Anti-War Game: Starting from Normandy Campaign-Chapter 602 - 289: Soviet Expansion and the United States’ Contraction
Yu Feng laughed heartily, and the Blue Star netizens in the live broadcast room also joined in the laughter.
Indeed.
From 1965, when the United States began large-scale involvement in the Vietnam Federation’s war, international public opinion pressure was already significant.
They thought the terrain of the Vietnam Federation was long and narrow, should be easier to fight than the Peninsula.
It turned out they sent 180,000 U.S. soldiers over, only to find that they couldn’t make any progress.
A year’s time.
There was hardly any strategic advancement, and 180,000 people were sent in vain.
The United States realized this wasn’t working.
So many little brothers around the world were watching.
They were already at a disadvantage in public opinion; if they couldn’t win, they wouldn’t have anything at all.
So they increased their troops to over 380,000.
In the end....
Even increasing to 380,000 was to no avail.
There was basically no strategic breakthrough, still a stalemate.
By this time, perhaps some in the United States had already realized.
The Republic was undermining them from behind, but there was nothing to be done. They had already increased to over 380,000 troops, and retreating now would be even worse.
Increasing to 380,000 troops only to retreat would make them a laughingstock to the world.
The combat effectiveness of the U.S. troops would immediately rank among the world’s worst.
The United States couldn’t tolerate this.
They had no choice but to grit their teeth and continue fighting.
But continuing to fight is continuing to fight.....everyone knew who was behind the Vietnam Federation.
This was essentially fighting the damn Republic.
The officers and soldiers of the U.S. troops would certainly have quite the expressions.
The Blue Star Players in the live broadcast room, thinking about it, all wanted to participate in the Vietnam Federation’s war storyline to see if the U.S. had made any progress over the ten-plus years.
Yu Feng continued, saying:
"The United States increased its troops to over 380,000 and continued to fight with gritted teeth."
"But the anti-war sentiment within the United States suddenly surged as well."
"At the same time."
"The renowned sociologist within the United States, and also a Peace Prize laureate, [Martin Luther King], publicly criticized the United States’ involvement in the war."
"His speech garnered a lot of support from the American public."
"There were even large-scale organized anti-war demonstrations."
"These activities, in the end, came to nothing."
"But their anti-war spirit was still commendable."
Yu Feng continued inspecting the intelligence and said:
"Then came 1967."
"The prolonged war did not achieve the intended objectives."
"The American people began to doubt this war."
"With the outbreaks in New York, San Francisco, and other places in the United States, the demonstrations reached up to a million people, causing the approval rating of the then-U.S. president to plummet."
"It was foreseeable that he would soon be out of office."
"Simultaneously, the United States’ defense expenditure accounted for 45% of the fiscal budget, with nearly half of the federal spending going towards the war."
"This was a cause of dissatisfaction for many people and one of the reasons for the outbreak."
"And this year was also the year when a war broke out in the Middle East region."
"Although there was no progress in the Asian Region, the United States-backed federation, under the guise of the United States, fought a ’6-Day War’."
"That was the Third Middle East War."
"They seized a lot of territory, but also gave the Soviet Union an opportunity to expand."
"Immediately following, came 1968."
"Because the United States couldn’t make any headway in Vietnam, and the ’Tet Offensive’ seriously damaged the morale of the U.S. troops."
"Plus, the domestic public opinion kept escalating."
"The then U.S. president announced the initiation of ceasefire talks and gave up on re-election."
"But in reality."
"His national spending rate had already dropped to rock bottom."
"Especially after the ’Tet Offensive,’ the morale of the U.S. at home and abroad was severely damaged, making re-election impossible."
"It was better for him to announce it himself to make it look more graceful."
"And it was in this year too."
"A new U.S. president was elected."
"This new president stated in his campaign that he intended to end the war with the Vietnam Federation and implement a so-called ’Vietnamization’ policy."
"The core of this policy was essentially a way for the United States to gracefully exit the war."
"Instead of being forced out in disgrace by welling domestic public sentiment due to prolonged failures."
"But the U.S. public was quite convinced by this approach, so eventually, the candidate who proposed ’Vietnamization’ became the new U.S. president."
"And he took office in January 1969."
"As for the so-called ’Vietnamization’, it was essentially withdrawing nearly 540,000 U.S. soldiers at peak from the Vietnam Federation."
"Strengthening the U.S.-supported forces within Vietnam proper to make them fight on their own, rather than getting involved directly in the Vietnam Federation’s war."
"The United States would shift from fighting on the frontline to backing airstrikes, ammunition supplies, intelligence, and military advisors, etc."
"In short."
"Any demanding and labor-intensive tasks, they refrained from, providing money where money could solve the issue, and offering military advisors at most where it couldn’t."
"And because the United States backed them, decisive interventions could be made in critical moments."
"For instance, when the U.S.-supported forces in Vietnam proper fell into disadvantage, the U.S. could leverage its might and status to pressure and threaten the opponents into halting the fight and commencing peace talks."
"This was a tried-and-true method from the Peninsula War."
"But the Republic didn’t fall for it back then, and the forces supported by the Republic in the Vietnam Federation likely wouldn’t either; the fighting would continue."
"This was the ’Vietnamization’ plan presented by that new U.S. president that pleased the American public."
"It was a plan that satisfied both the American public and the internal mechanisms."
"Because perhaps the public knew very little, but those federal officials were well aware of it."
