At the time of the Viet Nam conflict, there seemed to be compelling reasons for America to go to war. The prevailing theory which the American public and leadership were thoroughly convinced of was that the whole of Asia would fall into Communist hands if we failed there. This was referred to as the Domino Theory, the idea being that once Viet Nam went Communist, one nation after another would fall to our Cold War foes.
I cannot be too harsh on our leaders or our people for believing this. It certainly followed the perceived pattern of Communist expansion in Europe, and how it appeared to be developing in both Latin America and Africa. The strategy of containment we had adopted against Communism had worked before, it would work again.

It was a perfectly reasonable assumption, and even though I knew at the time that we were interfering in another country's civil war where we had no business, I believed in the Domino Theory too. I was convinced that even though there might be other reasons for the conflict, it was certain to be co-opted and exploited by the Soviets or Chinese, or both, for their own geopolitical purposes. I really don't see how we could have done anything else, knowing what we knew then.

The only problem was that we were mistaken. In fact, we couldn't have been more mistaken. The Vietnamese were indeed fighting to unify their country, not take over the world, but the Chinese and Russians were involved in internecine struggles of their own. Although eager to keep us off balance and tied down, and help other Communists everywhere, they were more interested in survival than they were in world domination. No, they were not nice guys, and the Communist threat was real enough, but we misjudged its true significance and capability just as they misjudged our goals and exaggerated our determination to destroy them and wipe Communism from the face of the earth.

This is now beyond question. The truth has been demonstrated by history. We DID lose in Vietnam, we abandoned it totally. But Asia did NOT go Communist, and Communism remained only in those countries were it was while the war raged. Not only that, but before long the Vietnamese were soon at war with some of their Communist neighbors, in Cambodia and with China. And both the US and China aided the murderous Pol Pot Regime simply because of spite. American opened diplomatic relations with China and relations with the USSR improved.

In short, we fought the war for nothing. Sixty thousand Americans and a million Vietnamese died for no reason. And although we are repeatedly being told how we COULD have won, what we should come away with is that it made no difference whether or not we DID win, Except to the dead and the maimed.

It's easy to be a Monday morning quarterback, and I cannot really blame America, as many others here and abroad, have done, because we should never have been there. We simply did not know that at the time, and having been of draftable age at the time myself, I must emphasize I was ready to go if called because I believed in the Domino Theory, too. Like the First World War, and the American Civil War, this is a conflict that should never have happened. But it did, and I believe America went in for the best of reasons. And for that, we deserve some sympathy, and some respect.

But one of the unintended consequences of the war was to divide the American public into two warring camps which persist to this day. I do not refer to those who were for or against the war at the time. I refer to those who by today have finally realized what happened there, and learned from it, and those who refuse to admit it and to this day insist that any troubles we have had since and may have in the future can be traced to our defeat.

I have even heard some so desperate to justify and rationalize this colossal blunder that they have the audacity to claim that our defeat in Vietnam somehow brought on the collapse of Communism as a worldwide movement, and that the mistakes we unavoidably made then should be now institutionalized as national policy forever.
It is this obstinate refusal to learn, one based on bitterness, pride and paranoia, which has been the primary reason we have repeated the errors of the 60s all over again in the 21st Century, even though there are no longer any Communists to fear.

And it is this self-delusion that characterizes a significant movement in American politics, one which, thankfully, appears to be finally running its course and heading for the oblivion it deserves.