From my limited understanding, I think the rationale for going into the conflict at the time was sound. At least 3, possible 4 presidents all generally agreed. The fear of course was a domino effect in the spread of communism. That never materialized, but it's impossible to know whether it would have spread further had the conflict in Vietnam never occurred. As far as a strategy, search and destroy seems fool-hearty. Forcing platoons into the jungle to hunt VC on the their home turf with the only measure of victory being body count. I'd be interested to hear if anyone on the forum actually fought in the war. From what I gather, ground forces rarely physically saw the VC they were shooting at in combat. It was more of find their general location and then spray and pray.

I actually did. I was assigned to an artillery battery with the 4th Inf. Div. and spent all my time in the Central Highlands, usually within eyesight of the tri-country border where Laos, Cambodia and VN met. I was a Sgt. and NCOIC of the fire direction control unit. We saw lots of combat all around us for the 15 months I spent in-country, and our fire bases were attacked quite a few times. We were direct support for an infantry battalion of 4 companies. Two companies would work the field and the other two would provide perimeter defense for us. I don't know that I ever encountered a VC. We were fighting against the North Vietnamese Army in our area, and they were a well trained army. Watch the movie, "We Were Soldiers". It happened in the Ia Drang Valley which was close to the highlands. My unit spent some time there in support of a special operation, a few years after the events of that movie played out. That was the enemy we faced every day.

Nobody won. Everybody lost, and there were tens of thousands of deaths on both sides. This was the first war, I think, where there were "rules of engagement" enforced by the politicians. We were totally hamstrung by them. We were not allowed to shoot into Cambodia and Laos at the NVA who were using the Ho Chi Minh trail to move troops and supplies from the north to the south. By agreement, they were not supposed to be there. I'm not sure what sort of engagement rules were in place for the infantry, air force and naval folks.

The political climate in this country made it miserable for us when we came home. It was a very unpopular war and the troops took an unbelievable amount of the blame for doing what we were ordered to do. I was never spit on, but I was called a lot of terrible things walking thru the airports on my way home. I am so glad that today's military has never been subjected to that, and that thousands of folks have turned out to welcome them home. They have all, for the most part, been treated as heroes.