From the French army’s point of view, their tragedy was that at various points they could see with agonising clarity (and not without reason) that they were winning the war militarily. But (not unlike the American commanders in Vietnam) it was not given them to perceive that, at the same time, their chances of winning the war politically and on the wider world stage were growing ever slimmer.

XREF: Parallels the US experience in Vietnam and echoes Clausewitz's distinction between military and political victory.

Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Alge…, loc. 1653