re: Could any strategy have worked in Vietnam?

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quote: the media fricked it up

they were a big part. All three networks at the time made it a point to have daily "casualty" numbers in their broadcasts. We don't see that any more. Wonder why?

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I think McNamara is more to blame for the daily body count than the media. His penchant for statistical analysis attempted to reduce every activity into numbers to be quantified by Pentagon statisticians, including human life. McNamara created that monster, the media just reported what was fed to them in the Five O'Clock Follies.

My father was out of the Air Force by the mid/late '50s, but he was intensely interested in Vietnam. I remember the TV being tuned into the evening news every night at supper. I can recall one night when the body count report was heavily in favor of the US. I was about 6 or 7 years old and it was like a football score to me. I made some enthusiastic comment about the "score". My father asked me what I meant. I said we were winning and that was good. I proceeded to get my arse chewed by my father who assured me that there were X number of American families who weren't feeling like winners tonight because their sons were dead and that even a small number of lives weren't worth being lost fighting in a tiny place on the other side of the world that was no threat to us.