I agree with DougR -- Vietnam could have been won IF the politicians had kept their hands out of it (and without the use of nukes, too).

But when you have someone in DC (call sign Eagle One) directing the supporting fires of a destroyer in the Tonkin Gulf, there's something amiss.

Civilian government should and must control the military. But those same civilians shouldn't be playing soldier when they tell the military to "go git 'em." The PBI (and others) die that way.