Forty years ago, after a decade of war with the French, and a decade of war with Americans, communist forces swept into Saigon and ended the Vietnam War. Millions of Vietnamese and about 58,000 Americans died in the conflict. Other casualties were America’s social cohesion, self-confidence and its standing in the world.
After years of reflection and experience, what have we learned, or what should we have learned, from the Vietnam War?
Responses:
Callous Use of Power Leads to Years of Civilian Misery
Nick Turse, author, "Kill Anything That Moves"
Most Lessons of War Are Eternal; Question Others
Mackubin Thomas Owens, Foreign Policy Research Institute
Realizing the Need for a More Highly Trained Military
Lawrence J. Korb, Center for American Progress
Leaders Play Politics With War If We Let Them
Fredrik Logevall, Cornell University
Superpowers' Partners Can Lead and Follow
Lien-Hang Nguyen, University of Kentucky
Public Learned Less After Media Was Blamed for Failure
Chester Pach, Ohio University
War Brings Resistance, Not Cooperation
Ha Nguyen Manh, Vietnamese military official
No Desire for Long Wars and Troubling Tactics
Douglas Porch, Naval Postgraduate School
Diminished in Our Allies' Eyes
Effie G. H. Pedaliu, London School of Economics
A Simple Lesson
Philip Caputo, author and Vietnam veteran
