[tame_deuces]

Grunching,

Counter-insurgency wouldn't have worked, even if following the british Oman model (which is the bomb) because you'd have the chinese and the soviets doing pretty much the same thing anyway.

Declaring war was not a viable solution in the beginning of the conflict, due to the international situation.

The change in military doctrines really came around when needed, it would be unrealistic to believe the US could have been prepared for all the eventualities in the vietnam, lending another reasons as to why early invansions could have been catastrophical.

The political gains from an American military victory are debatable, since ideally you would want the south vietnamese to win while you were there as advisors.

So all things considered the defensive line tactic seems like a good idea, the military tactics used throughout seems sound enough (the ratios are brilliant compared to anything of its time or before) and the political situation at home were out of control anyway.

So I'll end it by grunching that discussion if it could have been won is not really an issue.

The military certainly did a good job at the military bits and the political situation changed and the people didn't want to win nomore.