
The PRC.
They may have been both communists, the two regimes had been of two different 'sects', and there was complex games in southeast, southern asia between USSR and PRC, vying for hearts, souls and controls of the local commies groups.
This brings up an interesting topic. There were Soviet-American proxy wars, but what of Snio-Soviet ones?
The Chinese just didn't really have the projection beyond their immediate neighbors. Maybe if the PRC supported a side in Afghanistan against the Soviets? Or a secession crisis in North Korea and they support different sides...
This brings up an interesting topic. There were Soviet-American proxy wars, but what of Snio-Soviet ones?
The PRC did openly support the Mujaheddin in Afghanistan and actually set up training camps where the PLA shared its knowledge of fighting guerrilla wars. But Afghanistan was an all-against-Soviets proxy war anyways.