“It is dangerously easy, even seductive, to concentrate on what we know best: conventional warfare, bombing from the air, technology, & armies that do not meddle with politics. But to do this is to ignore every past lesson of this war [vs the Communists of North Vietnam & the Soviets & CCP standing behind them], & of all the “new wars” of the last 20 years. For if these conflicts are called wars, & have deep international consequences, they are at the same time not wars, & their outcome is determined by internal factors. Their essence is political. They are struggles for control of government, contests for the allegiance of men. Allegiance is won as in any political contest, by an idea & a faith, by promise & performance. Governments resist such challenges only by being effective & responsive to the needs of their people.” 

~ Robert F. Kennedy, ‘To Seek a Newer World’ (1967)