I believe I read that General Giap, in his memoires, said that our strategic bombing campaign against North Vietnam was only weeks from breaking the back of the NVA and the Viet Cong. Had we continued for six more weeks instead of “pausing” he says North Viet Nam would have been unable to continue the war and would have had to admit defeat.
The lesson is that we did not use the Viet Cong’s tactics strategically. When we still cared about winning we dealt from strength, not from weakness. We nearly bombed them into oblivion. On the ground we used much the same strategy that General Petreus used in Iraq - creating safe zones for civilians with the strategic hamlet concept.
Behar at al are not the Viet Cong. They are frightened, angry people who are seeing their dreams crumble to dust. They have no weapons left but name calling and insults. We have won! Now we need to act like winners!
I agree with much of what you said, except for the comment about the Viet Cong. The VC pretty much ceased to exist as any kind of effective fighting force in 1968, with the Tet Offensive. But you are right about the 1972 bombing: Had we kept it up the NVA would have thrown in the towel. Unfortunately, our strategy with the 1972 bombing was not to get North Vietnam to surrender, but to get it back to the Paris Peacetalks to agree to a cease fire (which was what happened).