When LBJ was facing the difficulties of the Vietnam War, he called ex-POTUS Harry S Truman for advice, because he fought a war against the Communists in Korea. "American Ceasar" five-star General Douglas MacArthur had passed in early 1964, which would have been the better man to ask with his 52 years experience in the US Army and the Pacific. Generalissimo MacArthur had already advised JFK about Vietnam in April 1961.
Basically, the conversation between two yokels circa 1965 went something like this:
LBJ: "So, Harry, what ought I to do about these darned North Vietnamese? They're driving me nuts!"
HST: "Lissen Lyndon -- and listen hard. When the Commies hit 'ya, hit'em back hard. Twice as hard! Get me? Twice as hard!"
LBJ: "Got it, Harry. And thanks."
~snip~
Same continent, Asian enemy, communists, but wrong dynamic and circumstances, and therefore wrong advice.
The North Koreans and CHICOMs were conscripts fighting for a dictator under the Communist banner and on an offensive to rid South Korea of a pro-Western regime.
The Vietnamese and Viet Cong were dedicated freedom fighters ousting the last vestiges of colonial rule in Vietnam, a brutal Catholic minority junta in Saigon. Ho Chi Minh only adopted communism because the USSR and China were willing to help him.
Result: ~500,000 US Servicemembers in SE Asia by 1966 and a lost war.
To this day, every Vietnamese person calls the 1955-1975 conflict "The American War."
Thanks, Harry!
@#3
I'm not yet ready to attribute this current observation to the decades-old Middle-East mess at this point.
As I noted in #2, voters seem not to be especially enthusiastic of socialists, but when they look at MAGA in comparison, they seem to prefer socialists.