“We Americans didn’t lose a major battle, starting with the Ia Drang valley in `65.”
That was a major victory, but of course lots of our guys died, the obvious result of fighting any major battle.
I recall watching some of the original footage on youtube of it, and a reporter - Morely Safer - back at one of the bases with helicopters landing. He ended his report with something like “The only question now is how long will the American public put up with their brave young men returning home in body bags?”
I was dumbfounded - the first major battle! I could understand it a bit more if it was 1970 with all of the protests back home, the war dragging on, etc. But right at the start the press was against us!
CBS report below. It begins with Cronkite talking over video of caskets getting unloaded from an airplane. “This is the price of victory....”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cFTBfPYRZ9k
There's another one that was up to his eyeballs in puking up propaganda for international communism.