Reading an alternate history book call Linebacker III about the Vietnam war. Watergate is never exposed. This means Nixon is still in office and he decides to defy Congress and have the Air Force attempt to halt the communist offensive. I often think people down play the aggression of North Vietnam and act as if America was just trying to occupy an entire country when in reality it is a civil war. The communists could have all the communism they wanted in the North but they chose to continue invading the South.
Posted by Massengale
2 Comments
It depends when in 1975. Before the full abandonment of the central highlands, maybe. So like… before late March 75, maybe. After that, probably not.
Was the trauma of Vietnam the fact that we suffered these deaths only for the South Vietnamese government to fall anyway, and not the massive human toll the invasion caused?
If so, you could argue that completely reframes US thoughts on the wisdom of interventions in foreign policy.
Though I’m not smart enough to point to a conflict that would have happened had we not been so traumatized after Vietnam. Like I can’t imagine us actually invading Somalia for instance.
I guess maybe it would have helped reduce the collective nhillistic cynicism that Gen X has (which is why Gen X is the worst generation)