No, it wasn’t “a colossal mistake”: we had a major intervention by the Soviets and the Chinese and the whole Warsaw Pact in that corner of the world called a “National Liberation War”. Vietnam is in the perfect position for the control of the Straits of Malacca, the artery that supports our other allies within the region.
We held them off, despite being 10,000 miles from home, despite Billions of dollars of support for the enemy from the Eastern Bloc, despite 2 million enemy effectives, and despite rank cowardice and open support for the enemy at home. Did it for eight long years.
At the end, thanks to the slimy Democrats in Congress (and a successful coup to remove Nixon), our country quit. But by that time, we had hung on longer than the Soviets expected and they discovered that Nation Liberation Wars were too expensive and they gave up on that tactic. They tried proxy wars (Cubans in Angola, Cubans and others in Central America) and even direct intervention in Afghanistan but no more “assisted civil wars”.
We did very well despite all the other crap we had to deal with (plus a horrible climate and difficult rules of engagement and hostile press) and it was the impression we made in our war of toughness and resolute courage that made the end of the Cold War possible.
If you were only 16 at the end of our war,many have you been wasting my time?
Wow. You included some facts. Excellent.
Still a bad war. Many served honorably.