No term limits

[ATFFL]

If Richard Nixon had been elected in 1960, Vietnam would never have gotten out of control.

Agreed.  WIthout LBJ to give the ridiculous orders to not invade N. Vietnam the US military would have walked over the NVA.  The country would have been a blood bath and heavily depopulated in the end.

If the US had not fought a defensive war without ever trying to exploit the weknesses of the NVA the Vietnam war would have been very, very different.  A lot of people don't realize that the US military was never defeated by the NVA.  Militarily, the Tet Offensive was a disaster.  But it did achieve its political goal of driving up US casualties to unacceptable levels back home.

[ATFFL]

Ok, the US forces in Vietnam won every battle and yet we lost the war.  The reason is because the enemy had no where to go.  Put simply,

If (Cost of Defeat) < (Cost of Victory - Spoils of Victory)
Then you will lose a war of attrition.

The reason is the politicians in the US never let the Army fight to win.  You cannot win a purely defensive war.  North Vietnam would have collapsed with the capture of Hanoi and the death, capture or exile of Ho Chi Minh.

Actually, the situation would probably be a lot like Iraq is today.  Most areas of the country would be relative safe with a few exceptionally dangerous hot spots.  There would have probably been a lot of villages destroyed in order to save them.

[ATFFL]

Ok, the US forces in Vietnam won every battle and yet we lost the war.  The reason is because the enemy had no where to go.  Put simply,

If (Cost of Defeat) < (Cost of Victory - Spoils of Victory)
Then you will lose a war of attrition.

The reason is the politicians in the US never let the Army fight to win.  You cannot win a purely defensive war.  North Vietnam would have collapsed with the capture of Hanoi and the death, capture or exile of Ho Chi Minh.

Ho Chi Minh did die of natural causes before it ended.

Big difference between the early 1960s and the late.  His cult of personality would have suffered a major blow if the US had invaded N. Vietnam.  A huge part of his image when fighting the US was that he was somehow keeping them out.