How did North Vietnam win the civil war (American Phase)?
marathag
Banned
The near unquestioning support of Western Media showing how terrible the South was, while filtering what the North did
The mass graves of thousands at Hue were hardly page 3 news after that occurred, while the 400 at My Lai was justifiably everywhere
Because 80% of all vietnamese people supported Ho Chi Minh and the communists (according to US president Eisenhower).
marathag
Banned
But Vietnamese people wasn't everyone living in Vietnam
and the Religious groups just were not fans of communism as practiced in North Vietnam. The Catholic expulsions in the '50s was proof of that, and the Buddhists discovered that at Hue in 1968, and then in 1975, when they tried the 1963 effort of self-immolation to gain recognition of repression
They, and the rest of the World, just didn't care.
But Vietnamese people wasn't everyone living in Vietnam
and the Religious groups just were not fans of communism as practiced in North Vietnam. The Catholic expulsions in the '50s was proof of that, and the Buddhists discovered that at Hue in 1968, and then in 1975, when they tried the 1963 effort of self-immolation to gain recognition of repression
They, and the rest of the World, just didn't care.
According to Eisenhower it was 80% of the total population, regardless of ethnic affiliation.
This, or rather that their morale was simply greater than that of the US.
I think that the allies of North Vietnam, China and the Soviet Union, get underrated and were also much better allies to the North than the U.S. ever was to South Vietnam. The Chinese and Soviets supplied huge amounts of weapons, armor, and fuel to the North and it was that shipping that helped to curtail naval activity against the North ( after all no one in the West wanted a major incident or even a war by sinking Chinese and Soviet ships headed for Vietnam). In addition, the Chinese also gave support troops to Vietnam, which allowed them to send even more soldiers down the Ho Chi Minh Trail.
On the other hand South Vietnam got a lot of supplies from the West, but absolutely no stability from being supported by the U.S. and the West. Look at the coup that overthrew Prime Minister Ngo Dinh Diem which was at least partially instigated by the U.S. and led to a what someone called a descending cycle of mediocre generals taking charge. By late in the war the U.S. was tired of dealing with the corruption and instability, which it helped cause, and decided to just end all supplies and support to a country it had helped create.
The fact that the North had more committed and effective allies helped to tip the balance in their favor.
On the other hand South Vietnam got a lot of supplies from the West, but absolutely no stability from being supported by the U.S. and the West. Look at the coup that overthrew Prime Minister Ngo Dinh Diem which was at least partially instigated by the U.S. and led to a what someone called a descending cycle of mediocre generals taking charge. By late in the war the U.S. was tired of dealing with the corruption and instability, which it helped cause, and decided to just end all supplies and support to a country it had helped create.
The fact that the North had more committed and effective allies helped to tip the balance in their favor.
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The North and its allies were fighting a war. The Americans, their allies and South Vietnam were fighting a police action.
marathag
Banned
Considering how the Southern Government all but ignored areas more than 10 miles from a town at that time, do wonder how they polled all the Hmong, Khmer, Degar and Cham in rural areas well away from the coast about that issue.
North Vietnam was able to attack the South but not vice-versa, the North Vietmanese government had a different level of totalitarian control over its society to keep it in the war indefinitely, and the South had its support from America end while the Soviets kept supplying the North.
Successful implementation of the total regimentation of the whole of North Vietnamese society.
Kind of hard to do that since the Hmong lives mostly in the North Vietnam.
I don’t know much about that. My parents don’t really talk much about the war. My dad only said that living conditions was unbearable back then. Probably because he was living in the countryside.
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marathag
Banned
So how did the become such a large percentage of refugees in the USA after 1975?
That the point I was making, areas from North to South had issues with the way the Communists were acting
There also wasn't the same degree of corruption in the Northern Vietnamese leadership. The South had poor political and military leadership. The VC cadres were able to portray the South as simply another manifestation Colonial rule supported by the US instead of the French.
I'm not kidding the US (and the French) made extensive use of indigenous auxillary forces.
Extract from wikipedia:
As the Vietnam War began to loom on the horizon, both South Vietnamese and American policy makers sought to begin training troops from minority groups in the Vietnamese populace. The U.S. Mission to Saigon sponsored the training of the Montagnard in unconventional warfare by American Special Forces.[4] These newly trained Montagnard were seen as a potential ally in the Central Highlands area to stop Viet Cong activity in the region and a means of preventing further spread of Viet Cong sympathy.[5] Later, their participation would become much more important as the Ho Chi Minh trail, the North Vietnamese supply line for Viet Cong forces in the south, grew. The U.S. military, particularly the Special Forces, developed base camps in the area and recruited the Montagnard. Because of their quiet resolve and skills in tracking, roughly 40,000 fought alongside American soldiers and became a major part of the U.S. military effort in the Highlands and I Corps, the northernmost region of South Vietnam.[6]
You're sure that a considerable percentage of them are Hmong? Or they're Hmong from Laos?
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