Agreed, the war was a military success. The dems just pulled the rug out from under the South, and had no choice but to fall.
What parallels this with recent wars are the American sacrifices for what? When the South fell I had the sick feeling in my stomach. I bet when Afghanistan was just given to the Taliban those vets felt the same. Such a waste of good American lives, and materials.
Vietnam WAS a successful application of the containment doctrine. It did stop the monolithic communist movement long enough for the Chinese and Soviets to have their falling out. Had those sacrifices not been made other dominos would have fallen in the early and mid sixties. It cost us 56,000 American boys and the horrors the locals lived through but the Comintern was contained for a crucial decade. Had the communists rolled on throughout Indochina after the French left who knows if they would have been containable until Reagan came onto the scene. It’s just a damned disgrace that Vietnam ended the way it did.