Challenge: Make the Vietnam War last until the 80s

LBJ is convinced to put wartime press controls up as Truman did in Korea. Abrams takes over a year and a half earlier and convinces LBJ to let up on the day to day control. He also better manages the press. A Tet on steroids backed up by three times as many NVA regulars hits in 1968, but there is no Cronkite the war is lost moment that breaks LBJ’s will.

Tet itself OTL increased support for American escalation for many weeks as does the Tet on steroids, but the media treats it very differently, more akin to a Battle of the Bulge moment. Nixon doesn’t run on ending the war, but like Ike in ‘52 runs on ending it on America’s terms.

LBJ has another heart attack during the campaign and Nixon wins a close election. Nixon goes with one of the middle of the Pentagon’s options for the war which roots out the insurgency faster and builds the ARVN faster. There is a Soviet and Chinese backed armistice set up in 1972 after a Linebacker on steroids air raid that allows foreign forces to stay in South Vietnam and the war turns into border guards watching each other with binoculars like Korea.
 
Sometime in the late 1960s to early 1970s, have Viet Cong commit a massive terrorist attack on American soil. Just like how the Attack on Pearl Harbor enraged the American public into supporting military aggression against Japan nearly overnight, a terrorist attack committed by Viet Cong would lead to the instant demise of the anti-war movements and increase public support for a prolonged Vietnam war.
 
USA upholds its Treaty Obligations to RVN and bombs the hell out of the 1975 attack as happened in 1972.

Republic of Vietnam holds out. With the US/China thaw, lessening of support from Warsaw Pact and USSR, the Socialist Republic of Vietnam has other issues to deal with Laos and Cambodia.
 
Sometime in the late 1960s to early 1970s, have Viet Cong commit a massive terrorist attack on American soil. Just like how the Attack on Pearl Harbor enraged the American public into supporting military aggression against Japan nearly overnight, a terrorist attack committed by Viet Cong would lead to the instant demise of the anti-war movements and increase public support for a prolonged Vietnam war.

That would require an absolutely insane Viet Cong. Though, given that you had the Weather Underground claiming to be the American arm of the Vietnamese Communists, it might not be too much of a stretch to have a few pro-Hanoi Vietnamese emigres claiming to be the same thing, and setting off bombs or whatnot stateside, and the public will be easily led to believe that they really represent Ho Chi Minh and the boys.
 
Easy. You'll need a time machine and some advanced mind control tech to get the generals to mount a coup but keep Johnson as a figurehead. Expect a nuclear civil war around '92.
 
Have some asshole get lucky at the racetrack in the late 50s and turn his winnings into a corrupt business. He uses his influence to keep Nixon in office past his second term, where he continues to fuck up the peace in Vietnam into the 80s.

That or just have SVN do better, maybe by not being run by a corrupt shithead, and a Korea-style ceasefire exists to this day.
 
Did the U.S. do much in the domestic propaganda war?

The government encourages Hollywood to churn out pro Vietnam war movies while it's going on, have Bugs Bunny humiliating the VC, and basically put a WW2 style effort into it.
Would it work to counter the antiwar movement and fire up patriotism?
 
Did the U.S. do much in the domestic propaganda war?

The government encourages Hollywood to churn out pro Vietnam war movies while it's going on, have Bugs Bunny humiliating the VC, and basically put a WW2 style effort into it.
Would it work to counter the antiwar movement and fire up patriotism?

The WH by in large tried to regard it as a far off police action and no didn’t put up war time press controls as done with Korea nor push Hollywood to mobilize the public behind the war.
 
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Also, having the US government censor broadcasts involving the war would probably prolong it. Americans being exposed to television coverage displaying the atrocities that were happening during the war is one of the main things that strengthened the anti-war movement.
 
A Sino-Soviet War over the geopolitical split in 1969 could do for setting back the VC war effort by a few years, if not completely stopping it on its tracks.
 
Nixon beats JFK and gives full support to the Bay of Pigs. The invasion succeeds. Castro flees to thehills and US groud forces have to be sent in to fight insurgents.

Nixon backs more competent leaders in Vietnam. After Cuba, Nixon won’t send any ground combat units, but sends advisors, equipment, and allows near unrestricted bombing.

Hanoi signs a treaty after a couple years. Country gets partitioned ala Korea. The Vietcong are still active in the southern countryside until the 80’s.
 
Wasn't Nixon president and the Vietnam War still happening in the version of 1985 where Biff Tannen got rich off the sports almanac?
 
This has been repeated many times on this site but Nixon messing up the peace implies SV wanted OTL peace in 1968. As history showed, they were right to doubt the validity of it.

I wasn’t trying to imply Nixon lengthened the war in ‘68 BUT he could have afterwards if he decided itnsuited him and he was able. Which, if he’s powerful enough to wipe his ass with the 22nd Amendment and be in power into the ‘80s, lengthening Vietnam would be doable.

Also, if you don’t understand that Icwas making a Back to the Future reference, watch the trilogy. And watch the newspaper headlines in the second one.
 
Bonus points if you can make it last till the present day
Have the power struggle between Ho Chi Minh and Les Duan turn bloody. DRV is paralyzed and some of NLF leadership is swept up up in the following purges. Minimal American involvement is all that the South would need to enforce a Korea style ceasefire at that point.
 
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