Wasn't the lesson of Vietnam, that the "war at home", the battle for the hearts and minds of the TV audience, was far more important than any reality troops faced? See "Kill counts" and then everything up to recent headlines about which missile was shot down by whom and "this wasn't combat" but that over there a few hundred miles, that was.
"To know which is which, American soldiers must study not only their enemies but also their target audiences among neutral, allied, and domestic US populations: “A group, faction, or nation’s prevailing narratives can provide a great deal of insight into how that group, faction, or nation might perceive Army operations.”"
