Guerilla warfare was a much more effective tool for defeating the United States.
Colonel Moore, pulling a dead NVA soldier from a foxhole. The battle of La Drang (1965) highlighted to General Westmoreland the ability of overwhelming US firepower to destroy communist forces in a war of attrition. Robert Mcnamara saw things differently and his first doubts began to surface.
Mcnamara doubted that the enemy would fight toe to toe like this on a regular basis. This had been an out of character assault, and the ferociousness of the enemy resistance showed Mcnamara that a war of attrition could go on longer than the American public were willing to accept. He proposed a 37 day Christmas bombing pause to assess options. On December 18 th 1965, Mcnamara told Johnson that the US could not win a war in Vietnam. “Then no matter what we do in the military field there is no sure victory”? (Johnson) “That’s right. We have been too optimistic”. (Mcnamara) Taken from Lydon Johnsons War (Larry Berman)
Judgements about Mcnamara’s bombing policy; “The handwringers had the central stage. The most powerful country inthw world did not have the willpower needed to meet the situation” (Admiral Sharp) “I didn’t think Mr Mcnamara understood air power nor its application very well”. In fact, I don’t think there was, at that time, anybody in the Office of the Secretary of Defence who understood the application of tactical and strategic powers”. ( General John Paul McConnel)