The Vietcong/NVA never defeated us on the field of battle. In terms of body count, our K/D spread was almost 24:1.

However, they never needed to. They knew that all they had to do was draw out the conflict, henpeck us, bloody our noses, and foster some newsreel footage of wounded G.I.s, because they knew that doing so would then eventually turn American public opinion and press against the war. Then we would ultimately lose our resolve and will to fight, which is precisely what happened.

I couldn't find the quote, but I believe this one enemy POW said something along the lines of "You may kill ten of us for every one yours we kill, but in the end you will be the one who tires first".

Conversely, we could've steamrolled over them in short order, like we eventually did during Linebacker II, but instead we hampered our personnel with self-defeating rules of engagement, and forced them to fight with an arm and a leg tied behind their backs out of fear of escalating the conflict. Which was retarded, because the Soviets wanted a nuclear war about as much as we did.

So, no. We were never "defeated". What really happened was far worse.

We simply chose not to win.

Because no one won.

More like everyone said "Screw it, I'm out."