We won that war three times. I use “we†to define those of my generation like me who fought there. Well, actually we won it the first time and the ARVN won it in Tet and March of 1972 when crushed they the NVA mechanized army that came down highway one. In each case Democrat politicians snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. The first time was when his Joint Chiefs of Staff told Johnson what was required and he impolitely told them to go to hell as follows. A link to the entire article follows, which I first saw published in the U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings.
“Seemingly deep in thought, President Johnson turned his back on them for a minute or so, then suddenly discarding the calm, patient demeanor he had maintained throughout the meeting, whirled to face them and exploded.I almost dropped the map.
He screamed obscenities, he cursed them personally, he ridiculed them for coming to his office with their “military advice.†Noting that it was he who was carrying the weight of the free world on his shoulders, he called them filthy names-shitheads, dumb shits, pompous assholes-and used “the F-word†as an adjective more freely than a Marine in boot camp would use it. He then accused them of trying to pass the buck for World War III to him.
It was unnerving, degrading.â€
Vietnam 1965: The Day It Became the Longest War
http://extendedremarks.blogspot.com/2006/12/vietnam-1965-day-it-became-longest-war.html
Years ago I read an interview with Imelda Marcos, first lady to Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos. In 1967 Lyndon Johnson visited the Marcos’ in Manila. She said Johnson unfurled a big map of the Pacific and explained his strategy in Vietnam.
LBJ said U.S. involvement in Vietnam was about tying up Communist resources on one battleground, affording time for the non-communist Asian states—many of them just emerging from colonial rule—to develop stable governments, economies and armed forces that could cope with local communist insurgencies. To this end the war was a success.
The U.S. buildup in Vietnam forced the Soviets, and to a lesser extent the Chinese, to divert money, arms and materiel to Vietnam thus neglecting other armed Marxist movements in the Western Pacific.
This strategy strengthened the rising nations of Thailand, Burma, Malaysia, the Philippines, Indonesia, and South Korea. The cost to the Soviets was huge because of their dysfunctional economy.
When Russian personnel began appearing in the conquered South Vietnam the people called them “Americans without dollars.”