snip
In recent years the previous leaders of the north stated in no uncertain
terms
that the TET was their last gasp. If it didn't run them off then the
North
would be dead. It was that close. News and Politics being driven by
Yellow news
turned out to be the guilty one.

It was one of those chilling interviews that I forced myself to listen.

Just about like the chilling war series on WWII.

'Too bad we didn't win. Then Vietnam could have been democratic and no more
Americans would have been killed...just like Iraq.

Furthermore, the commies wouldn't have swept SE Asia, Australia, and Japan,
and then wound up putting us in a pincer with the USSR on the other side.

If we'd only listened to you guys, we wouldn't be speaking Russian today.
=========================
In my not so humble opinion, the war in Vietnam was lost (or at
least not winnable) before the first American boots (and blood)
ever hit the dirt over there.

With huge benefit of historical hindsight, the basic dynamics of
the situation were never understood by any but a few people in
the west (which did not include any of the real-politik policy
makers), policy was driven by consensus [read groupthink], and
the "rules of engagement" were dictated by people that had never
heard a "shot fired in anger." Despite 10,000 years of
experience in making war, a policy of "graduated and proportional
response" was followed. The war was based on the "Tonkin
incident," which at best was a "panic response" and at worst, a
cynical creation.

Uncle George