Did South Vietnam deserve to be destroyed?

[Beet]

The U.S. did not really lose the Vietnam war. At the time of US withdrawal in 1972 the Southern regime was quite alive and doing fine. Not only had most of the VC been wiped out in Tet 1968, in fact they had just won a great victory repulsing the North's major spring 1972 offensive, despite the North's assistance of large artillery and tanks from the Soviet Union. If not for their defeat the North never would have agreed to the 1972 peace talks.

It wasn't until the North learned how to coordinate the heavy tanks they received from the Soviets into a conventional force did they win three years later. But by that time the US had already absolved any involvement. Hence it was not necessarily the US defeat it is oft said to be.