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Should the United States be blamed for the Vietnam War? Even the United States itself was not sure how the war actually happened. That was the reason why Rand wrote the Pentagon Papers, which were later leaked. The Pentagon Papers were supposed to be a secret investigation of how in the heck did we get ourselves into such a bad situation? The Rand study was commissioned by none other than Secretary of Defense McNamara because even he did not know how it all came about.McNamara figured that a series of mistakes had led the U.S. into the war. Mistakes? That might not be exactly the term I would use.Anyway, McNamara hoped that Robert Kennedy would be elected after Johnson and that Kennedy would use the study to affect change such that these kinds of mistakes would not happen again. Of course Robert Kennedy was murdered and fat chance those lessons would be learned otherwise especially by people like Nixon and Kissinger.Incredibly, the Pentagon Papers say that fighting communism contributed only about 5% to the actual cause of the Vietnam War. Yet, the official story, that to this day has not changed, was the U.S. fighting communism. Actually, the root cause of the war was a history of Western colonialism in Indochina. WWII had disrupted colonial holdings in Southeast Asia and it was up to the French to restore them. What does this mean? Certain individuals and corporations had large investments in Vietnam prior to WWII and the Japanese occupation of Southeast Asia. These wealthy and powerful Western entities wanted their investments returned to them. The investments consisted of mining, large plantations, logging, and oil field development. Of course these were properties originally stolen from the local inhabitants but, who cares about that? BTW, it was thought even up to the 1970’s that the Gulf of Tonkin could contain as much oil as Saudi Arabia. The French army was tasked with restoring colonial rule to the area.So, when the French army was humiliated at the Battle of Dien Bien Phu, the wealthy Western business stakeholders started looking for another champion. Let’s see, what other country would be willing to send its citizens into a meat grinder so a few rich people could make a buck? Gee, I don’t know, who? ;)Well, fortunately for the rich bastards at that time and unfortunately for just about everyone else a pair of assholes, I mean brothers, John Foster Dulles and Allen Dulles ran the Dept. of State and the CIA respectively. Allen Dulles was fresh off of overthrowing the democratically elected president of Iran, Mossadegh in favor of a brutal dictator, the Shaw. A hideous act that would create endless blowback that we are still dealing with today. Allen Dulles’s brother, John Foster Dulles was simultaneously Secretary of State and on the board of the United Fruit Company; he had no problem with that by the way. The United Fruit Company had lost some plantations in Vietnam and wanted them back. Talk about synergy! During the Eisenhower administration Allen Dulles began CIA operations in Vietnam and eventually installed a puppet government there.There are a few things to understand about Vietnam, the people, and their culture that neither the Dulles bro’s, the CIA, or the Pentagon appreciated. Vietnam has been invaded over and over again over centuries by surrounding empires and each time, just like the French, these invaders were eventually defeated. The Vietnamese had military traditions that were very similar to Swiss traditions. Every male served as part of militias from 16 to 55 years old. Every male was trained in military tactics. Any and every foreign power coming into Vietnam would be seen as an invader and the people would rise up and expel them. The French army had been defeated by a Paris trained pastry chef named Ho Chi Minh. The Pentagon in its arrogance fueled by outright racism was oblivious.After defeat of the French, the leaders in North Vietnam created a series of land reforms in the South. These reforms consisted of divvying up the massive colonial plantations among local farmers. These reforms were often quite generous. Many of these farmers who had been de facto slaves on the plantations were given 100 acres of good land to farm. They became fairly prosperous. What do you think the odds were that the Vietnamese farmers were going give this land back to their colonial masters? Exactly, the West would never get this land back but they didn’t seem to understand that. The point to understand here is that the U.S. was about to fight a war, not against communists, not against a foreign army fueled by some political idea. The United States fought a war against the people of Vietnam who were simply defending their land.The CIA found itself bringing in more and more soldiers to protect it’s assets and its puppet government. The U.S. was slowly being sucked into something that it totally did not understand. The sucking sound of the U.S. military being pulled into the war would quickly increase.At this point, let’s take a step back and ask ourselves how could the U.S. win a war in Vietnam given that our Cold War enemies would arm the North? Pre WWII conditions no longer existed. What could the U.S. do? The only possible good outcome would be if the U.S. could establish a South Vietnamese government that was agreeable to the population and that a South Vietnamese Army would defend on its own. To understand why the U.S. lost is simple, no amount of dead bodies is going to win the war, the outcome of the war hinges on the ability of the U.S. to establish a government and a military that will protect it. General Westmoreland never seemed to grasp this simple fact.The puppet leaders of Vietnam at that time was a pair of assholes, I mean brothers named Diem and Nhu. One was president and the other was ahead of the security service. The Diem Bro’s were Catholics and promoted people in the government by their religion. By the way just because you are Catholic doesn’t mean you are a good general. Just sayin’. The government was very authoritarian. Resistance of any kind was punishable by death. The Diem Bro’s spent a lot of their time persecuting Buddhists. President Diem made up a name for all these militias that were resisting his rule, “Viet Cong” a pejorative which translates literally into Vietnamese Traitor. Of course the traitors had a different name for the various militias collectively: The National Liberation Front or NLF. The U.S. soldiers used V.C. as the name of the enemy while the U.S. media blindly accepted Viet Cong as the name of the enemy. What is it Sun Tzu said about knowing your enemy? Oh, never mind…At a certain point President Diem made a play to satisfy the farmers and the Americans. He offered the farmers who were recipients of the land reforms that they could keep one acre out of 10 acres that they returned to control of the government. This offer pissed off the Americans and the Vietnamese farmers. The CIA subsequently assassinated both the Diem Bro’s. Nothing more than Chaos ensued in the South. The Diem Bros were replaced by a military Junta appointed by a 12 member military council; The junta almost lasted a year when series of coups replace one dictator after another. So much for winning the war.President Kennedy, was not paying any attention to what was brewing in Vietnam. In fact people who worked in the Kennedy administration say that the Vietnam was “not on their radar”. After Kennedy was assassinated, the Johnson administration was immediately saddled with a decision to escalate or not i.e., the Johnson administration had to either double down or get out. Johnson doubled down because of the Gulf of Tonkin incident. A fake incident that was used as a pretext to bring in the Marines. An NSA document declassified in 2005 showed the whole Gulf of Tonkin incident was a fake but even Defense Secretary McNamara and the President were kept in the dark though everyone seemed to wink at each other and knew in the back of their minds that the incident must be a fake but, that didn’t stop anybody. President Johnson actually commented, “What are those boys shootin’ at? Flyin’ fish?” U.S. military generals and admirals had decided on their own that the United States was going to show these Asians what was what so they faked the Gulf of Tonkin incident.At this point the South Vietnamese puppet government forces, the ARVN, you know the ones that will stand up and protect the government? Well the mighty ARVN had suffered a number of humiliating defeats at the hands of South Vietnamese people’s militias while U.S. forces kept a defensive profile during the buildup. The U.S. buildup continued until it was time to take the fight to the enemy. This was the Battle of la Drang Valley in which an entire U.S. cavalry regiment was overrun. Big surprise, the U.S. 7th Cavalry was drawn into a classic military trap; Custer all over again. It is well known that the U.S. suffered tremendous casualties and the U.S. claimed that the Vietnamese also suffered terrible casualties. It is hard to know how many casualties the Vietnamese side suffered. The U.S. developed a very poor record of reporting actual casualty counts that were often way over inflated. Even if we assume that the Vietnamese did suffer enormous casualties it became clear that this war wasn’t going to be easy and would require an enormous investment in manpower and equipment to win.The U.S. doubled down but now the U.S. was no longer fighting to win. The U.S. was looking for a way out. Some kind of military victory that would allow the U.S. to declare victory and get the hell out of Dodge. The Pentagon Papers say that 80% of the war was the U.S. trying to get out without looking like it lost and especially not be humiliated like the French and that almost happened at Khe Sanh.Of course the rest is history. Nixon declared unilateral peace, Kissinger gets his Nobel Peace Prize, John Foster Dulles gets an airport named after him and the U.S. does indeed get out of Dodge. The ARVN almost immediately collapses and North Vietnam unifies with the South. Hundreds of thousands, some say millions are dead from a war for nothing. The United States is left on the verge of bankruptcy. Way to go team.BTW an interesting side note: Allen Dulles goes on to distinguish himself overthrowing more democratic leaders and replacing them with dictators, creating the Bay of Pigs disaster and a failed coup against none other than French president Charles de Gaulle. Kennedy, being the ungrateful lout that he was, summarily fires Allen Dulles and all his goons from the CIA for such fine work. No worries though, Congress puts Allen Dulles on the Warren Commission that investigates Kennedy’s assassination.Of course the U.S. should be blamed for the war. The incredibly corrupt government run by idiots paid off by a fruit company and a Secretary of Defense who is fooled by his own generals; delusional high ranking generals; the CIA that is totally out of control; Presidents who are naive enough to think it is all about communism. In the end nobody is even sure how it all happened. Unbelievably fucked up. Of course the American people think that if only their military could have been unleashed and unfettered we would have won; at least the Pentagon is good at propaganda.

LOL. No. They will fight a short sharp battle, but once the supplies run out, the logistical tail will be too small to effectively supply the front within the day. It might take a week or more to supply them, rending them vulnerable to counter-attacks.Let's imagine a scenario where you have 100 front line troops, and 100 tail end support troops.We will ignore the mixture of the 100 front line troops. The tail end will likely have maybe 30 in Intel, 10 in ops planning, 5 in manpower, 20 in administration (yes that big), 15 in engineer, 5 in medical, 5 in general staff, 30 in logistics.Of that 30 we have, 2 in Log planning of all levels, 8 in stores (the army has a shit load of stuff), 1 in acquisition (from army to division level supplies), 8 in maintenance, 5 in supply (ammo, fuel, water), 2 in water processing, 1 in low bed hauler (for AFVs), 3 in supply transport.You have 3 guys driving the transport. To supply 100 guys over a broad front. These 3 guys don't just deliver from supply to front (brigade to battalion). They have to carry supplies from Army Corps HQ > Division > Brigade > Battalion.Imagine the length of time needed to travel the distance, pick up supplies, travel back, drop off supplies at ones destination, and then go for the next. Hopefully they don't lose their way (as it happens every now and then), or come under attack by insurgents.Do you see the problem now?There are a lot more functions that I haven't listed because the breath of military jobs can be mind boggling.A necessary evil of a conventional military is the paperwork. If you misplace them, no resupply is going to reach your troops.At the push of the red button, the first battle that an army will need to fight, is their own paperwork.Hurray! Fresh toilet paper have arrived!

The Army and Air Force have no swimming proficiency tests for recruits.But believe me, Advisors, Boat Guys. Commandos, Pilots, and PJs need to know how to swim.The Navy is at 90% proficiency on swim tests. They spend a lot of time in the pool. So do Marines and Coasties.I started in the Navy as a Midshipman for two years. To get through my first summer, the swim test was brutal. Towers and blind folds … abandoning ship in the dark. Life saving … a drowning person will flail, punch and choke. Drown proofing … you need to swim under burning fuel … you have no life vest … you need to survive for hours waiting for rescue.That said, at Fort Bragg, towers … slide for life. Blind folds … there is nothing like moving through the woods at night and stepping off a cliff into a river or lake with high banks loaded with weapons, gear, and boots. Swimming time!When I passed my unit to another lieutenant we took the guys to a lake for a cookout. I was talking to a leader on a far side and a sergeant yelled, “LT, save him! He's drowning!”Now the guy in the lake was in trouble, but he also was a bit of a dirt bag. I jumped off the bank into the lake in boots and fatigues with my broken arm and swam towards him. He went under once … twice … then the third time, he didn't come up.I dove under, reached for him, he grabbed my broken arm in the water logged cast and broke it again. When in trouble, they fight.SON OF A BITCH THAT HURT!!!I didn't put a rescue hold over his chest but put my arm around his throat and pulled him to the surface. “Private Jones, relax or die. You just broke my fxxxing arm again. You fight, and you are on your own. Relax, and I'll pull you out. Your choice.” He went limp.I was struggling. The new lieutenant had raced around the lake, dove in and took Jones from me.I struggled and crawled up the muddy bank and everyone was around Jones. What a performance!!! “LT! He's drowning. Help him!”He was coughing and having trouble breathing.BULLSHIT!!! Been there … seen that.I walked over and punched Jones in the stomach. He vommitted water … and some pills.Oh … doper!!!No water in his lungs … he wasn't drowning. He was faking it.Pills!Of course someone bumped me and another person ground the pills into the mud.Ahhh … piss test coming up, and Jones was going to piss hot. Nice cover!I looked at the senior sergeant. “You know what to do.”“Yes, Sir. On the way with Jones to the clinic for a piss test. By the way, Sir, you really ought to get your arm fixed.”Son of a bitch!So learn to swim before you join any branch. They just test recruits in the Navy, Marines, and Coast Guard.