I think you need to know about William Polk.

Just saw him in a c-span 2 rebroadcast this morning.
He was appearing before the house Progressive Caucus and talking about the shambles of Iraq.

He worked in government foreign policy making from post WW II to Viet Nam. The famous Polk Awards in Journalism were named in honor of his brother George, an investigative reporter who was assassinated in Greece in the late 40s.

In 1963 William was invited to address the graduating class of The War College:
"Learning about my study, the National War College (now called the Defense University) invited me to summarize my findings for its graduating class of the “best and brightest” Navy captains and Army, Air Force and Marine colonels who were headed for senior command – and for combat in Vietnam...

...Thus, by about 1960 the South Vietnamese government had virtually ceased to function. It could not collect taxes or even deliver mail much beyond downtown Saigon. Its officials could move only during daylight...

...So I told my War College audience in 1963 that we had already lost the war.

The war college officers were no more receptive to this account then than some of our senior officers are today. Nor were the Kennedy, Johnson or Bush administrations.

So we plunged ahead, “surging” from a few thousand when I spoke to half a million..."

Damn, the guy knew in 1963 the 'war' in Viet Nam was doomed.
He says it's impossible to 'fight' an insurgency and draws many parallels to our Iraq involvement.

"William R. Polk is the senior director of the W. P. Carey Foundation. A graduate of Harvard University (B. A. Magna Cum Laude and Ph.D.) and Oxford University (B. A. and M. A.), he also studied at the Universidad Nacional de Mexico, the Universidad Nacional de Chile, the University of Baghdad and the American University of Cairo.

He taught at Harvard University from 1955 to 1961 when President Kennedy appointed him a Member of the Policy Planning Council of the United States Department of State.

On the Policy Planning Council, he was responsible for planning American policy over much of Africa and Asia and for a number of specialized issues such as development, refugee problems and cultural exchange. Dr. Polk was also the head of various interdepartmental Task Forces on America foreign policy and was a participant in the “crisis management committee” during the Cuban Missile Crisis. During this period, he was asked to become Deputy Commissioner-General of UNRWA."
http://www.williampolk.com/html/aboutwrp.html

when giants roamed the land.

Alas, that happens rarely, and we're stuck with midgets for the foreseeable future.