https://vdare.com/articles/out-of-contr ... hining-lie
What do you think would have occurred had the US actually taken Brimelow's advice during the Vietnam War? Invading North Vietnam would, I suspect, have likely triggered Chinese military intervention, but the idea of occupying Cambodia and Laos up to the Mekong River is certainly very interesting. This would have prevented North Vietnam from continuing to use the Ho Chi Minh Trail (as well as the Sihanouk Trail), after all. But of course then the US would have also had to deal with insurgencies in both Laos and Cambodia, no?It is possible to make a case that U.S. interests did not require intervention in Vietnam. But quite apart from such geopolitical questions, the war posed practical military problems that Sheehan nowhere clearly explains. The peculiar geography of South Vietnam meant that Saigon had not only to defend a frontier eight hundred miles long but had to do so on exterior lines, an almost impossibly difficult task. The obvious solution was either to invade North Vietnam or at the very least to occupy Cambodia and Laos to the Mekong River, establishing the short, defensible frontier along a DMZ extended due west. But Washington refused to contemplate these options. Throughout the war, the North Vietnamese were able to import materiel from the Communist bloc through Haiphong Harbor, transship it down the Ho Chi Minh Trail parallel to the South Vietnamese border, and maintain sanctuaries in Cambodia within fifty miles of their enemy's capital. The United States and its allies were fighting with one arm tied behind their back—a posture they were able to maintain only because the United States' arm was so extraordinarily powerful.
I'm curious about this topic because both South Korea and Taiwan have managed to survive up to the present-day in spite of them being hungrily eyed at by revanchist states--specifically North Korea and China--whereas South Vietnam failed to survive up to the present-day. So, I'm wondering if there was ever actually any realistic way to change this.
Thoughts?