Alternate US Strategies in Viet Nam.

I was thinking something along those lines myself, less boots on the ground but more muscle behind what does go in, and more/better use of SOG Teams, and for good measure step up Pheonix ops.
 
I'm wondering if it wasn't possible in '44-5 for OSS to find a true Viet nationalist in a French jail somewhere & support him against the Japanese and French. (Ho claimed he was a nationalist first, but I don't credit the honesty of a Communist & a politician much.:p)
 
If Westmoreland would give up on trying to refight WWII and Korea, here are some options he could try.

Option 1:
  • U.S. forces use the Marine Corps’ idea of Combined Action Program (CAP). A squad enters a village and coordinates patrols and ambushes with local militia platoon, training said unit by example until it’s proficient to provide village security. The U.S. personnel get to know the people & funnel economic aid to the villages, providing a tangible good to sway the sentiments of the villagers away from the VC, and thus robbing the VC & NVA of the local support they need to operate. (Using this strategy from 1966-67, the Marines suffered fewer casualties and obtained abover-average village security).
Option 2:
  • U.S. cedes the Central Highlands to the enemy in order to defend the coastal zones of South Vietnam, which would take an estimated 180,000 rather than 550,000 (thus easier to support), and inflict a stalemate on firepower-disadvantaged NVA and VC
 

PipBoy2999

Banned
Truman should've told the French to go fuck themselves, if they wanted in on the marshal plan they could give up on trying to oppress people on the other side of the world.

Probably the best plan. Didn't Ho try to get US recognition after the Great European Mistake part 2? And we told him to take a hike?
 
I think it's one of histories biggest "wtf"'s that Ho Chi Minh who was supplied and supported by the US during WWII and etc ended up fighting them, but I guess thats just one of those "you dont see it coming" kind of things
 
I think it's one of histories biggest "wtf"'s that Ho Chi Minh who was supplied and supported by the US during WWII and etc ended up fighting them, but I guess thats just one of those "you dont see it coming" kind of things
That screwup was a product of Truman not realizing he could tell France to go screw, because the French needed the U.S. in Europe as much as the U.S. needed France (agruably more, given the Marshall Plan). It's also in no small measure thanks to FDR, who FWI hear ran foreign policy himself & didn't decide what to do about Vietnam before he died (or tell Truman his plans, if he had any).
 
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