Chapter 443: The Monkey Stabs The Eagle!
## Corrected Full English Text (Numbered Lines – NO CHINESE CHARACTERS):
When the war progressed to 1970, GPS failed to help America achieve a quick victory, and everyone in the Washington political vortex knew the war could not continue.
After America, bolstered by GPS, encountered resistance in its mercury-like offensive on the Vietnam War frontline, the generals on the frontline knew the war could no longer continue.
When anti-war voices rose again from their own children, the Washington bureaucrats knew anti-war sentiment was about to make a comeback.
When poll numbers showed a golden cross, with the proportion supporting ending the Vietnam War regardless of whether it was dignified or not—whether honorable ceasefire or not being irrelevant—surpassing the number supporting giving the Soviet Union a lesson, the White House core decision-makers also knew the war was over.
Ending it was just a matter of time, sooner or later.
But no one wanted the Vietnam War, after it ended, to turn out like China, where the side they supported was swept into the Pacific Ocean like fallen leaves in an autumn wind.
Even the former president Lyndon Johnson, who had already stepped down, did not want this.
Because it would prove the Vietnam War was a complete mistake, and the side they supported was worthless without any combat power.
America had paid money, resources, soldiers, and reputation for a failed group.
What America did in the Vietnam War was on par with Israel, and its reputation was equally bad.
So the White House’s bottom line was that South Vietnam needed to hold on with their support.
Even Kissinger, the most eager to restore relations with China, thought the same: the premise for our withdrawal from Annam was maintaining north-south division, just like the Korean Peninsula.
Now with new drones coming online, the White House’s expectations for this new equipment were not counterattack, but defense.
Hoping that with unmanned weapons, you South Vietnam could gain air superiority and thereby hold on.
Your real pilots are afraid of being shot down and dare not fly, so I give you drones, you will use them, right?
Use them from the rear, drones scouting the way, missiles clearing the path.
After our Star Wars Program is completed, monitoring the globe, by then, even if the North-South Vietnam border is long, it can be held with drones.
Yes, at this time America’s military already had the concept of drone swarms and data links, and they were increasingly urgent about Star Wars.
So what South Vietnam needed to do was hold on before America’s Star Wars was completed.
This request is not excessive, right?
In the professor’s words, it was a matter of the 1970s.
McNamara initially wanted to instinctively oppose after hearing this, saying how is that possible, South Vietnam is not that worthless.
But thinking it was the professor speaking, he took back the words already on the tip of his tongue: “Professor, this is not a judgment, this is just his prophecy.
The professor has not been to the frontline, has not understood what real-world war is like, has not contacted South Vietnam soldiers, well, forget the last point.
Change it, the professor has not contacted our weapons and equipment.
So this is not a judgment, it is a prophecy.
No one can prophesy everything correctly, not even the professor.”
McNamara’s response showed strong confidence in South Vietnam’s power.
Nixon felt a glimmer of hope again inside; Mike was not very reliable, but he had been on the frontline and participated in the Vietnam War for years, so his words should be more reliable, right?
Although the professor had never been wrong, he was not a military commander, nor a general, and had never even been to the Vietnam War frontline.
Nixon said on the other end of the phone: “I understand, I will strive for another budget from Congress to develop drone technology.
During this time, you must train the South Vietnam army more, to ensure they are an army with combat power!”
Of course Nixon did not fully believe McNamara’s words; the Tet Offensive where America’s embassy in Saigon was breached was still fresh in memory.
The Tet Offensive here refers to the large-scale offensive launched by North Vietnam in 1968, in which North Vietnam assault teams attacked the America embassy, South Vietnam presidential palace, radio station, and airport.
In the early morning of January 31, a 19-man assault team breached the embassy, triggering intense fighting.
The images reported by the media shocked the American public and further fueled civilian anti-war sentiment.
Although the Tet Offensive was not during Nixon’s term—he was still in campaign status at the time—upon seeing it, he was stunned on one hand, and pleasantly surprised on the other that the frontline failure would deal a heavy blow to the then-president Lyndon Johnson.
With further reports on the aftermath of North Vietnam’s Tet Offensive, the incompetence of the South Vietnam army left a profound impression on Nixon.
These guys really do not act human.
So Nixon agreed to the offensive into Cambodia mainly to train the South Vietnam army.
Nixon continued: “We need bigger victories, more bargaining chips.”
McNamara nodded: “Understood, feedback on the new drones is very good, soon we will launch the next wave of super-large-scale offensive, over a hundred drones are already in position.”
China’s Area 51, the latest information from Cambodia first went to the Soviet Union, then was synced from Moscow to Yanjing, and then from Yanjing to Area 51.
No need to get the actual drone, just seeing photos.
Behind the photos are handwritten timestamps.
First to appear are small unmanned airplanes, that is, drones.
Later appear the F-105, the most common low-altitude bomber on the American frontline, codenamed Thunderchief.
“As we expected, their drones have more accurate eyes, exerting greater power.”
“Didn’t we predict it? How could they have GPS and not make full use of it?”
As mentioned earlier, due to foreign trade and the entire electronics industry, China’s current economic situation is much better than in history.
And this relates to national defense.
In the original spacetime, China sponsored materials to North Vietnam, just sponsored them.
In this timeline, the materials China sponsors to North Vietnam are products with considerable technology content, which can be optimized and iterated based on actual battlefield conditions.
Keep in mind, the Vietnam War can be said to be the first true electronic warfare.
Extremely practical guiding significance.
The later Gulf War shocked the globe, with many products built on the Vietnam War foundation.
The research personnel currently tempered at Area 51, every one of them has extremely sharp thinking.
Not to mention Dean Qian.
At the moment the GPS concept emerged, he had already predicted the great power battlefield weapons would combine with GPS to unleash, and had thought of what weapons China needed to develop for countermeasures.
Not 1969, but 1963, China had already been preparing.
With air defense systems performing well on the Vietnam War frontline, China’s military products exported a wave to Council for Mutual Economic Assistance countries.
China only recognizes US dollars, not rubles.
This foundation had already been laid before.
Even if allied countries grumbled internally, they still had to buy what they needed.
This also brought them more resources, which could be invested in research and development.
As early as last year, they had developed jammers specifically targeting drones.
The Chinese side named it Big Flood, meaning to emit high-power noise signals covering the drone’s operating frequency.
Chinese engineers used gallium arsenide transistors to boost power output, enabling it to overwhelm drone remote control links from several kilometers away, causing them to deviate from path or crash.
Not just one kind, but also including radar deception systems, prototypes of anti-radiation missiles, and more.
America hopes to gain the initiative on the battlefield.
There is a saying: what you can’t get on the battlefield, don’t expect to get at the negotiation table.
How could China not want to strive for battlefield initiative?
The more embarrassed America fights in the Vietnam War, the more leeway China has in negotiations, with more chips.
Therefore, the Chinese side also has a bunch of big gifts waiting for America.
Just waiting for America’s drone formations to enter with bomber groups in tow, waiting to give America’s air force a taste.
The end of spring 1970.
Just as America launched the Spring Offensive named after spring, this offensive was air force-led, attempting to destroy North Vietnam key strongholds, important materials transportation lines, and missile launch bases in one go via drones.
Then ground troops advance to occupy key points.
With China’s assistance, North Vietnam used these new equipment to annihilate all of America’s drones.
Planes constantly falling from the sky were like a routed flock of birds; not only drones crashed, over 20 American bombers were also destroyed at once.
After this video footage spread worldwide, the shock it caused was no less than the 1968 Spring Offensive.
Because if the Spring Offensive caught South Vietnam and America off guard, in reality North Vietnam did not occupy any major targets, North Vietnam suffered heavy losses, statistics showing over 40,000 killed in action, while only causing 4,000 to 9,000 combined killed in action for South Vietnam and America.
The Spring Offensive was all thunder and little rain, achieving political victory by exposing the American government’s optimistic assessment of war progress as false, leading American internal public opinion to turn anti-war.
The media’s large-scale reporting further shook public confidence.
This time, it was air superiority, meaning America’s long-proud air superiority began to waver.
What empire residents could not accept more was that in Southeast Asia, in Annam jungle, news anchors had previously joked we were fighting monkeys, monkeys might jump from trees anytime, yet you tell me monkeys can shoot down all our fighter jets?
The public did not know about drones, they thought they were all piloted airplanes.
The image of over a hundred planes dropping from the sky at once was extremely shocking.
Though there are urban legends of monkeys poking planes down with poles, no matter how badass the monkeys, they could not poke down over a hundred planes at once, right?
This video became a nightmare in the hearts of the American public, completely igniting America’s anti-war flames.
Letters from air force families flew to the frontline like snowflakes: “John, are you still alive? Are you in those crashed planes?”
Anti-war marches expanded from campuses to streets, with slogans reading: “Monkeys shot down eagles! Nixon, bring our children home!”
Walter Cronkite, the anchor known as “the most trusted man in America,” sat at the anchor desk.
His voice was as steady and deep as ever, yet carried fatigue and doubt.
This recent video footage was a heavy blow to all American patriots.
They could not believe it, could not accept it, they were hysterical.
The program opened with that suffocating video clip: drone swarms circling in the blue sky, then plummeting one after another.
Cronkite adjusted his glasses, faced the lens, and began his report; this speech was later regarded by historians as the “second Cronkite moment,” further igniting anti-war flames.
“Ladies and gentlemen, tonight we must face a cruel reality.
The latest footage from the Vietnam War reveals the unprecedented blow our air force has suffered.
In this operation called the Spring Offensive, our advanced drone formations and our main low-altitude bombers F-105 should have precisely destroyed North Vietnam strongholds like a scalpel, yet collectively lost control over enemy airspace.
Over 100 drones crashed, more than 20 bombers turned into fragments.
This is not an accident, not mechanical failure, but the enemy—according to intelligence, North Vietnam aided by China’s advanced electronic jamming technology—has posed a systemic challenge to our air superiority.
In the past, we reported stories from the colonial era: in Southeast Asia jungle, French people were defeated by Annam guerrilla teams called ‘monkeys.’
Now, our pilots, our sons and brothers, face a more terrifying enemy.
These monkeys no longer just jump from trees, they have high technology weapons, high tech sufficient to drown our signals, using radar to deceive our eyes.
The planes falling in the video are not abstract numbers, but steel coffins carrying young American lives.
Public letters flood in like tides, they ask: can our air force still protect us? Air superiority, this pillar we are proud of, is shaking.
As a reporter, I have covered World War II, Korean War, now Annam.
This war should have been a quick victory, yet dragged into an endless quagmire.
This New Year’s Day, the White House was still holding banquets celebrating great progress in the Vietnam War.
Now, this sky rout makes us question: not to mention winning this war, can President Nixon fulfill his promise of ‘honorable withdrawal’?
But if we can’t even hold the sky, how can our ground troops advance?
Chinese people’s shadows grow longer, their semiconductor technology, their jammers, are changing battlefield rules.
We must ask ourselves: continuing, is it for victory, or for face?
Tonight, I am not drawing conclusions, but stating facts.”
The lesson of the Vietnam War is profound: technology is not omnipotent, determination and morale are key.
But if we do not end this war soon, these crashed planes will become nightmares for more American families. Thank you for watching, this is Walter Cronkite reporting for NBC News.
