What's the Longest the US Can Stay in Vietnam?

A question that came to my mind out of the blue. Vietnam was the longest US war, and seemed to go on perpetually. So what is the longest the United States can remain active in the Vietnam war? Similarly, what effect would an elongated Vietnam conflict have on the United states socially, politically, etc?
 
Depends how well they're doing. If Diem survives, and a SOFA is negotiated, then there's nothing to discuss. If not, then politics works out as OTL, unless RFK survives and wins. I think an "Obama" would be the most likely scenario on Vietnam. Nixon will go for the Abrams/Petraeus approach, but I doubt RFK would because of the nature of his coalition.
 

CalBear

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Determined by what?

Military force? At least to the present day, likely well into the late 21st if not 22nd Century.

Political will? 1975, maybe 76.
 

The Sandman

Banned
Have the Pueblo seizure erupt into an honest-to-god shooting war and you probably get enough of a distraction (and draw-down) from Vietnam to buy another few years once Korea is dealt with and we can go back to pissing our national will away in Indochina.

It might be very interesting, however, if you can somehow drag things out until 1979-1980.
 
If there was some kind of truce or peace agreement that kept the countries separate, or a more-effective war strategy, it's entirely possible we could still be there, in the form of airbases and such, like in Korea or Japan or (until 1994) the Philippines.
 
One war strategy that Nixon could use in Vietnam is to invite the Chinese to walk in and take over the North in the mid '70's while the Americans develop the South. This would be something of a US/China pact. This keeps the USA in Vietnam for the 80's.

What if there was no watergate? Would the US react differently in '75 when the North blatently invaded the South. Would the US be able to send in air support to stop the North's invasion?
 
The Chinese did try to invade North Vietnam after the war, and got their heads handed to them for their trouble. A similar incursion while the NVA is fighting in South Vietnam, especially after Ho Chi Minh's death, might have a different outcome.
 
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