Mark Moyar

And there's a myth that Ho Chi Minh and the Viet Minh really were not on good terms with the Chinese.

They didn't really like them.

That is actually not the case.

We do know they were quite close, especially Mao and Ho Chi Minh themselves.

And there'll be a falling out later.

But initially, the two of them are quite close to one another.

And it goes back to

jianbian food we know the chinese had sent a thousand trucks to help the vietnam win there and so uh the chinese do see this as a major front in dominating asia pushing the united states out as a uh as a major power but the soviets are also there and the americans know the soviets and the chinese aren't on board but this american intervention actually sort of widens the soviet sign of soviet split because

What happens when the Americans come in, the Vietnamese turn to the Soviets for anti-aircraft weapons because there's so much American air power.

And so when they start getting more from the Soviets, the Chinese start getting jealous and you start to see a falling out.

And then you have the Cultural Revolution in China.

And so eventually the Soviets will become the principal benefactor of the North Vietnamese.

Well, for the troops themselves, they're still pretty motivated for several years now.

Robert McNamara himself starts to become disillusioned at the end of 65.

And this is one of the reasons why he's so unpopular is that he's actually now having doubts, but he's not talking too much about them.

So a lot of people say, well,

He should have maybe resigned or maybe told people that we had to do something different.

But the reason he gets discouraged is that when the troops go in the middle of 1965, he is still believing that we have these limited war theories that tell us that one side restrains itself and the other side will restrain itself.

Well, the Americans limit themselves, but late 1965, they find out North Vietnamese

are sending in a whole bunch more people.