----------------------------p Throughout most of the first eight years of the war we employed the McNamara doctrine of showing the communists they couldn't win. Get a copy of the movie "We were Soldiers" and the actual newsreal of Johnson's proclaiming that policy is in it. As such, the military approach was very non-aggressive. McNamara briefly did some bombing in obscure lower parts of the north while warning Hanoi where he was going to bomb beforehand, supposedly as a demonstration of our invincability. What it did was give the North opportunity to clear their troops and equipment from the area. Until Nixon bombed the north, at no time were the equipment and personnel in the North in danger of personal safety or loss. What existed is a safety and staging area for their convenience until the right time came for them, in which case they could march south with previously protected troops and equipment. That's exactly what happened.
Go to zolatimes2.com. Ping on WRITERS. Go to Robert L. Kocher. Read the series on Viet Nam there for a 200 page more detailed analysis than can be posted here. The series has been used by certain military elements as a text on military science and tactics. More will be added to it in the future.