Indeed, the Tet Offensive was a military disaster for the Viet Cong and NVA, and whilst it was a PR disaster for the US, had they escalated their deployment after the Tet Offensive, the VC and NVA would likely have been pushed back into 'the Jungle'.

Of course, the US had been saying for years that they had the NVA and VC on the back foot, so the Tet Offensive, was also an amazing disaster for the US because the scale of the enemy was shocking.

The problem isn't limited to democracies, the Soviets suffered similarly in Afghanistan. The simple fact is that nations aren't generally willing to conduct prolonged military losses in 'distant' lands.

Once they were drafting on a one year tour the US had essentially lost the fight, economically, because each solider was costing tens of thousands to train and equip each year, let alone supply and deploy in the field - whilst the NVA and VC had troops that had decades in the field, were almost self reliant, could fight part time and cost hundreds to equip.

A fact that's often missed, an irregular army generally can consist of soliders that maintain farms, fields etc 75% of the year, and then is engaged in conflict 25% of the time.

"One Nation Under God, has turned into One Nation Under the Influence of One Drug"
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