Many of the obstacles faced by the British in the American Revolution would re-surface a century and a half later when we went to South Vietnam. There was just no blueprint for a victory; if it was a peninsula like South Korea, it could work - but the large unsecured land border could never be overcome. Even with the VC smashed in Tet, there was no way to stop the NVA from getting into the country.
“...a century and a half later when we went to South Vietnam. There was just no blueprint for a victory; ... the large unsecured land border could never be overcome. ... there was no way to stop the NVA from getting into the country.
There were a number of “blueprints” for victory but American political leadership declined to use them.
Sealing borders and preventing enemy infiltration posed neither “inherent” limitations nor did they present insurmountable technical problems. Plenty of methods and countermeasures were available, but leadership at many levels shrank from using them. See IGLOO WHITE.
US loss in Southeast Asia was a failure of willpower, not of capability.