What was Israel's position/role in the Vietnam war?
There is a very interesting series of articles written by Moshe Dayan when he got embedded with US troops as military correspondent
>Four days later, Dayan was on a helicopter accompanying the Cav in Operation Paul Revere, a continuation of Operation Hastings near the Cambodian border. Again, he was impressed with America’s military might, especially with the Army’s innovations in helicopter-borne warfare. “There are altogether 1,700 in the country,” he wrote, “more than all the helicraft in Europe.”
>But Dayan was less than impressed by the American tactics and strategy, and expressed serious reservations about the efficacy of U.S. intelligence. As the Cav went out to search and destroy, Dayan said, “One small item is missing: no one knows exactly where are the positions of the Viet Cong battalions. The air photos and air reconnaissance fail to pick out the Viet Cong encampments, entrenched, bunkered and camouflaged to merge with the jungle vegetation.”
>Dayan and company landed in a hot landing zone. “All around came sounds of exploding shells and machine-gun fire,” he wrote in his newspaper report. The Americans responded as per normal, with a massive display of firepower. Then Dayan looked on in amazement as what he called “the assembly line of the 1st Cavalry’s fighting machine” was soon dropped onto the landing zone: 105mm howitzers, mountains of artillery shells, more guns and ammo, bulldozers, command and control equipment.
>“But where was the war?” Dayan asked rhetorically. “It was like watching military maneuvers—with only one side. Could they have operated in this way, I wondered, if the Viet Cong had also possessed warplanes, artillery and armor? The heaviest weapon in a Viet Cong unit, a medium mortar, could be carried on a man’s back. But anyway, where were the Viet Cong? And where was the battle?”
http://www.historynet.com/moshe-dayan-sounds-the-alarm-in-vietnam-3.htm
>>2291330
Fighting Egypt and Syria, mostly.
They were busy with their own conflicts. They had a big war in 1967 and a little war that lasted the next three years, then another big one in '73.
>>2291399
Wat, they had MiGs
>>2291427
Which was the one where they "accidentally" attacked a US ship and killed a bunch of seamen?
>>2291474
The VC didn't have MiGs, and even if they did they never would've strayed down to Cambodia.
>>2291474
He said Viet Cong, not regular NVA
>>2291661
Why is this such a big and powerful memme for /pol/?
>>2291762
>meme
>>2291777
It's a well known incident. I was askimg why /pol/ views is as significant.
>>2291790
>incident
>>2291399
>Dayan then spent two days at the Special Forces camp at Plei Me, three miles from the Cambodian border. Soon after arriving, he was out on patrol with a Green Beret squad. But Dayan left the patrol abruptly when Norton sent word that there was a heavy VC attack against a South Korean unit close by. Dayan rushed to the scene and reported that about 130 Korean troops had repulsed a force of about 1,000 attacking Viet Cong, with the critical help of a massive American artillery barrage. Dayan was suitably impressed.
>American “support units laid down more than 21,000 shells,” he reported. “This is more than the total volume of artillery fire by the Israeli army during the Sinai campaign and the War of Independence together.”
>Dayan found similar situations wherever he went. He concluded that Viet Cong tactics and strategy were working, but that American strategy was, at best, barely succeeding. The Viet Cong’s M.O., he said, “was to attack American units with the aim of destroying them when the prospect of success seemed bright….Ninety out of every one hundred battles in the Vietnam War began as this one did, on Viet Cong initiative, when they deemed the circumstances favorable.”
>As for the Americans, Dayan wrote that they did not make the destruction of the enemy “conditional on a favorable tactical situation.” American commanders, he said, “were eager to make contact with the Viet Cong at all times, in any situation, and at any price.”
>He continued to be impressed by American firepower. “What the Americans have at their disposal,” he said in his newspaper dispatch, “is all that a commander can visualize in a dream: helicopters to rush his men to any location; well-trained troops with the aggressive spirit and ready for action; air and artillery support; equipment, ammunition and fuel in virtually unlimited supply.”