Dave,
If the politicians had turned us loose in Vietnam to wage war...the outcome would have been much different.
Until the very end...we did not blockade the harbors, mine all the harbors, rivers, and bays....we did not invade the enemy lands....did not wage a war of logistics but rather one of attrition...and tolerated other nations support of the North Vietnamese.
It is when the B-52's went downtown...we closed the Ports...and went into the Sanctuary areas did we begin to see the North Vietnamese resolve weaken. Tet 1968 was a horrible defeat for them militarily and a horrible defeat for us politically.
Sadly, the bottom line analysis is we should have suppported Ho Chi Minh and the Vietminh in their war of independence from France and we could have avoided all the bloodshed and loss of national assets that we did.
Why Truman allowed us to be drawn into the support of the French defeats me!
We had a complete failure by our National leadership...Political and most importantly...the Military.
Today...we see the same thing happening in Afghanistan and other places...we tie ourselves to the wrong people for the wrong reasons...and when the Military does speak up...they get fired. The tragic thing is there is some rank grabbing spineless bastard that will jump at the chance to fill the empty slot...zip his lips...and enjoy the perks of the promotion until he can retire with a fat pension and the accolades of those who fail to grasp what has happened.
Example of the "new Army"...fourteen people are killed at Fort Hood...and the Army Chief of Staff's statement is all about how it might adversely affect the Army's Diversity Program!
Political Correctness is going to destroy the US Military and in turn the country itself.