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As a cynical French proverb states, "Nothing fails like success." And no success in modern military history sparked a more catastrophic failure than the American efforts in Vietnam in 1965, led by the administration of Lyndon Johnson, who had misled the American public about his intentions prior to his 1964 election. Over the course of those twelve months, the United States took over management of the long-simmering conflict from its French ally in Saigon; deployed more than 150,000 additional American troops; launched an air campaign against North Vietnam; and initiated a large-scale ground war against an increasingly strong communist insurgency on the verge of defeating the South Vietnamese Army. By December 1965, the communist offensive had been turned back, and US forces were firmly in place in strategically vital areas of South Vietnam.