Even in Vietnam, the Soviet Union realized that they couldn’t completely humiliate the United States because they didn’t want to risk massive escalation. They wanted to weaken the US but not start a nuclear war. Towards the end of the war, they were pushing Hanoi to the diplomatic table to make a peace deal with the US. We shouldn’t push this too far and there needs to be an off-ramp for Russia so that they’re not pushed too far into a corner where there’s a possibility of nuclear war.
