Air Force pilot in Vietnam: at war and loving it

so napalm and big bombs makes the vietnamese senseless, so what is the flyboy's excuse???

Ha ha, I thought I had you boxed in on that one, but you slipped out of it like a sly fox.
As fas your comment "do you kill off thousands of innocent ppl to protect thousands of other innocent ppl?" The only thing that comes to my mind now would be the dropping of the atom bombs over Japan. There I say yes, it's either that or we sacrifice more of my sides lives which I wouldn't do, or bomb the side that started the war in the first place.
Vietnam is a different, and ugly script though.>

When we consider that the masterminds of VW2 were the same people who fought WW2, I myself wonder why did they change the script? What went wrong? Everything they did seemed to be fine in waging WW2. Then along comes a place called Vietnam, and a new chapter in warfare gets written, unfortunately, the wrong chapter.
It's too bad we can't rewrite history, if so, then I would write it: FDR ends colonialism in southeast Asia after WW2 (which were his intentions, especially the British Empire).

@THUD086: Agreed, it's easier to sacrifice thousands of innocent ppl if none of them are your friends or family... as to "what went wrong", well, in Viet Nam, there wasn't another front keeping 80% of the enemy busy (unlike in Germany) ... and the US couldn't use the A-bomb (unlike in Japan). Both could have become Viet Nam-like situations otherwise.

Well, it's a different set of dynamics in Vietnam. Where in WW2 we would pursue the enemy no matter where they were, we fought a "defensive" war, and often let the enemy dictate policy as to when and where they wanted to fight.
We never set up a "front", but seemed to be willing to settle for a 50-50 draw, like Korea.
Hmmm, no doubt you mean the Soviet Union keeping Germany busy in WW2. Sure you want to go down that road?

@tTHUD086: Yeah, VN was a tie, except the US had to leave. As to WW2 and the URSS, I've gone "down that road" many times! You're gonna tell me the USSR fought with US weapons and equipment, I suppose.

Bon jour Onaryc59.

Oh no, that stuff about the Soviets using Amer. equipment is overblown anyway.
What people fail to realize is, that the U.S. & U.K. had to fight the other Axis countries, Italy and Japan, Japan being the much stronger. The Soviet Union didn't.
The U.S. & U.K. also had to fight on 3 continents. The SU didn't.
The U.S. & U.K. had to build a massive logistical arsenal to accomplish these feats.
The Soviet Union only had to go from Moscow to Berlin. That wasn't too hard.

@THUD086: Fair enough, but I think most ppl do realize that. There have been enough US movies about WW2 in the pacific... How many movies have you seen about the Russians fighting the Germans? And Moscow Berlin is about 1000 miles as the crow flies. When fighting enemies, I don't call that "not too hard". Most WW2 military deaths took place there and then. Even Hitler couldn't make it from Berlin to Moscow. Or Napoleon for that matter. Step by step combat most of the time. Not exactly a freeway.

Well, what I'm referring to there, is that the distance between Berlin and Moscow, as you say, a thousand miles, does not require a large logistical need, I didn't mean that as "easy" fighting. Combat is hard enough no matter where it is, but the SU only had to concentrate on that distance. We had to expend personnell, equipment, and fuel to furnish a navy and air force to meet our needs.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't Napoleon capture Moscow, and eventually lose after evacuating the city?

THUD086: OK, so that doesn't explain why VN was such a mess after all, & so different from WW2, since in VN you didn't have to expand personnel & equipment etc that much either. Your question was, what went wrong in VN? I said "no russian front" and "no A-bomb", & you said, ah but we fought all over. But not in VN, did you? So that explanation doesn't hold water.- Napoleon finally made it to Moscow, yes, but had a hard time, & stayed there like 2 weeks and left. The walk home was a disaster.