alwaysvip

Everybody in the South Vietnam army was rounded up and sent to re-education camp after the war ended. The length of stay varied, from 2 months for lower ranking military personnel up to 10 years or so for high ranking generals. I stayed for 8 years. The conditions were the worst you can imagine. We were subject to torture and forced labor. I have many stories of all the various torture tactics used in the re-education camps. One tactic they used was to issue us clothing only once per year. This lead to a lot of theft of clothing. One year I had my clothes stolen, and I said "who here dares to steal my clothes?!".

You cannot say that strategy or tactics were used during the Vietnam War, because it was a war of politics. So political tactics were used. The strangest tactics used that didn't work was that if a bomb landed in the North, then the Communists would have to say that the Americans were bombing the North mainland. They would have to make that claim. The strangest tactic that did work was if that if the American forces withdrew, then the US and China, which backed the North, could then conduct trade ala Henry Kissinger.

In Buddhism, the Buddha is not number 1. There is no number 1 person or being. Anybody can become a Buddha. In Catholicism, God or Jesus is number 1. And the ruler designated by God or Jesus is number 1 in the hierarchy. In Communism, there is a number 1. The Communist leader is number 1. So because of these belief systems, Communists and Buddhists will never see eye to eye. The Communists beliefs are more aligned with the Catholic beliefs of there being a number 1.

Let me tell you about the Tet Offensive, what it was was the American-allied forces wanted to test to see the sentiments of the Vietnamese people. Not to gauge the strength of the Viet Cong, but to gauge the fighting will of the Vietnamese people. For example, the Viet Cong would round up the Vietnamese villagers and put them at the front lines between the South and North forces. Many terrible tactics were used during what was supposed to be a peacetime for the Vietnamese people.

Yes. The Hmong fighters were known to be very anti-communist, although they were not part of the Vietnam armed forces. So the Americans knew that where you found Hmong guerilla fighters, you could find Viet Cong.