The US Navy's Vietnam experience without a winning strategy

Where would the US Navy be without the Vietnam War?

Vietnam taught the navy and government many lessons, but it also demonstrated the predictable cost of entering a war without a firm plan for victory or a clear grasp of the conflict.

Operational experience can improve a navy while the war producing it remains strategically incoherent. The United States entered Vietnam without a settled route to victory or even a sufficiently clear understanding of the struggle. The passage compares that pattern with British imperial interventions in Afghanistan driven by reactive positioning against Russia.