Quote Originally Posted by Bob's World View Post
Steve;

Actually S. Vietnam DID fall to insurgency. We tend to put way too much emphasis on the fact that a bunch of Westerners broke off a chunk of Vietnam in the middle of the insurgency and created this tremendous sanctuary for the insurgency called "North Vietnam."
So why was the communist north created? If it wasn't because of poor governance by the south, then how could it be considered an insurgency, especially since the Vietminh were around before the partition and the creation of the RVN? Or, why can't the opposite case be made - that North Vietnam successfully fought off an insurgency from the south?

Similarly, what about the Koreas? Do we consider North Korea to be "insurgents" against the South? Or Germany before reunification? That doesn't make much sense. For all practical purposes, North Vietnam and South Vietnam were distinct states and one of those states conquered the other through conventional means. That the North also fostered an insurgency in the South (which ultimately failed) doesn't, it seems to me, make the entire conflict an insurgency.