A coworker once told me that the South was doomed because the North had a larger industrial base. I said that sounded like wisdom in English, but it was a joke in Vietnamese.
I’ve seen this idea from several sources. The British figured that American ‘Manifest Destiny’ would mean annexing Canada eventually. It didn’t cost the Brits a lot to stir up Southern resentments against the North. So they South got played.
Not to mentioned the U.S. deployed something like 2.7 million people to Vietnam over the years. ~58,000 U.S. soilders died. Somewhere between 1-3 million people died in the war. Everyone lost that war. With deaths between 95%-98% not being U.S. troops though… It’s hard to argue when someone says the U.S. didn’t lose. We should have never been there, it was horrible… but any proud boy I meet in a bar who knows the numbers is going to call that a win… Because they don’t care about anything other than how many “bad people” died, and they consider anyone who looks/talks/acts different, bad people.
The south was doomed because a significant portion of their labor hated them. They also had terrible industrial capacity, no international legitimacy, and no asymmetric advantage.
It’s a lot more like when Cambodia invaded Vietnam than when America did.
A coworker once told me that the South was doomed because the North had a larger industrial base. I said that sounded like wisdom in English, but it was a joke in Vietnamese.
I suppose when that industrial output needs to cross an ocean. Not so much when it just needs to cross a river.
Apples and oranges.
Vietnamese had been fighting for twenty years against the French and Japanese. The South thought they would achieve victory with a few battles.
North Vietnam also had industrial bases in the Soviet Union AND China supplying and funding them. It’s not like they were all paddy farmers.
So weak, stupid, and with a rigid mindset?
https://richardpoe.substack.com/p/how-the-british-caused-the-american
I’ve seen this idea from several sources. The British figured that American ‘Manifest Destiny’ would mean annexing Canada eventually. It didn’t cost the Brits a lot to stir up Southern resentments against the North. So they South got played.
It took a while but that’s looks like exactly what they are trying to do.
The north Vietnamese had China and the Soviet Union backing them. The US south had basically nobody.
https://richardpoe.substack.com/p/how-the-british-caused-the-american
Many people believe that the British government actively pushed the south to secede in order to weaken the US.
So… Not unlike Putin now? Hunh. No wonder they don’t want history taught in school.
Not to mentioned the U.S. deployed something like 2.7 million people to Vietnam over the years. ~58,000 U.S. soilders died. Somewhere between 1-3 million people died in the war. Everyone lost that war. With deaths between 95%-98% not being U.S. troops though… It’s hard to argue when someone says the U.S. didn’t lose. We should have never been there, it was horrible… but any proud boy I meet in a bar who knows the numbers is going to call that a win… Because they don’t care about anything other than how many “bad people” died, and they consider anyone who looks/talks/acts different, bad people.
The south was doomed because a significant portion of their labor hated them. They also had terrible industrial capacity, no international legitimacy, and no asymmetric advantage.
It’s a lot more like when Cambodia invaded Vietnam than when America did.