Can "Limited War" be an effective strategy in defeating a nation's enemies?

SGT Steve Adams - Of course, most pundits in the media and academia conveniently overlook the 2.5 million (especially those of Han Chinese descent) murdered by Hanoi after the communist, er, socialist, er, "nationalist" takeover of South Vietnam in 1975. That number is, of course, overlooked because it doesn't conveniently fit the narrative of the NVA and Viet Cong as noble praiseworthy nationalists fighting the oh-so-evil "dirty stinking Yankee Air Pirates" (i.e.. us) and their puppet lackeys (i.e. our South Vietnamese allies). Ho-hum, nothing to see here, please disperse....

I'm a math geek ... where did you get the 2.5M number?

Capt. Stevenson, the people you named were commies. They used the commie logic to influence the people that have suffered for a thousand years thru bad leadership. The commies promise the people good paying jobs, education for the kids, etc. (Communist doctrine) to get the people on their side. Have you notice anybody that is educated and have good paying jobs in China, Russia, North Korea, or even Cuba? None of the above named people had to fight much, but lied up a storm. Now the people are indoctrinated in a communist society, where they can not complain about anything and have to do as ordered or go thru another education period (indoctrination of Communism) or go to prison or be executed. I have always been sorry for the people of South Viet Nam for what they had to go thru after Sai-Gon fell. i realize that we can-not save the world, but those people worked hard for us while we were there for ten years, then we cut and ran and left them to their fate. How many boat people died trying to leave Nam to get to another country and freedom? We will never know. There were some very good and descent people in Nam, and I know that we left a lot of them to a very bleak future. If we Christians had listened to Sister Lucy of fatama and had gotten Russia converted to Christianity, then none of the wars after World war two would have happened. I bleive this with all my heart. Russia is the main culprit in this world today and they will show just how bad they can be very shortly. As the world was caught off-guard at the beginning of World war 1 & 2, the world will be caught again off-guard for World War 3. I am 74 tears old, but I am more scared for our country than at any time in my life. Sorry, I did not mean to get on a soap box. I sound like a politician, except what I say, I mean from the bottom of my heart. I still love my country, even though there have been some serious changes made over the years that have hurt us deeply. Our allies do not trust us anymore, and I can not blame them one bit.

The people I named were communists, But in the case of Ho Chi Minh, he was a nationaiist from the git-go. I just spent two weeks in Viet Nam in the old I Corps area. I'd say the last thing that those folks are is Communist and if Truman would have pulled his head out from where the sun don't shine, there would have been no Viet Nam war.

BTW, Russia is Christian. BTW (2) After seeing what I saw in Viet Nam, I'm not a Christian any more either.

Not with the present administration we will. And i fear neither one of the candidates running is qualified for CIC of this nation. They both talk hard line, but what will happen when the you know what hits the fan? They won't be ready, nether will our nation.

Unfortunately though, most of the heavy industry used by the military to make war equipment is made overseas. The mega industries make trillion of dollars, but pay little to achieve it to the labor force in Mexico and other counties. As long as home office is her in the US, they pay no import tax. I believe that any product of outside the US should have to pay import tax, no matter where the home office is at. What scares me the most is what happens when we do go to war. The industry becomes the puppet of the country they are in. We lose an industry because of greed. Industry should be brought back to the US to give jobs to people. We were strong when everybody worked. Now we are becoming a nation of needy because of a lack of jobs. Again, bring industry back to the United States where we can produced as we used to and grow again in pride.

With all due respect, you're wrong, LTC Mark Beattie.

Defeating an enemy only requires making his continued resistance more expensive than he can bear. Losing sight of that basic truth rapidly transforms into arguing for escalating all conflicts into existential wars.

The 1982 war between Argentina and the United Kingdom is an excellent example of an instance where, even though both sides committed significant resources, the overall conduct of the war was very limited in scope -- no bombs fell on either homeland, and once the primary territorial dispute was effectively settled by force of arms, neither party considered broadening the conflict in an attempt to avoid conceding defeat.

How do you conduct a war, when folks like ISIS hides among civilians, in schools, hospitals. When the civilian populace lets this happen, they are complicit.....

The enemy of our enemy is our friend.