boston globe, Niall Ferguson :

It was nearly 52 years ago, on March 8, 1965, that the first American combat battalions came ashore at Da Nang, South Vietnam. In the subsequent six months, the US government took the worst strategic decision of modern times: the decision to escalate that military commitment just enough to entangle the United States in the war between North and South Vietnam, but not enough to win it. 

Half a century later, American society still bears the scars of Vietnam.

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