We had the Vietnam War won in 1970; the North Vietnamese were preparing to seek a truce.
Jane Fonda, John Kerry et al convinced General Giap to stick it out, and they would build the anti-war movement to get the US to give-up.
Had we not abandoned our treaty obligations to the South Vietnamese, they may very well have been able to hold their own against the North.
“We had the Vietnam War won in 1970”
But we lost. “Had it won” is a meaningless phrase when applied to war. We have been defeated now in Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan with the same error every time. The war is not over when WE say we’ve won - it’s over when the ENEMY says we’ve won.
Victory is MacArthur getting off a C-47 at Haneda and walking down the main street unmolested. Victory is not evacuating clinging to helicopter skids while saying “unfair! We had it won!”