America in Vietnam: The War that Couldn't Be Won

[...] North Vietnam never doubted its capacity to achieve national unification and it never saw itself "in any danger of being defeated militarily," for it was "able to call on its people for greater sacrifices than was the government of South Vietnam, which looked to the Americans for protection and support to the very end" (155). Civilian and military leaders engaged in endless sparring and compromises, as Johnson sought to achieve his ends with minimal damage to domestic reform while the joint chiefs persistently whined about limitations imposed on the air and ground war.