Mark Shields, purveyor of Beltway Conventional Wisdom from a faux-liberal POV, claims that voting to defund the war in 1974 hurt the Democrats politically.  (Hidden message:  Dems must always capitulate to succeed.)

There's one thing wrong with his statement:  From 1974 through 1976 -- when we pulled out to over a year after the fall of Saigon -- the Democrats gained fifty House seats, three Senate seats, and the White House.  If that's being hurt politically, I'll take some more, please!

And even if you say "Yeah, but Watergate helped, too" -- remember, the Democrats pushed Watergate as much as they pushed ending the Vietnam War.  So this further undermines Shield's hidden message that Dems must always capitulate to succeed.  Pass it on!