--- Gary Denton <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > The lessons of Vietnam are far more universally > accepted than Gautam > believes. There is a small dispute fueled by those > with an agenda > that the Vietnam War does not reflect well on.
Nonsense. In my "Sources of American Foreign Policy" course, for example, we had two directly opposite articles assigned on the lessons of Vietnam. In no sense are they universally agreed on. Maybe if you ignore half the debate on the topic, sure, otherwise, no way. They could be: Don't fight insurgents Don't try to intervene in civil wars Don't fight in Asia Don't fight Communists On the other hand, they could be: Don't fight wars with one hand tied behind your back Pursue insurgents to their sources of support, don't just fight them "in theatre" Don't trust the left to support American foreign policy or pursue the interests of the United States I would point out that the vast majority of the American military establishment would agree with every one of the second group of points. Most people in the humanities would agree with those in the first. People in the social sciences (of which political science is one) would say that both are bullshit. Since I'm a political scientist, I go with that option. But to argue that there's any sort of consensus on any but a few points is absurd. The fact that you think an article by Chomsky is in some way definitive pretty much speaks for itself. Furthermore, your ability to say which article agrees with me is pretty remarkable. My point was that the "lessons" are debatable. From that you are able to extrapolate what I think the lessons are? That's impressive. Probably the two best short pieces on the "lessons of Vietnam" in a broader diplomatic sense are: Sol W. Sanders & William Henderson, "The Consequences of 'Vietnam'", Orbis, vol. 21, no. 1 (Spring 1977), pp. 61-76 A short but excellent article making the case (quite convincingly, actually) that the hawks were right, and the loss of the Vietnam War did have serious and deleterious consequences. On the other side, there's: Clark Clifford with Richard Holbrooke, Counsel to the President (NY: Random House, 1991), pp. 612-614. The best diplomatic history of the war is _America's Longest War_ by Herring, which has a solid, middle-of-the-road perspective. ===== Gautam Mukunda [EMAIL PROTECTED] "Freedom is not free" http://www.mukunda.blogspot.com __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Dress up your holiday email, Hollywood style. Learn more. http://celebrity.mail.yahoo.com _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
