Could Vader really have crushed the Rebels on Hoth?

Question

In the chat room, Gilles linked to a very interesting article about the military shortcomings of the Empire's strategic decisions when attacking the rebel base on Hoth.

It points out (correctly) that Vader missed several opportunities to slaughter the rebels (e.g., when escaping through "their shield’s chokepoint" or when the shield generator was down, by bombarding them from space with his fleet).

It says:

[..] Vader is now clear to destroy the Rebel base, and the escaping Rebel ships, with a punishing Star Destroyer bombardment. Presumably, if the Rebels are abandoning their generator, they’re also abandoning the Ion Cannon that protects the evacuation.

[..]

Only Vader can’t bombard the base: He’s in it. For reasons that never get explained — and can’t be justified militarily — Vader joins the Stormtrooper assault on the base. So much for his major weapon against the Rebels, and the primary reason for ordering the Walkers to invade and destroy the generator. Once Vader opts to bring down the shield and lead the invasion, he’s lost the battle.

^{(emphasis mine)}

However, it was my impression that Vader's ultimate goal (which he did fail to accomplish) was to capture and turn Luke Skywalker, while destroying the rebels was a secondary (albeit important) goal. Although I admit, that I do not recall if he was aware of Luke's identity at that particular moment. But he was certainly obsessed with finding some particular rebels.

Now, given these priorities, were his strategies really as horrible as depicted in the linked article? And is this characterisation of his priorities accurate?

After all, a brute-force attack to simply kill everything on (and escaping from) Hoth would also kill his "high value targets". This would also explain why they didn't simply shoot down (or at least try to shoot down) the escaping transporters and why Vader intended the attack to be stealthy rather than brute-force-y.

Answer 1

This entire analysis presumes the standpoint of epic, not Orwellian Dystopia.

Battle of Yavin notwithstanding, Imperial Dominance in the galaxy is beyond question. Palpatine pursues the rebels because by creating a foe, he may subject significant portions of the Old Republic/Current Empire on the basis of fear of an unseen, poorly organized rebellion with just enough military power to disrupt the comfortable existence of any single system, but in general, not enough military threat to truly challenge for dominance. Palpatine's motivations are to maintain the standard of wealth he has earned, and the is only possible by engagement is a fake war against an ideology. It is so mind-boggling expensive to subjugate the galaxy, he requires huge taxes which can only be justified in the face of a significant threat. If public perception of the Rebels was that of a band of mostly harmless, ineffective ingrates, then Palpatine would not be able to levy the crippling taxes necessary to keep his Imperial Army/Navy funded. And allowing the destruction of the original Death Star allows Palpatine to continue to impress the need to funnel huge taxes to his friends in the Military Industrial complex to build another.

Couple this Orwellian Manipulation with the imperial dominance watering down its officer's military training. Given the strategic edge they have over every conceivable opponent, their doctrine shifts from carefully achieving victory to minimizing losses of high-value targets. And strategic thinking? Demonstrably non existent. Once you Realize the Rebels are at Hoth, a sensible Prince ala Machiavelli or Sun Tzu would do everything in his power to keep the Rebels at Hoth. Staying on a frozen wasteland will do nothing but deplete resources. There is no rebuilding on Hoth, there is no resupply; all there is comes down to wound-licking and frostbite. And in the face of a Jotenheimian hellscape, Hoth quickly destroys any positive morale to be had by the destruction of the Original Death Star at Yavin.

Vader is show to be a fairly daft fellow (cf Episodes 1-3), easily manipulated, impulsive and incapable of foresight. In essence, he is given the fool's errand by Palpatine to keep him busy, because questions of intellect aside, he is shown to be a mighty enough warrior to challenge Palpatine in a direct confrontation. As an axeman, Vader ranks highly, as a stratetician, he is very poor. Unfortunately, Palpatine can't really get rid of him either. There is no justification, nor any replacement which would serve to bolster up the fear. Remember, as fierce as Palpatine may be in combat, he weakens his imperial authority to be shown 'getting his hands dirty' from the throne. He's stuck with Vader.

In essence, Vader lost at Hoth because Palpatine set him up for failure. Vader is a figurehead general, and no more.