From: Emmanuel Charpentier (manu@cybercable.fr)
Date: Thu Dec 24 1998 - 10:14:20 MST
"Michael S. Lorrey" wrote:
>
> Spike Jones wrote:
>
> > Michael S. Lorrey wrote:
> >
> > > ...Now, considering that a small nation like Vietnam was able to defeat the
> > > army of a much larger and more technologically advanced nation like ours
> > > indicates that guerrilla movements can be highly successful...
> >
> > the phrase "defeat the army" doesnt work. the u.s. army defeated the viet
> > cong army in their every encounter. the guerrillas certainly
> > caused headaches for the u.s. armies, but defeated the army? no,
> > the u.s. armies were called home, even tho they "won" every battle. spike
>
> It depends on what you call winning. In our own Revolutionary War, we lost every
> major battle save two: Bennington and the last one, if you only go by such bean
> counting concepts like 'body counts', and even by older standards which counted
> who occupied the land afterward. Battles which we technically call victories in
> Vietnam, like LZ X-Ray, where we imposed five times more casualties on the enemy
> than we had, taught the Vietnamese how to fight modern airmobile forces with
> nothing but grenades, rifles, and mortars. I personally do not count any battle
> where we did not stay and occupy the land as a victory. That we were aliens who
> had no reason to occupy the land, in the eyes of the people there, basically
> doomed us, and the PR campaign mounted by the NVA in our own media was also a
> battle we lost, which was the most important one of all.
>
> I don't think I even need to mention the Vietnamese's earlier experience at Dien
> Bien Phu, do I?
It's a case of who is the most commited (obviously, there is a balance
with other factors), and how much you want to put into victory.
But I would thing guerilla is the very last barrier of defence, if you
may call it so. It's really when everything goes havoc. And I'm sure
there are ways to attack a guerilla army, anybody know about that???
Dien Bien Phu was not a guerilla battle. It was a straight battle
between two armies. Only the vietnamese (with the help of china) managed
to use artillery contrary to the plans of french generals (they made a
road right through the jungle to bring their canons to the heavily
fortified camp).
Manu.
joyeux noel!
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