WI: Viet Cong Attack America

Inspired by "we'll have to fight them over here if we don't fight them over there", as well as a WKUK sketch. All while trying to avoid being ASB in that (admittedly out-there) scenario.

What if the Vietcong attempted to pull off some terror attacks on the US mainland?
 
Inspired by "we'll have to fight them over here if we don't fight them over there", as well as a WKUK sketch. All while trying to avoid being ASB in that (admittedly out-there) scenario.

What if the Vietcong attempted to pull off some terror attacks on the US mainland?

NFL/PRG terror was political, in the context of the tradition of revolutionary terror going back through Russian Narodniks and eventually to the Committee of Public Safety. This is terror aimed at a class within a civil war. The concept of "terror attacks" that you're putting developed out of 1970s Arab-Israeli conflicts, and doesn't have a ground in Vietnamese revolutionary politics.

The NFL/PRG, the DRVN government, and the VWP in the north and the south viewed the war as an issue for and of Vietnam, and viewed US intervention as something largely irrelevant to their planning. The debate between the War and Development lines was conducted without reference to the US. The debate between the General Offensive General Uprising and General Offensive lines was conducted without reference to the US, except as a military impediment in Vietnam.

The propaganda developed by the NFL/PRG for distribution in the West was frankly pathetic. Their attempt to use Wilfred Burchett, apart from providing a useful primary source, was more suited to the 1930s mentality than the 1960s—and aimed at western intellectuals who were already left wing.

There is simply no concept of the US homefront as determinant for the VWP.

Changing this means fundamentally changing the VWP, probably as early as before 1945.

yours,
Sam R.
 

CalBear

Moderator
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How?

The number of Vietnamese in the U.S. prior to the war was minuscule. The funding of the VC was even lower than that.

The VC were a pack of politically motivated thugs. They were about as grass roots as things got.

That being said.. This was the very height of the Cold War. An attack would be immediately, and blindingly obviously, linked to the North, and about two minutes later to the Soviets.

The Soviets withdraw all support from the North and lets the U.S. beat them senseless, invade the North and hang Giap, Ho and company, counting on a chance to reverse things. Other option is that the KGB goes in, wacks everyone involved and delivers the bodies to the U.S. embassy in Saigon. The alternative would be a nuclear exchange.

Things were pretty simple back in the day. One of the two major players would always step in before shit got real.
 
Cain Kills Abel, damned US Imperialism!

Assuming it goes to the top in Hanoi (??WTF??), it depends on the year. Any other year than 1967-68 and its Henry V time. If 1967-1968, we'll blame it all on ourselves.:rolleyes: America's self-flagellatory nature in those years was so bad it defies description. Try this: The Six Day War all our fault, the attack on the USS Liberty all our fault, the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia all our fault, the North Korean attack on the USS Pueblo all our fault, the Korean War all our fault, WWII all our fault (we've got a couple of guys around here who subscribe to that idea), the fall of the British Empire all our fault (ditto and double ditto:rolleyes:), WWI all our fault, the Napoleonic Wars all our fault (believe it not...we've got them too:rolleyes:), the Seven Years War all our fault, every European war since Columbus landed all our fault:p, the Fall of Imperial Rome...well, maybe we deserve the benefit of the doubt on that one? Maybe?:eek::D
 
proven Viet Cong attacks in the US would completely discredit the Anti War Movement. Which would have a lot of political butterflies down the line

We might actually see Jane Fonda and Abby Hoffman et al arrested for treason.

It would give Nixon the political cover he needs to invade North Vietnam, which was something well with the capability of the US military. Americans get really pissed off when someone attacks us and disabuses us of our illusion of safety created by the oceans. Also would certainly see the political cover for a full scale mobilization as well (similar to the one post 9/11)

As 9/11 and Pearl Harbor demonstrated suffering casualties on our home territory really pisses us off

of course it might also cause LBJ so much stress he dies early.. he didn't live long after he left office because he had very serious medical issues. Humphrey might actually beat Nixon in that scenario
 
proven Viet Cong attacks in the US would completely discredit the Anti War Movement. Which would have a lot of political butterflies down the line

We might actually see Jane Fonda and Abby Hoffman et al arrested for treason.

It would give Nixon the political cover he needs to invade North Vietnam, which was something well with the capability of the US military. Americans get really pissed off when someone attacks us and disabuses us of our illusion of safety created by the oceans. Also would certainly see the political cover for a full scale mobilization as well (similar to the one post 9/11)

As 9/11 and Pearl Harbor demonstrated suffering casualties on our home territory really pisses us off

of course it might also cause LBJ so much stress he dies early.. he didn't live long after he left office because he had very serious medical issues. Humphrey might actually beat Nixon in that scenario

IIRC, LBJ died one day after the end of Nixon's first term.
 
Anti-war movement is discredited, and/or suppressed by the government with little public objection. America now has enough political support to invade Laos, North Vietnam and bomb at Linebacker levels, if not more so.

Soviet and/or Chinese support for Hanoi ends, they don't want to be associated with a renegade state that just crossed the line in a grave manner.
 
IIRC, LBJ died one day after the end of Nixon's first term.

I remember it well (cause I am in my 50s and was living in Texas).. but I also remember him having very serious medical issues and the stress of terror attacks on US soil might be the final straw for him medically

Naturally by no means a certainty but it does have reasonable probability
 

TFSmith121

Banned
The Vietnamese were not that stupid

The Vietnamese were not that stupid; if they were, they would not have won.

Flip the question - Al Quada et al are smart enough to NOT attack the U.S.

The same 20 suicidal but dedicated involved in 9/11 could have an impact beyond their numbers anywhere in SWAsia they chose to target; cripes, if they'd gone after Hussein they would be the 21st Century equivalents of Castro and Guevera in the West.

Best,
 

Yuelang

Banned
If Vietcong pull a 9/11 Soviet and China will drop them like burning potato.

Anti-War movement will be cracked down, HARD. Especially if they are used as cover for Viet Cong Suicide Terrorists.

Jane Fonda and co could end up executed for high treason and facilitating attack on American Soil.

US invade North Vietnam in full force. And there's case of possible curious Soviet and China want to see effects of Nuclear attack, and thus giving their consent for one giant gesture in US hand... Hell, maybe they end up asking US to attack Hanoi with Megaton level Nuclear missile to study the effects of such attack in civilian infrastructures... and US will only too eager to comply...

TL DR; Vietnam is soo fucked, it turned the Japanese atomic story into the lesser version of Atomic horrors...
 
How?

The number of Vietnamese in the U.S. prior to the war was minuscule. The funding of the VC was even lower than that.

The VC were a pack of politically motivated thugs. They were about as grass roots as things got.

That being said..

That's true
but there is another option: Vietnamese in Europe special in France, Belgium were the most Vietnamese life outside there homeland during the 1960/70s.
Viet Cong could commit Terror attacks against American base in Europe
but in return the Soviet Union and Chine drop there Support fast !

It would be interesting to see how the Vietnam War evolve, were the Viet Cong is so stupid...
 
This was the topic of a story by the British writer John Brunner, "The Inception of the Epoch of Mrs. Bedonebyasyoudid". It shows, I think, how not looking beyond one's own intellectual circle tends to produce a certain unreality. Brunner seemed not to be thinking beyond "See there you Bloody Yanks how do you like it when you're treated the way you treat the poor Vietnamese people." The previous posters have pretty much indicated what the result would be.
 

shiftygiant

Gone Fishin'
Cool, someone who knows of WKUK :)

The Vietcong attacking America is unlikely, Hanoi would pull the plug the moment they got wind of that plan. Now, a group of self-proclaimed Vietcong acting independently to the actual is able to set up a cell in America and commit terrorist acts akin to the Algerian's during the Alger conflict (Car bombs, cafe bombs, political assassinations) is possible, although unlikely. I feel radicalized South Vietnamese attacking America after the fall of Saigon for 'abandoning them to the North' would seem more likely.
 
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