One thing that people forget about the Viet Namese, is that the US did not start the war. After the withdrawl of France from Indo-China, Viet Nam was split into two, de facto, independant, sovereign states, North Viet Nam and South Viet Nam. The Communist Supported North Viet Nam instigated, with Chinese and Soviet funding, an insurgency campaign by the Viet Cong. US forces only became involved after requests from the then LEGITIMATE government of South Viet Nam. Unfortunatly, the US forces decided on TOTALLY the wrong tactics, with a gross overdependance on firepower. Had they studied the tactics used in the, admittedly smaller scale, Malayan Emergency, they may have picked up a few pointers on counter insurgency operations. Another error made was the use of combat units permanently based in VN, so that in any of these units there was a cross section of personel with different amounts of service done. The spread of the war into Cambodia was entirely due to the North Vietnamese Army, acting in support of the Viet Cong, taking over that strip of Cambodia bordering on the two Viet Nams. When informed of the commencement of Bombing in that strip, Sianhouk (sp?) is reported to have commented that, as far as he was aware, no Cambodians were being killed by the bombs. They had already been driven out by the NVA. The Vietnamese War was a nasty, long drawn out and brutish afair in which the wrong tactics were used. Few of the participants can claim any kudos. The Viet Cong were more brutal against their own countrymen than the US forces were. But, had the US forces not been there, S. Viet Nam would have been overwhealmed many years earlier and at much less cost to the Communists than it eventually was. Had this happened, would the sponsors of North Viet Nam's agression stopped there? I know this will offend some people. I do not apologise for that, but I do have the right to put this point of view across, no matter how unpopular it is. Sapper