I skuggan av den 102-årige vietnamesiske generalen Vo Nguyen Giaps död, så har senator John McCain, som tillbringade åren mellan 1967 och 1973 som krigsfånge i Nordvietnam, skrivit en artikel i Wall Street Journal med titeln: He Beat Us in War but Never in Battle. To defeat any adversary, the late North Vietnamese Gen. Vo Nguyen Giap permitted immense casualties and the near total destruction of his country.
Giap was a master of logistics, but his reputation rests on more than that. His victories were achieved by a patient strategy that he and Ho Chi Minh were convinced would succeed—an unwavering resolve to suffer immense casualties and the near total destruction of their country to defeat any adversary, no matter how powerful. “You will kill 10 of us, we will kill one of you,” Ho told the French, “but in the end, you will tire of it first.”
Giap executed that strategy with an unbending will. The French repulsed wave after wave of frontal attacks at Dien Bien Phu. The 1968 Tet offensive against the U.S. was a military disaster that effectively destroyed the Viet Cong. But Giap persisted and prevailed.
The U.S. never lost a battle against North Vietnam, but it lost the war.
I artikeln fortsätter McCain att sprida myten om att general Giap lyckades driva ut USA ur Vietnam genom att offra hundratusentals av sina egna soldater, en strategi som slutligen fick USA att tröttna på allt dödandet och retirera.
Myten om USA:s humana krigföring fortsätter till tags datum, men är inte riktigt sanningsenligt. Även om den amerikanska krigsledningen i Vietnam endast offrade aningen över 47,424 amerikanska soldaters liv så gick man så våldsamt fram mot den vietnamesiska civilbefolkningen att även de vietnameser som inte stödde den brutala kommunistregimen till slut tog parti för Nordvietnam och kommunistregimen.
Nick Turse skriver i New York Times: For America, Life Was Cheap in Vietnam
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