re: #11 Dark_Falcon

There were in fact ways we could have gotten a win, but they would have involved greater understanding of the enemy (our focus on NVA/VC body counts was folly, given that the North Vietnamese government had both the will and social control to endure massive losses.) and most cases greater willingness to take chances and escalate things to gain advantage.

Bottom Line: The Vietnam War was a war America lost because the great majority of the American government, military, and general public did not understand the war, and most Americans still do not understand the Vietnam War today.

To come back to your first point, by greater understanding did you mean military actions to give the South enough time to reform its corruption, or something else?

If the Vietnam War is understood as legit nationalist regime (our enemy) vs. colonialist puppet regime (our ally), it is hard to make a case for the US prosecuting such a war.