Matt.

This is coolbert:

From the RICHARDNISLEY Internet web site an item of interest.

"General Ridgway’s Finest Hour"

ARMY CHIEF OF STAFF MATT RIDGWAY

Concerning Operation Vulture and American involvement in the First Indo-China war. 

"Enter the Army Chief of Staff, General Matthew B. Ridgway. He was uneasy [concerning American military involvement in Vietnam] from the start. He knew wars were settled on the ground, and on the ground the losses were always borne by his people, U.S. Army foot soldiers and Marines . . . Ridgway sent an Army survey team to Indochina to determine the requirements for fighting a ground war there."

Determine the requirements and the requirements quite extensive..

"The answers were chilling: minimal, five divisions and up to ten divisions if we wanted to clear out the enemy (as opposed to six divisions in Korea), plus fifty-five engineering battalions, between 500,000 and 1,000,000 men, plus enormous construction costs."

That war against an Asian adversary seen as too tough. Communist forces [Asian in particular] able to muster enormous manpower for the fight. And quite WILLING to use that manpower in a profligate manner, almost totally heedless of losses.

Note too that the general was most concerned with logistics. Engineer battalions galore. "Lieutenants think tactics, generals think logistics."

Ridgway in 1968 along with two other prominent general officers of stature advising President Johnson that the war in Vietnam no longer worth it.

With hindsight it would seem Matt was correct with his misgivings toward both the First and Second Indo-China wars.

coolbert.