Moreover, the United States misread the threat.
The notion that the war fundamentally affected U.S. It was a distraction, one that wasted resources of every kind. What happened on the ground in that country could not alter the basic shape of the strategic competition between the United States and the Soviet Union. Rather, the judgment is a strategic one: The American commitment to Vietnam exaggerated its importance. This in no way cheapens or in any way detracts from the sacrifice by so many Americans. None of this changes the reality that the Vietnam War was the wrong war-an unnecessary war. failure in Vietnam did not trigger the wholesale retreat from responsibility into isolationism that many feared would result. This outcome resulted not just from Soviet shortcomings-exacerbated by the Soviet “Vietnam” in Afghanistan-but from American perseverance. In this case, though, the United States and the West won the war. And despite gloomy predictions to the contrary, “dominos” did not fall to Communism after we lost in Vietnam.Īlso worth noting is that some 15 years after the flag came down over the American Embassy in Saigon and the helicopters flew away from its roof, the Cold War ended. The region is mostly democratic, wealthy and at peace. relations with Vietnam are now proper and improving. relations with China are extensive if not always warm. alliances with such critical states as Japan, South Korea and Australia are robust U.S. The United States remains the dominant power in the Asia-Pacific region. Indeed, it is difficult to imagine how things could have turned out much better if we had won the war. Twenty-five years after the ignominious American withdrawal from what was then South Vietnam, this much is clear: the United States lost the war, but won the peace.
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