How the hell did we lose Viet Nam?

I always get a kick out of the argument that "we [America] were fighting in alien territory by people who saw us as occupiers" as if to say that such people can never be defeated. Similar to the whole "we would've had to kill every single person in the country." By that same logic, there shouldn't have been a single empire in human history. If those arguments were true, then how did the Romans conquer north Africa and parts of the Middle East? How did the Muslim Caliphate encompass lands from Spain to India? How did the French colonize Indochina? How did the Spanish control the Phillipines? Hell, how did WE control the Phillipines?! Were all of these lands not "alien to their occupiers"?

Simple. Because, contrary to popular belief, insurgencies are usually defeated. Many insurgents might be strong-willed, but it's important to recognize that they aren't supermen; they are human, they are susceptible to the same psychological influences that we in the west are. Their wills can be broken. If they fight for years and suffer lots of casualties for a long period without much - if any - tangible results, that can wear them down. Not to mention the effect that ONE decicive defeat can have. We saw that in the aftermath of Tet; the VK were down for the count, and the NVA was demoralized. The ONLY reason why the war wasn't over then was because they saw how the battle was (mis)represented in the west.

Nixon eventually did order an aggressive bombing capaign of the North, and it caused the north to sign the peace accord. If we'd simply enforced the terms of the accord (which the north violated when they treaded lightly in the south), it would've gone down as a win for us. They only became more aggressive when it became clear that we weren't going to obey our own law. It is unconscionable to me that we allowed that to happen.

At "we were afraid of China." Um, newsflash........China was Maoist. Vietnam was Stalinist. Vietnam fought a war against Cambodia, who then were ruled by the Maoist Khmer Rouge. This was partially a war by proxy between China & USSR. USSR was red Vietnam's main ally, not China. Hell, China directly invaded Vietnam in 1979.

In response to the poster who said "America backed the Khmer Rouge"........god, I don't even know where to begin. First of all, from 1970-75, Cambodia was ruled by the conservative, anti-communist Lon Nol, whom we supported against the Khmer Rouge, who at the time were supported by both China and USSR, and North Vietnam, for that matter (North Vietnam was also supported by both USSR and China at the time). Our involvement in Vietnam ended in 1973; the KR didn't overthrow Lon Nol until 1975. Shortly thereafter, the KR invaded red Vietnam; this was the war by proxy mentioned above. This war ended with the Stalinist vietnamese conquering Cambodia and setting up a Stalinist regime there. During the 80s, an anti-Stalinist coalition took shape in Cambodia, which Reagan supported. This coalition included a number of groups; the KR happened to be among them. Also among them was the moderate prince Sihanouk and his supporters (he ruled Cambodia prior to Lon Nol).

"I am certain that there is far too much certainty in the world." -Michael Crichton