Do you think American soldiers are put on too high of a pedestal

[Thumpalumpacus]

Of course. But imagine striking those dockyard facilities while no ships were in port. Those missiles ain't gonna walk to the battery's deployment.

It should also be noted that supplying arms to a belligerent is, under international law, itself an act of war.

So we needed another war with China, Russia or one of their allied states? 

I wasn't advocating that, which is exactly why the second sentence of my post reads as it does. We had a pretty good idea of when Russian or Chinese ships were coming in.

Besides, we mined Haiphong harbor which was dangerous enough and we bombed the shit out of Haiphong and Hanoi.

Yes, and between 1968 and 1972, nothing north of the 18th parallel, leaving those ports untouched and functional, until Linebacker II.