On Thu, 22 Jun 2006 04:04:46 -0700, "Leadfoot"
wrote:


Along about 1964 we should have sunk everything in Haiphong Harbor,
leveled Hanoi and put a million men in the country marching north.

And Red China jumps in to protect NVN with World War III starting shortly
thereafter.

A true Military genius you are.

Both you and Vince presume that Russia and China would have acted on
their threat. From recent history we know that the Russians were as
rattled by the Cuban Missle Crisis as we were. Not sure about the
Chinese (Mao made some pretty remarkable statements about China's
ability to sustain casualties in a nuclear war.

We should also remember that Chinese nuclear capability in the
mid-'60s was not the same as Russian capability during the same time
period.

You also seem to forget that in '59 the Sino-Soviet Split happened and
Chinese influence in S.E. Asia was not near what Russian was.

While playing "brinksmanship" is not something you want to do on a
daily basis drawing a "line in the sand" sometimes is necessary. And
there is an odds on chance that if we had done it then the Russians
would have backed down, as they did not have the naval power to
prevent us from doing what we could do, and the Chinese were not about
to help the Russians (and the Vietnamese were never all that
comfortable with the Chinese).

Again, the picture is not nearly as clear as you paint it.

Bill Kambic
Haras Lucero, Kingston, TN
Mangalarga Marchador: Uma Raça, Uma Paixão