Changes

President Johnson mishandled everything about the war.  He became obsessed with bombing North Vietnam, but wouldn’t let our generals win the war completely.  Instead, LBJ insisted on ordering some bombing raids here and there without doing what was necessary to win the war.  Later politicians swore that we should never repeat the mistake of Vietnam, which means we should never enter a war unless we are committed to doing what is necessary to win it.  Later Presidents also avoided Johnson’s mistake of dictating detailed military strategy from the White House.

President Johnson mishandled everything about the war.  He became obsessed with bombing North Vietnam, but wouldn’t let our generals win the war completely.  Instead, LBJ insisted on ordering some bombing raids here and there without doing what was necessary to win the war.  Later politicians swore that we should never repeat the mistake of Vietnam, which means we should never enter a war unless we are committed to doing what is necessary to win it.  Later Presidents also avoided Johnson’s mistake of dictating detailed military strategy from the White House.

We did not run the war any better under President Richard Nixon, who was the next president after Johnson.  We would win a battle and then our leaders, particularly Nixon's adviser Henry Kissinger, would call for a "cease-fire" to discuss settlement.  But the Communists had no intention of settling, and they would just use the cease-fires to obtain replacement of all their ammunition and supplies from China and the Soviet Union.  Some of our military leaders could have done better also.  Many of our planes were shot down early in the war, including the one carrying John McCain, and it took years before we improved and better protected our pilots.  We did not anticipate or sweep the territory for land mines as well as we do today, although the jungle in Vietnam made that more difficult than a desert.

We did not run the war any better under President Richard Nixon, who was the next president after Johnson.  We would win a battle and then our leaders, particularly Nixon's adviser Henry Kissinger, would call for a "cease-fire" to discuss settlement.  But the communists had no intention of settling, and they would just use the cease-fires to obtain replacement of all their ammunition and supplies from China and the Soviet Union.  Some of our military leaders could have done better also.  Many of our planes were shot down early in the war, including the one carrying John McCain, and it took years before we improved and better protected our pilots.  We did not anticipate or sweep the territory for land mines as well as we do today, although the jungle in Vietnam made that more difficult than in a desert.

The war, and particularly the draft, became hugely unpopular.  People from all walks of life began protesting against in the United States.  They caused disruption at colleges.  The protests became bigger and bigger.  At the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in 1968, hippies caused massive riots that were brutally suppressed by the tough Chicago Democratic Mayor Richard Daley, which was a political disaster for the Democratic Party.  The "Chicago Seven," the hippie ringleaders of the riots, were convicted for disrupting the convention but their convictions were overturned on appeal.  Democrats had hoped to nominate Robert Kennedy, the brother of the late President John Kennedy, had Robert Kennedy was assassinated in June by a disgruntled immigrant from the Middle East (Jordan).  The Democrats then nominated Vice President Hubert Humphrey instead.  (President Johnson himself had pulled out of the race after the first primary in New Hampshire, when he fared poorly due to unhappiness in his own Party about the war.)

The war, and particularly the draft, became hugely unpopular.  People from all walks of life began protesting against in the United States.  They caused disruption at colleges.  The protests became bigger and bigger.  At the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in 1968, hippies caused massive riots that were brutally suppressed by the tough Chicago Democratic Mayor Richard Daley, which was a political disaster for the Democratic Party.  The "Chicago Seven," the hippie ringleaders of the riots, were convicted for disrupting the convention but their convictions were overturned on appeal.  Democrats had hoped to nominate Robert Kennedy, the brother of the late President John Kennedy, had Robert Kennedy was assassinated in June by a disgruntled immigrant from the Middle East (Jordan).  The Democrats then nominated Vice President Hubert Humphrey instead.  (President Johnson himself had pulled out of the race after the first primary in New Hampshire, when he fared poorly due to unhappiness in his own Party about the war.)