HabitableZone

Flame » in reply to 580,000 bombing runs, one run every 9 minutes for 10 years, over 2,000,000 tons of bombs.

Sad

You feel a great deal of anger for the wars we fought, even for our conduct in WWII. It's almost like you think we've never had an enemy and the shame falls squarely on the US.

Do you feel the threat of Communism was a lie? Eastern Europe and was under it's contol and China adopted the sytem. We saw Communism spread across the Atlantic and were anticipating a continuing "domino" effect. The Soviet Union's presence in Cuba brought us to the brink ending the World as we know it.

We fought a proxy war with the Soviets in Vietnam. Was it really shameful for us to try to contain Communist agression?

The War was fought by politicians affraid to engage the Soviets directly. The shame may be that it wasn't fought to win and we waited far to long to admit defeat.

The Ho Chi Minh trail was there and that was the target. You Said:

The “Ho Chi Minh” trail was in there someplace, but it’s a long-standing custom to bomb the enemy, not the countryside and innocent civilians in a non-combatant country.

The article contradicts that:

The U.S. bombing was designed to cut North Vietnamese supply lines that looped into Laos on a route to communist forces in South Vietnam and Cambodia; the trail was designed to bypass the demilitarized zone that separated North and South Vietnam during the war. The bombing runs also supported Laotian government forces fighting a losing battle against communist Pathet Lao rebels and their North Vietnamese allies.

Edwin Moise, a Vietnam War historian at Clemson University in South Carolina, says there was logic behind the relentless bombing. "Massive use of air power to try to choke off an enemy supply line makes good military sense, especially since there was very little civilian population in the areas in question," he says. By relying on air power, the United States did not have to commit ground troops.
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I feel we're no worse than any other modern military state that either defends or attacks another country. Sadly, it's just what countries do.

But I will admit that Iraq was different. If there's any shame to be place on the US it would be for that war.

That doesn't apply to the men that fought it.

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