After the 1968 Tet Offensive, it became clear to any objective observer that the American military campaign in Vietnam was not showing the kind of forward progress that might lead to a face-saving settlement. By 1971, the situation had worsened. Many units became infected with crippling morale problems, chiefly revolving around drug abuse, systemic indiscipline, and seething racial tensions. A more honest era would have called such conditions mutinous; but this was a word that American officials would have done nearly anything to avoid using. No one wanted to be among the last to be crippled or killed in a cause that appeared locked into a trajectory of failure.
-WiscoDave
