The specter of Vietnam.

• Author: Bresler, Robert J.
• Position: STATE OF THE NATION - Viewpoint essay

ONE'S VIEW OF THE PAST is shaped by the present, just as I one's view of the present is shaped by the past. So it is with Vietnam and Iraq. The doves that oppose the war in Iraq have one history of the Vietnam War, just as the hawks that support the war in Iraq have another.

The Doves Version: Vietnam was a foolish intervention into a civil war we did not understand and never could win (or, for those on the far left, one we never should win). Wisdom only entered into the tragedy when the U.S. decided to leave--mandated by a congressional cut-off of funds. The consequences of this mandate were, therefore, beneficial. Congress was emboldened to assert its power in foreign policy--passing the War Powers Resolution; limiting the power of the CIA to conduct covert operations and, thus, avoiding future Third World involvements. In the late 1970s, Congress also reduced the defense budget and cut off aid to the anti-Communist forces in Angola. The doves' lesson from Vietnam was that the U.S. was the cause of its own problems in the world and, if we reduced our military profile, most problems could be handled peaceably. We needed to understand our enemies and reduce their paranoia about us. With dovish opinion prevailing after Vietnam, detente with the Soviet Union became a central priority of both the Ford and Carter administrations.

The Hawks Version: Vietnam never was a civil war. The Vietcong were controlled by the North Vietnamese regime which, in turn, was financed and supported by the Soviets and Chinese. The U.S. did not lose the war on the battlefield. The Tet offensive, followed by the American counterattack, was a devastating defeat for the Vietcong. Yet, thanks to CBS anchor Walter Cronkite and the media commentators who parroted his line, the American public considered it a defeat. The war, according to this version, might have been won in 1968, by accepting Gen. William Westmoreland's recommendation for an additional 200,000 troops to finish the job or, in 1973, by continuing support the South Vietnamese government after the North violated the 1973 truce agreement. The loss of Vietnam was a political one. A weakened Pres. Richard Nixon had to accede to Congress' wishes in the summer of 1973. By that time, not only had most of the Democrats given up on Vietnam, so had most of the Republicans. Pres. Gerald Ford, in the spring of 1975, when faced with the imminent collapse of the South Vietnamese resistance, could find little support for...