re: Did the us really lose the war in Vietnam?

I would not say they lost. But they definitely did not accomplish their mission, or at least the stated admission

Has any nation ever won a shooting war against an idea?

I am going to get lambasted for this but its a given that communism is going to fail due to its inadequacy in addressing human nature. Eventually it will fail. Given that this is as certain as the sun rising in the east and setting in the west why do market economies spend so much money and effort stopping the spread of communism? The US in particular is not overly interested in Human Rights abroad...we are in bed with Saudi Arabia and it would be hard to find a worse human rights situation on the planet. Could it be that capitalism will indeed struggle to compete with a taxing power? It is hard to imagine even in the greatest market economy ever known for a group of investors to build a simple road without the collective weight of government involved to some degree. It certainly hasn't happened much in the United States. I am not questioning the fact that ALL controlled economies eventually die of their own weight...I am simply asking why, given that this is as sure as tax and death, why not simply allow them to do so in their own time. Historically they are not nearly as prone to building empires as market economies are so that's not the answer...they also have never gone in the controlled market economy business without free markets doing all manner of ill shite to hasten their demise...one has to ask why, if they are doomed to fail eventually and are far less prone to empirical designs, historically, than market economies why all the bother?

Objectively yes; militarily no.

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Ho Chi Minh is a son of a bitch.

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Got the blue balls, clap, and the seven year itch.

We did not lose the war militarily. Every major US engagement with the North ended in a US victory, we lost politically. The Viet Cong was a spent military force after TET but so was the American public in terms of their political support for the war

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Nazism was an idea just like communism is an idea.

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Had it not been for invading neighbors and Japan bombing Pearl Harbor there is a pretty good chance the US never gets involved in what turned into WW2

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Ho Chi Minh is a son of a bitch.

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fun fact trivia, Ho Chi Minh used to be a pastry chef at the Parker House in Boston, same hotel that JFK proposed to Jackie, at least that's what he and the Parker House claim, there's even a plaque in the hotel saying as much

Did we really win the ETO during WW2?

But when you have bureaucrats making miltary decisions and the enemy is committed to fighting until there are no warriors left to pick up a weapon, you get what we got.
---Plus there were global concerns. For example, we did not want to risk China's army flooding into Vietnam like they did in Korea, so we had a limited war effort. And Berlin---the USSR had all of East Germany and half of Berlin & could have started WW3 in Europe if the US did something like obliterate North Vietnam.

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The vast majority of America was supportive of the vets

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this