Intentionally mentioned "politician-contrived" war. Since nearly every war is the first action after the last political action, then we may call war a political outcome.
My war, Vietnam, was prominent in that no political action of any merit was involved. This began with Ho Chi Minh's 1946 request for US help and rebuff by President Truman and ran until the final helicopter lifted up and away from Saigon. Major Archimedes Patti was chief OSS officer in Vietnam and tried to persuade the US to assist Vietnam in its declaration of independence from French colonialists. Ironic that the US assisted a colonial power while maintaining a veneer of helping non-asian democracy-seeking countries.
No political negotiations were involved when we began to slide into Vietnam after the French were beaten. The US had no cause to go to war other than "keeping the world safe from communism" and the then unproven and since disproven "domino theory."
