Do please enlighten us of this glorious American victory. Because clearly, they failed to prevent reunification, and the viet cong were still strong enough to defeat both the Red Khmers and the Chinese.
And if you consider this a victory, I guess you are implying that the USSR was victorious in Afghanistan as well, then?
You're confusing the viet cong with a unified Vietnam. Also, you do realize what happened when North Vietnam did unite the country? They gained all the equipment that the U.S. had given to the South Vietnamese when they pulled out. Which is why they were so well equipped to take on the Chinese. That war was not a total victory for them anyways, if you look into it further you'll see why. The Vietcong never formed a government, because the north took over the south when we pulled out.
What I meant to say was that militarily we were winning, but politically it was a loss because of what was going on at home. Had we stayed longer the North would have been defeated as they no longer had the support they once had from the vietcong after the Tet Offensive. I am not implying that the USSR won in Afghanistan, as that was a money pit they could ill-afford, while the U.S., simply put, had plenty of money to spare.
To sum it up, we lost the war, but not for the reasons you have listed. And one thing you should remember is that war is hell, innocents will die, no matter what conflict it was. Do you believe the allies in WWII were wrong to fight Germany, because they firebombed cities and slaughtered hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of civilians in the process? The allies destroyed entire cities, destroyed countless historical sites and pieces of art, and soldiers pilfered much of what was left and took it home with them at the end of the war. Those were the so-called "good guys". So no matter how you look at a war, there will be brutal acts committed. People will die, there will be destruction. It is unavoidable, once you are in the conflict.
