Vietnam War what if?

[Tony Williams]

I vaguely recall once seeing a film with a plot something like the original proposition (although I have no idea of the title). IIRC when LBJ became convinced of the futility of a conventional conflict in Vietnam his reaction was not to withdraw, as the time-travelling hero hoped, but to go nuclear...

 

Tony Williams: Military gun and ammunition website and discussion forum

[EchoFiveMike]

Why? Because they have different political system? Because they are Slaves? Would you really advocate a nuclear man slaughter that would make Hitler look like a democrate?

 

227226[/snapback]

 

Because they openly and covertly worked to end the American way of life, or are you unaware of the entire Cold War and all that transpired??

 

Were you asking because they were/are Slavs, insinuating that I'm a racist??? Why not just come out and ask?? And no, that has nothing to do with it, I'm perfectly happy to kill anyone threatening the US. S/F....Ken M

[Tony Williams]

I posted a query about the 'alternative Vietnam' film I recalled on an alt history board, and obtained the following response:

 

"...the film, which starred Robert Hays and was called Running against Time, and was based on a novel called--I think--A Time to Remember. In the movie and the book, Hays' charecter goes back in time to try to save Kennedy on the assumption that he was planning to withdraw the advisors from Vietnam (a curious assumption, all things considered.) He fails in the attempt and then tries to persuade LBJ that Vietnam was a loser. Foreknowledge of the future only inspires Johnson to redouble efforts to win, which succeed, but at the cost of creating the liberal nightmare dystopia.

 

In the movie, Hays' charecter goes back and fixes what he caused, restoring the old time line, but in the process inadvertently persuading his older brother, who died in Vietnam, to instead of enlisting run off the Canada.

 

In the book, the charecter goes back again and this time succeeds in saving JFK, preventing the Vietnam War, establishing a liberal utopia of peace, love, and granola."

 

Tony Williams: Military gun and ammunition website and discussion forum

[JWB]

"A time to remember"> http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detai...=glance&s=books

 

"Running against time"> http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0100529/

Edited September 29, 2005 by JWB

[Rod]

I vaguely recall once seeing a film with a plot something like the original proposition (although I have no idea of the title). IIRC when LBJ became convinced of the futility of a conventional conflict in Vietnam his reaction was not to withdraw, as the time-travelling hero hoped, but to go nuclear...

 

Tony Williams: Military gun and ammunition website and discussion forum

227396[/snapback]

 

 

I think this sounds like another book plot for you Tony I would love to read a "Foresight War" on Vietnam....hmmm... "We need a J-STARTS Mr. McNamara and get J. Edgar Hoover to arrest this young lady named Jane Fonda on some trumped up charge"

[Tony Williams]

I think this sounds like another book plot for you Tony    I would love to read a "Foresight War" on Vietnam....hmmm... "We need a J-STARTS Mr. McNamara and get J. Edgar Hoover to arrest this young lady named Jane Fonda on some trumped up charge" 

228711[/snapback]

 

No thanks - the period doesn't especially interest me (no British involvement!). If I were to do another (which I have no plans to), it would be about WW1.

 

Tony Williams: Military gun and ammunition website and discussion forum

[Macarthur]

If I recall, one of the problems that occured later int he war was that Special Forces wer ebeing used in paramilitary 'lone gun' style attacks, whcih while for the most part successful, were not what they were sent to do in the first place which was to persuade Vietnamese villages (on either side of the line) to help america and to train the ones that agreed in geurilla warfare and arm them with American weapons. The project ended when they SOFs were told to relocate the villages instead of leave them in place which pretty much ended the villages support, which convinced the brass that the SOFs mission was a lost cause.

 

I've read a few analysis that said that if the SOFs had been allowed to train and equip the villagers then the NVA and Viet Cong's support would have evaporated, the Ho Chi Minh Trail would have died a quiet and and choked death and there would be a democratic integrated Vietnam.

 

just a thought.

[Rickshaw]

They were allowed to arm and train the villagers, as I understand it. The problem was that many of the villagers were genuine supporters of the Communists rather than the South's government, particularly after the disasterous attempts to implement the Strategic Hamlet campaign in the early 1960s. So arming the villagers often just provided arms for the NLF.

[KingSargent]

They were allowed to arm and train the villagers, as I understand it.  The problem was that many of the villagers were genuine supporters of the Communists rather than the South's government, particularly after the disasterous attempts to implement the Strategic Hamlet campaign in the early 1960s.  So arming the villagers often just provided arms for the NLF.

228995[/snapback]

And I believe the most successful "Village Groups" were among the Hmong(sp?) who could have cared less about Communism, they hated all the lowlanders.

 

This is a problem the US has in this type of situation, we think the war is about one ideal or doctrine, when a lot of "guerilla movements" are simply bandits and a lot of killings are for personal reasons.

[Rickshaw]

And I believe the most successful "Village Groups" were among the Hmong(sp?) who could have cared less about Communism, they hated all the lowlanders.

 

This is a problem the US has in this type of situation, we think the war is about one ideal or doctrine, when a lot of "guerilla movements" are simply bandits and a lot of killings are for personal reasons.

228997[/snapback]

 

 

Yep, which goes back to what I said earlier. The Vietnamese knew who they were fighting - first the French and then the Americans. The Americans believed they were fighting the Russians and the Chinese.