” that the greatest generation leaders were not doing anything constructive in Vietnam or trying to win,”
Lyndon Johnson and his administration were a generation older than the greatest generation. The soldiers of WWII were mid level officers, they were not the politicians setting policy during Vietnam.
“There was no one making any explanations or coherent defense of our strategy or goals there,”
It’s what happens when politicians blunder their way into a war and then let mission creep take over.
1955-60, President Eisenhower warned against sending American combat troops into an an Asian land war and sent only materiel and advisors.
1960-63 President Kennedy ramped up our military presence to 16,000 advisors. But he found South Vietnam President Ngo Dinh Diem difficult and Kennedy managed to get Diem assassinated on November 2, 1963. Twenty days later President Kennedy himself was assassinated and a leaderless Vietnam became Lyndon Johnson’s problem.
1963-68 President Johnson committed American combat troops to Vietnam, ignoring wiser heads. He also ignored the uniformed military and let civilians like Robert McNamara and Clark Clifford run the war from the White House.
Not wanting to endanger the funding for his Great Society welfare state Johnson employed a half-assed defensive strategy that allowed the Communist North to set the tempo of the war. The title of Admiral U.S. Grant Sharp’s 1986 book said it all: ‘Strategy for Defeat: Vietnam in Retrospect’. Admiral Grant commanded the air war over North Vietnam from 1964-68 and no one was in a better position to see how bad the LBJ strategy was.
Nixon had the opportunity to change all that when he won the Presidency in 1968. But he waited 4 years to implement Operation Linebacker, the B-52 campaign, and he never advocated the invasion of North Vietnam and the destruction of its government.
The "greatest generation" doesn't really match up with any single generation, it is really a vague and undefined creation of the left that they find useful, Silver Star awarded Lyndon Johnson was a sailor during WWII as were the other Vietnam Presidents, Kennedy and Nixon and Ford, all Navy WWII vets.
Here is a list of the leaders of the Vietnam War, Presidents and civilians (political), and the military, ALL OF THEM were WWII vets except for Schlesinger.
United States of America Political:
Dwight D. Eisenhower was the 34th President of the United States from 1953 to 1961.
John F. Kennedy was the 35th President of the United States from 1961 until his death in 1963.
Lyndon B. Johnson was the 36th President of the United States from 1963 to 1969.
Richard Nixon was the 37th President of the United States from 1969 until he resigned in 1974.
Gerald Ford was the 38th President of the United States from 1974 to 1977.
Robert McNamara was the 8th Secretary of Defense, serving under Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson from 1961 to 1968.
Clark Clifford was the 9th Secretary of Defense, serving under President Lyndon B. Johnson from 1968 to 1969.
Melvin R. Laird was the 10th Secretary of Defense, serving under President Richard Nixon from 1969 to 1973.
James R. Schlesinger was the 12th Secretary of Defense, serving under President Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford from 1973 to 1975.
Henry Kissinger was the 8th National Security Advisor and the 56th Secretary of State, serving under Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford from 1969 to 1977.
Military:
Earle Wheeler was a United States Army General who served as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from 1964 to 1970.
Thomas Hinman Moorer was a U.S. admiral who served as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from 1970 to 1974.
William Westmoreland was an American General who commanded American military operations in the Vietnam War from 1964 to 1968.
Creighton Abrams was an American General who commanded American military operations in the Vietnam War from 1968 to 1972.
Frederick C. Weyand was a U.S. Army General who was the last commander of American military operations in the Vietnam War from 1972 to 1973.
Elmo Zumwalt was an American naval officer and commander of American naval forces in Vietnam.
William W. Momyer was commander of the U.S. Air Force Tactical Air Command and the commander of the 7th Air Force.
John S. McCain, Jr. was an American admiral and Commander-in-Chief of the Pacific Command.