I'm watching the History of the Korean conflict. My question is, if the situation escalates into war, will we possibly use a tactical nuclear weapon? Depending on the strategy the N Koreans use, it may not be possible to hold the country of South Vietnam. Cruise missiles will do their best, along with all other military support we have in the theatre. But, if the N Koreans imbed their forces in S Vietnam, there will be a world of shit. So, to prevent the N Koreans from entering SKor., we may use any means necessary to prevent them from coming across the border.

What do ya'll think will happen if we are engaged with force by N Korea? Will it ever happen, I don't know. Thanks
Jason

We can defeat them militarily without much effort. In fact, the ROK (South Korea) forces could probably beat them without much effort. (The ROKs have traditionally been a very mean fighting force -- so much so that Viet Cong were reputed to prefer attacking US Marines rather than ROKs.) But that's not the problem.

The problem is that they could inflict huge casualties on the civilian population of South Korea in a matter of a couple of days.

Therefore (as I predicted thirty years ago) the US will develop the capability to surgically strike and completely disrupt or entirely eliminate the command structure in small countries like North Korea. That may involve nuclear weapons, depending upon whether there are any countries around that didn't get the message of Iraq.

I think this whole thing was inevitable and could have been predicted from the time of the invention of the transistor, if not earlier.

I'm sure people further up the food chain from us have been thinking about this for the past 50 years.  Over the past few months when the question of tactical nukes has come up the administrations response is that they are keeping all of their options open.  That could mean special weapons could be used to prevent another Task Force Smith.

I read an article that says the NKs have enough tubes & ammo to lay down a barrage of 10,000 rounds per hour and keep it up for 8 solid hours.  I'm not an arty guy, but that sounds pretty impressive.  However, IF they were to open up there is NO way those batteries would remain unmolested by US airpower.

I have to admire our guys on the DMZ, but it seems to me that their role is one of a trip wire.  Of course I've never been their, so that statement is pure opinion with no facts to back it up or disprove it (That's my personal BS disclaimer).

NK has so much internal stress it couldn't survive a war.  I think it would collapse under the strain, especially if we were to start feeding people as we take territory, something the Beloved Leader has neglected to do with his own subjects.

I was a few clicks away for 364 days. I would say more of a human sacrifice than tripwire. Our compounds have been there for 50 years, hell they know where our bunks are. IIRC, our SHTF shelf life was about 95% KIA in under a minute.

In that light, I would think the announcement of our forward withdrawal is signifigant.

North Korea has alot of artillery. But that artillery could be silenced within hours by US Navy, Marine, and Air Force precision strikes. The problem in Korea is terrain. Mountain after Mountain. We would of had control of the enitre Korean peninsula in 1952 if the Chinese hadn't stuck thier noses into the fight. Damn Chinese, always messing up everything. Anyways, a war with North Korea could lead to heavier American casualties than Iraq, but the American public has to accept that in war people will die. America could beat the N.Koreans even though they have a rather large military.