DBWI: What if the US lost the Vietnam War?

Indochina. Fantastic, beautiful place to visit. I have went and even lived there multiple times. The quality of life is simply fantastic. The beauty and wealth of these countries is off the charts, especially with Vietnam, the 4th most prosperous East Asian Country after China, Japan, and South Korea. However, as we all know, it wasn't always this good. The 2 Indochina wars in the 20th Century absolutely destroyed Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos. It was only through U.S. assistance that South Vietnam was able to defend itself from North Vietnam. As time went on, U.S. assistance lessened more and more as South Vietnam grew ever more powerful militarily and economically, while the North grew ever less powerful militarily and economically. South Vietnam experienced an amazing economic growth in the 1980s while North Vietnam experienced a terrible economic depression. When the Soviet Union fell in 1991, the last desire in North Vietnam to remain a communist nation essentially ceased to exist, and Vietnam reunified under the Southern government. Following this, the Cambodian and Laotian Civil Wars finally ended through help from the Reunified Vietnam. As we all know, Vietnam's influence grew more and more into the dominant power it is today, and this wealth spread into both Laos and Cambodia. The three countries today have an extremely good quality of life. So, here's my question. What if the U.S. decided to withdraw aid from South Vietnam, allowing the North to fully conquer South Vietnam? How this happens, I'll leave up to you. Perhaps Richard Nixon tries to cover up the Watergate Scandal? The only reason his popularity didn't drop that much was because he immediately apologized for the scandal once it was discovered, and the US population didn't care much. Nixon remained president and kept giving critical money and aid to South Vietnam. So, what if Nixon tries to cover up the Watergate Scandal and gets impeached, leading to the U.S. withdrawing aid from South Vietnam? What would Indochina look like today? How many people would die under a fully communist Indochina? These questions are already getting a little scary. How much worse would Indochina get, and how would it look like today?
 
The Vietnamese government wasn't always as competent as it is now. It was only under US pressure that they got their shit together. If you want a communist victory, you could have the South Vietnamese government remain corrupt and autocratic.
 
OOC: Isn't the prospect of this victorious South Vietnam a bit far fetched? I mean, sounds to me this South vietnam would have won with just as much US assistance as OTL. But then they would have won on their own, and the US withdrawal for the good reasons, instead of the bad. But a both a strong north and strong south untill the 90's is unrealistic.
 
OOC: South Vietnam can win, with a lot of assistance. I'm talking about sustain B52 bombing over major cities of northern region of Vietnam (think Operation Linebacker II in 1972, but expand every where), constant presence and active fighting of 750k+ US troopers (500k max in OTL) and around 100k+ from other countries, Phoenix Operation is launched sooner.

Of course, you also have to launch a Great Purge (like Stalin) to get rid of every non-anti-communists, spies and infiltrator in the society (basically, if you are not anti-communist, you will be sent to a re-education camp). The rate to the whole population would be about a fifth, minimum.
 
OOC: Isn't the prospect of this victorious South Vietnam a bit far fetched? I mean, sounds to me this South vietnam would have won with just as much US assistance as OTL. But then they would have won on their own, and the US withdrawal for the good reasons, instead of the bad. But a both a strong north and strong south untill the 90's is unrealistic.
OOC: The North is not strong ITTL in the 90's. It is growing incredibly weak as South Vietnam grows stronger and stronger. The closest comparison I can think of is with Germany IOTL, with East Germany getting weaker and weaker while West Germany grows stronger and stronger.
 

Redcoat

Banned
IMO I think that a win for the communists is somewhat plausible. They fought back well against the Americans, and maybe we could even see a victory if they did well enough to warrant more support from the soviets than in our timeline. So the way I see it...

Maybe the attempted assassinations of high North Vietnamese leaders by CIA operatives don't happen. There could be more of an incentive to take bigger risks, which could have won the war for them. That and the Vietmamese aren't a lost cause to the Soviets and Chinese, getting more support than we did then.
 
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