"How about: No more Soviet Union and East Germany. No more Warsaw Pact. Daniel Ortega and his pretty red scarf are not running the show anymore in Nicaragua. What is Fidel up to these days? The 10+ year holding-action in Southeast Asia contributed to all of this. Vietnam can be analogized to the Battle of Bunker Hill. We did not hold the field at the end of that day in 1775, but we extracted a price in blood that the enemy, Communism, was unwilling to keep paying and it postured us for a larger victory. That is a legacy to be proud of."
Our strength in Nam via our wonderful military was the beginning of the end of the expansion of Communism via its rogue states like N Viet Nam, Cuba and the PRC. Ronald Reagan and Maggie Thatcher continued to cut off the expansion legs and financial legs of the USSR.
Our overwhelming victory over Iraq in Desert Storm showed that even a well trained and supplied USSR puppet state like Iraq had no way of winning against us. That was the final nail in the coffin of the USSR. Their best military equipment, training and resources got its A$$ pounded in Desert Storm one.
The military leadership for our victory came from our service men in Nam.
Thanks for your excellent historical summary.
Desert Storm: We cut up the Republican Guards like blueberry pie,
Iraqi Freedom One: All we had to do was eat the slices (of pie).