You are absolutely right.

But Ukraine was also considering jointing the EU. It was enjoying running its own affairs and not having to follow the Russian lead. It had a messy but functioning democracy, and it finally knew what it was like not living under the Russian yoke. Its people LIKED being Western.

Russia knew this, and was afraid it might spread to other countries in the old Soviet orbit. Russia can't rebuild its old empire if those who are free of it suddenly prosper and thrive. They had to put a stop to it, no matter how many half-baked lies they had to come up with to justify it.

What they hadn't counted on was that even decadent, pampered Western democracies can still fight.

Viet Nam WAS different, in many ways. It was a different time, different place, different peoples involved. But one factor WAS the same: we were afraid one of our outpost bastions was being turned into an enemy base. Even if it wasn't any more of an immediate threat than a NATO Ukraine was to Putin, it might become one in the future. So we felt we had to act.

So we acted. We failed. And nothing terrible happened. There was no cascade of falling dominoes, Communists did not take over all of Asia, and Viet Nam is more afraid of China today than they ever were of us. They want us as a military ally, for Chrissake.

But to be fair, at the time that wasn't very clear, was it? I certainly didn't get it. Eisenhower, JFK and LBJ didn't get it.

But I think Nixon and Kissinger got it.