13. Myth: The United States won every major battle in which it was engaged
A long standing claim is that the US Army won the battles in which it fought, and Vietnam was lost to the communists by gutless politicians. The claim does not hold up to the light of day. The first major battle fought between US troops and the North Vietnamese was during the Pleiku Campaign in 1965, in the Ia Drang Valley. One of the American commanders who fought in the battle, which was the first in which high casualties figures of dead and wounded Americans occurred, was stunned by the tactics employed by the North Vietnamese. The United States claimed a clear victory, basing the claim on the higher number of casualties inflicted upon the enemy, later determined to have been inflated by more than 30%. The United States claimed that the kill ratio inflicted upon the enemy was more than 10:1.
