Thread: Shit hits the fan in Korea

Originally Posted by Universal Mind

We were not outpowered in Vietnam. We just pulled out without their surrender. Internal political pressure can cause that. The number of American casualties in the war was about 58 thousand. The number of Vietnamese casualties was around 2 million. That's losing? Don't forget that we could have made North Vietnam a black spot on the map if we had gone all out.

Doesn't matter how it was won (or at what cost), the end result was that the North controlled all of Vietnam (and still does) and the US withdrew.

Coulda, shoulda, woulda .

What stalemates are you talking about?

I was thinking of the War of 1812 and the Korean War.

Originally Posted by Spartiate

Doesn't matter how it was won (or at what cost), the end result was that the North controlled all of Vietnam (and still does) and the US withdrew.

Coulda, shoulda, woulda .

The point you responded to earlier was about military power and how we have never been outpowered. Your point about what amounts to withdrawal after killing a ridiculous number of people does not counter that key element.

Originally Posted by Spartiate

I was thinking of the War of 1812 and the Korean War.

Woes, this is pretty ironic. Both of those are examples of us doing what North Vietnam did. We preserved. We prevented Britain from taking us back over in the War of 1812 and prevented North Korea from taking over South Korea. According to what you said above, those are victories. The difference in those wars is that our military power allowed the desired preservations, not political pressure concerning the biggest ass whipping of all time.

Originally Posted by Universal Mind

The point you responded to earlier was about military power and how we have never been outpowered. Your point about what amounts to withdrawal after killing a ridiculous number of people does not counter that key element.

I responded to "we have never lost a war for a reason".

Woes, this is pretty ironic. Both of those are examples of us doing what North Vietnam did. We preserved. We prevented Britain from taking us back over in the War of 1812 and prevented North Korea from taking over South Korea. According to what you said above, those are victories. The difference in those wars is that our military power allowed the desired preservations, not political pressure concerning the biggest ass whipping of all time.

Gah, it was the US who declared war on Britain in 1812 and who invaded Canada first. The American invasion failed and the British subsequently launched an attack on the US, which also failed. The lines at the end of the war were basically identical to what they were before, stalemate. In Korea, the American-led UN forces successfully defended the South from the initial North invasion, but they then failed in their own invasion of the North, stalemate.

Also North Vietnam didn't defend itself, it successfully invaded and annexed South Vietnam.