Americans didn't know what they were doing.

Umm.. did you listen?? they didn't know there were 1600 troops until they get a "commie" and interrogated him and then found out.. also that entire story I believe can be seen in the "mel gibson's" movie we were soldiers

You can pretend like they "didn't know what they were doing" and they honestly didn't.. but if you were likely calling the shots you would have done the same thing!

This was the 60's a lot of this fighting was "guerilla warfare" and just cause we had great air power doesn't mean you could see *beep* in the jungle...

See, this is the problem with things like this on the History Channel. Somebody watches it and suddenly they are an expert on military strategy and tactics, without ever having been in combat, or even gone through any kind of training.

Did America know what it was doing? Depends on how you look at things. Certain commanders knew quite well what they were doing, but found themselves butting heads with other elements while they tried to do it. Some thought they could fight a jungle war like they did in the European theater, rather than via lessons learned in Burma or the Pacific islands. The mission of US troops kept changing from an advisory role to full combat, without a clear goal for the end of the conflict. Some thought they could fight a limited war, but didn't have a backup plan if things escalated, which they did.

Meanwhile, you also had involvement from Australia and the Republic of South Korea, so apparently they didn't know any better, either.

So, what you end up with is a lot of competing agendas and a whole lot of mess.

"Fortunately, Ah keep mah feathers numbered for just such an emergency!"