Quote: (09-05-2018 10:10 AM)Dalaran1991 Wrote:
Bienvenuto: I can't think of anyone who would beat the US in conventional warfare at the time (unless nuke are involved which changes everything), just like nobody would beat the Mongol horde in a conventional warfare at the time.
As ever, just as it was said for Hannibal "he knew how to win a victory, but not a war", it has always been a matter of strategic objectives, propaganda and the will to execute a war.
Reminds me of this little fable:
Two men saw a wolf chasing a rabbit.
One man asks: which one is faster?
The rabbit.
Why?
The rabbit is running for his life, the wolf is running for his meal.
Thats a common story across cultures:
Farmer to rabbit, "Good luck little rabbit, I hope you make it!"
Rabbit to Farmer "I don't hope I make it, I've GOTTA make it!"
I don't want to be rude to you Dalaran.
Plenty of rabbits have been eaten by wolves over the ages. What was the strategy that this rabbit hit on?
From what I can see you are an important part of this forum as a poster and with your data sheets and as a verified member who can vouch for people and that people can vouch for so it is with a degree of humility that I say this to you.
I say this because I am wary of everyone being happy with a group of truisms and platitudes that are so bland as to be meaningless and that certainly don't grasp the subtlety of the Vietnamese/Soviet thinking in this war.
Thinking that can sit there in plain sight and yet is able to hide from our grasp.
I also say this in the knowledge that you probably have way more info and knowledge of the Viet side of the war than I ever will and Im sure that both I and others would gain alot from hearing of it.
The Afghans won the kind of war you describe against the Soviets without waging a campaign >based on the other country's media and that country's media's relationship with its viewing public<.
They didn't have to in order to win.
They had the logic of the guerrilla/freedom fighter irregular warfare strategy.
This war was more about super-logic.
The Vietnamese and the Soviets saw a far off Achilles heel and, a la the Tet offensive, I very much doubt the US realised what was being done to them before it was too late.
The depth and profundity of that thinking I find beyond me.
May have been repeated by others since.. (maybe)... as a strategy, but I cannot think of any belligerents who have ever came up with that before.