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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Jd Smith1" data-source="post: 9672300" data-attributes="member: 6998052">Actually, the Japanese were on the verge of giving in before the bombs dropped; they were still holding out hope that the USSR would act as a intermediary for terms. Operation Chokehold (the sea/air blockade of the Home Islands) was far more effective than the Americans understood at the time.  The fact is, the USA had been leveling cities, inflicting greater losses than the A-bombings, for months without breaking the Japanese will. Truman wanted a demonstration of the A bombs for postwar confrontations with the USSR.As to Vietnam, South Vietnam existed for four years after the USA pulled out, and even repelled a major Northern invasion. It was the combination of Congress refusing to honor our military aid commitment, and a massive conventional invasion involving more tanks than Patton ever commanded to do South Vietnam in, and even so, the North took significant losses. In the end, it boiled down to material support; the USSR was willing to keep pouring in T-54s and heavy artillery.The Chinese intervention in Korea hit a UN force that was grossly over-extended, unprepared for winter, badly fragmented, and  operating without a continuous front line, not to mention burdened with a terrible leader. Yet the Chinese failed to complete a single operational encirclement (close, at the Chosin), and ultimately took horrendous losses for little actual gain. The US forces were not supposed to cross into North Korea in the first place; that choice ultimately led to Bugout Doug getting sacked. As to the American Revolution, the simple fact is that the Americans did not win; rather, the British lost. Major General Sir William Howe’s inexplicable decision in 1777  to leave his army aboard ships for six weeks, killing off most of his draft animals and wasting half the campaign season, to ignore his (vague) instructions to support and meet Major General John Burgoyne's expedition from Canada, and finally to focus entirely upon capturing Philadelphia instead of destroying the Continental Army removed any hope of a British victory. The British decision not to institute conscription likewise ensured that after 1777 the war was lost. Its not a popular fact, but American tenacity and unity as a whole during the Revolution is not all it was cracked up to be.  Nearly half the population just kept their heads down and waiting to see who would win. Hard to image a satisfying game without the enemy operating in a logical fashion, but I don't understand participation trophies, either, so to each their own.I wouldn't describe the author's ideas as 'useful'; 'profitable for him' would be my take, and good for him. But they come across as very silly to me.</blockquote>

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