We’ll see. Can Russia’s politics continue to sustain this war, and continue to sustain Putin. We’ll see. Vietnam was a war of attrition, too. JFK, LBJ and then Nixon all were thrown from power, one in a pine box, one by dropping out of an election, and one by resignation, all related to Vietnam.
General Westmoreland had complete freedom to decide how to prosecute the war in South Vietnam. It was he who decided to conduct of a war of attrition, using search and destroy tactics, in which progress was measured by was body count.
His premise was that if he could kill enough of the enemy, they would lose heart and cease their aggression against the ARVN. In his single-minded pursuit of that objective, Westmoreland ignored two other crucial aspects of the war, improvement of the ARVN and pacification.
General Westmoreland squandered 4 years of his troops’ bravery and support by the public, the Congress, and most of the media for American involvement in the war due to his manic commitment to fighting a war of attrition.
Nobody in the chain of command was competent to critique Westmoreland’s performance. LBJ had no understanding of military affairs whatsoever, nor did McNamara. General Earle Wheeler was essentially a staff officer with virtually no troop leading experience, much less combat acumen.
General Westmoreland’s incompetence lost the Vietnam War.