I firmly believe that....to the bottom of my heart.
I participated in a war where we never invaded the enemy homeland and destroyed the enemy forces and their ability to maintain their combat forces.
Our Air Force could not destroy their airfields and support units and had to wait until the Migs engaged our aircraft before they could do battle with them.
Our Air Force was denied the ability to destroy enemy SAM sites and had to suffer serious losses as a result.
We had Rules of Engagement that undercut our ability to seek out and destroy the enemy supply system and allowed them to operate in Cambodia and Laos safe from ground attack and as they were could only be attacked by air.
If I got shot at....I had to call for permission to return fire unless my aircraft and crew were in imminent loss due to the ground fire.
We took control of enemy territory then turned around and gave it back to them as our Leadership had decided to engage in a War of Attrition....where killing the enemy was the measure of success in violation of everything we had learned from previous wars.
That is NOT the way to wage War.
It only guarantees a long drawn out conflict with maximum casualties on both sides with no hope of a certain victory.
When they finally turned us loose to do what the US Army does best.....we cleaned out the part of Cambodia we were allowed to enter.
That provided a period of time where the NVA were unable to operate inside that part of South Vietnam.
The NVA had to operate exactly opposite of the usual way of supplying forces....they had to establish their logistical base ahead of operations.
We destroyed that ability while we were in Cambodia....until we had to withdraw due to political resistance by our own Congress.
One Third of my Flight School Class died in that War.....I know of what I speak.