[jslade]

I was a radar navigator on B-52s during the late 60's-early 70's. We could have won the war in two week or so. By bombing the dike systems on the Red River during monsoon season, North Vietnam would have been under water. Game over!

[kilowhskey]

And you more than most realize that targets were carefully controlled by LBJ and McNamara. Those two buzzards tied our hands and prevented professional military men from prosecuting the war as it should have been.

[quadrant]

I am no expert on the application of military force, but I believe that by the late 1960's the war was lost.
If LBJ had made it very clear in 1965 that he was prepared to use all elements of US power (except nuclear weapons) the war might have been won.
Such a declaration would have required an immediate full-scale deployment of the active duty military, a call-up of the reserves and the guard, and a willingness to use air and ground power throughout all of Indochina.
Johnson did not follow this course and tragedy resulted.