[b]
Quoted:
The TET offensive was an enormous loss for VC and the North. The effectiveness of the VC fighting force was decimated which cause the North to commit the NVA to the south. [red]They did not want to do this[/red].
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First, North VN political Party considered VC army as second class and not considered as discipline, organized, and well-trained as NVA. North VN used VC as a pawn and reason to bring its NVA to the South. The prongs are mainly from Laos and Cambodia along Ho Chi Minh trail. They also penetrated into the South as VC, not as NVA.
North VN calculated that there would be an upraising during Tet Offensive by the people, but they were wrong. VC forces were almost totally wiped out. I'm sure NVA were damaged to an extend too.
After Tet Offensive, VC units were integrated into NVA and no longer an independent entity. After 1975, VC leaders, not too many left (most were killed in Tet Offensive, remember?) were either just "puppets" for a period of time before they were 'retired' or holding some unimportant jobs for the Party.
[red]This happened before: Viet Minh was a resistance group, consisted of Nationalists, vs. the French. Ho Chi Minh and his cohorts came in, also with a platform vs. the French. Moved up the hierarchy, eventually planned and killed Viet Minh leaders and started his own communist Party as he originally wanted. By this time there were not strong leadership in Viet Minh group to against him.[/red] There were people who followed him to the North, and there were people migrating to the South in 1954 as Geneve Accord signed.
[b]The North was hanging by a thin thread and was tetering on losing the war if not for the hippies back home. The winning battle of the Vietnam war occured in the US, without a doubt.
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Yeap. Anti-war was one of the big factors.
IMO, any involvement between US and another country should have a shelf life of 4 yrs or less. After 4, nothing else is safe. As a different President of US emerges/changes, so are policies, directions, and priorities.
Edited to clarify the error in [red]red[/red]: Re-reading books again, and found out the following:
HCM started Viet Minh resistance movement with a platform vs. the French. Many people and nationalist groups joined him. He did eventually murdered many leaders in Viet Minh resistance movement, or/and set up traps for the French authority.