What would've happened and how would it have impacted the world today?
If America won the Vietnam War?
there would have been a lot more angry americans since it would have taken longer to secure the border. since soooo many died and injured with us pulling out, it would have been quite dangerous to the USA population
Ozymandias would have killed hundreds of millions of people across the world to prevent nuclear war.
Saigon would become like 1950's Havana.
Wasn't Saigon in the US-backed South?
Saigon would become like 1950's Havana.
Wasn't Saigon in the US-backed South?
Exactly.
It now exists as Ho Chi Minh City (named after the guy who won the war), but in the context of the thread the capital would've never been renamed.
Interesting you should bring this up since I was thinking of this earlier today.
I think we would have more presidents with military service. Throughout American history, many (most?) Presidents have had a war record, and war heroes were even better, yet after Vietnam, this became less important. Obama and Clinton have no military service. G.W., Ronald Reagan, and Carter technically served but were never on the battlefield. George H. W. Bush is the only President elected in the forty years since Vietnam who could actually be considered a war hero.
I think the United States has a bad taste in it's mouth from Vietnam, and since that time, being a war hero doesn't have the same appeal.
What a coincidence, the thumbnail for the video is the same as the picture in the OP
I think it would have changed a lot of things, primarily the relationship between China and the United States. Not in a good way.
If USA won the Vietnam War, Communist partisanship in Southeast Asia would slowly but steadily decline.
My country, Indonesia, although a founder of the Non-Aligned Movement and is very Anti-NATO and Anti-Warsaw Pact has strong ties with PRC and to a lesser extent the USSR. The Indonesian Communist Party was the largest party in the Old Parliament before they tried a coup and the CIA backed the Army to exterminate them.
If Vietnam War was won by NATO then the coup would have smaller probability of occuring and our first President would have gained many enemies because lots of the Generals in the Army (but not the Navy and Air Force) were strongly pro-American. With the increase in Western influence in Southeast Asia, the President would have gradually shifted his policies to become more and more neutral if not slightly tipping to the USA.
On the other hand, the Islamist parties such as Masyumi Party would have strengthened their influence as well and become even with the Communists maybe until late 1970s before the Communists finally collapse and the Generals find a reason to exterminate them entirely.
There are a lot of what if scenarios. I think it might depend on whether or not the US troops stayed in Vietnam after the victory and if so at what level, whether or not the Vietnamese government was it's own or a puppet government for the US and whether or not China or Russia got more directly involved once it became obvious that the North was going to lose.
No matter what, I think the Cold War would have grown a bit warmer had America won the war in Vietnam and prevented it from becoming 'Communist'.
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