>>"if the US wasn't trapped behind political barriers like the 17th parallel." The NVA would have been crushed if the USA crossed that barrier and nobody else

>>"if the US wasn't trapped behind political barriers like the 17th parallel." The NVA would have been crushed if the USA crossed that barrier and nobody else get involved in the conflict. The low probability of that happening is the reason for not crossing, so, it's actually a military barrier. From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pentagon_Papers#Actual_objective_of_the_Vietnam_War:_Containment_of_China https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pentagon_Papers#Actual_objecti...: "The memorandum begins by disclosing the rationale behind the bombing of North Vietnam in February 1965: The February decision to bomb North Vietnam and the July approval of Phase I deployments make sense only if they are in support of a long-run United States policy to contain China." >>"The big takeaway is never get involved with someone else's civil war." It seems that, more than a civil war, it has the characteristics of a proxy war. from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pentagon_Papers#Role_of_the_United_States_in_the_rise_of_President_Diem https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pentagon_Papers#Role_of_the_Un... "As acknowledged by the papers: We must note that South Vietnam (unlike any of the other countries in Southeast Asia) was essentially the creation of the United States."