From: "Gary Wiltshire" 

On Thu, 27 Oct 2005 08:04:01 -0400, Monte Davis
 wrote:

> "Gary Wiltshire"  wrote:
>
>> We had yet another stupid war like Korea or Vietnam where the aim was
>> merely to push the bad guys back within their own borders rather than
>> conquer them outright and install new regimes as we did in Japan and
>> Germany.
>
> In the cases of Japan and Germany, there was not a much larger
> potential opponent -- one we did not wish to go to war with -- just
> beyond the far border of the primary opponent.
>
> In Korea and Vietnam, there was.
>
> The "stab in the back" reading of Vietnam says that we fought with one
> hand tied behind our backs... that it was unfair to our soldiers not
> to "go all the way" for victory. It would be interesting to take a
> time machine back to, say, 1968 and poll American troops in RVN: (1)
> Would you approve a policy to conquer North Vietnam outright and
> install a new regime? (2) Would you approve if it meant you'd be
> fighting China? My brother, who was there then, votes "no." (Actually,
> he votes "no fucking way -- are you crazy?")
>
> US troops in Korea in the winter of 1951 weren't real big on
> MacArthur's choice to "go all the way" to the Yalu...
>

MacArthur actually wanted to enter China and was generally insubordinate.
He should have been fired.  When North Vietnam violated the peace accords
we should have returned and converted their country into a parking lot.
They knew full well we had not political will for it.

--
Gary Wiltshire

--- BBBS/NT v4.01 Flag-5