How come the USA Government did not learn a lesson from our failed Vietnam war?

Question

Here we are in Iraq and once again we are going to do the "Walk of Shame". Why didn't the American people learn?

Answer 1

Ah, that six year stent you put in the military sure makes you an expert. Somehow the numbers don't compute. Honorable? Shouldn't have been based upon your continual questions attempting to degrade military heroes, our country and our leadership.

Answer 2

Vietnam and Iraq are as different as apples and oranges. Different wars---different reasons. Some American people do know the difference; obviously and unfortunately, some don't. The media and fighting among the politicians for power are mainly to blame for this lack of understanding about what is going on.
Look at a map of the world and visualize it as a human body. Now visualize the human body with small cells of cancer all over it---hidden, but still there-- silently growing. (the same as terrorist cells or even radical individuals) Some of these cells are generating other cells and sending them into other parts of the body,(like terrorist training camps and Moscs with radical leaders) where they will remain seemingly small and insignificant until there are enough of them and they are so wide-spread that when they flare up and show themselves for what they are, there is no way to fight them and the body of good cells is consumed by the bad cancerous cells.
That is what Iraq is about. Fighting the cancer (or terrorists)where the concentration is the largest, until it can be brought under control and hopefully kept from attacking the rest of the body,(world) or at least keeping the rest of the body treatable.
Instead of hating the cancer, unthinking people are hating the surgeon who has enough guts to pick up the scalpal and start getting rid of the mess.
The "Walk of Shame"? How about the "Walk of Blame"? Who is going to have to be hit again and how hard before some of these "Peace-niks" wake up?
Ideally, Peace is the way to go, but the reality is---"Freedom Isn't Free" and trying to put a free nation together in the midst of a war isn't easy.

Answer 3

Unfortuately the Vietnam War is not taught in American schools even the college and University I went to. History stops at the end of WWII as far as the schools are concerned.

Even if it was taught there would be a mass amount of information to be taught, from Ho Chi Mien being pro American at the start, Henry Kissinger giving his approval to North Vietnam to take South Vietnam, the man of truth Walter Cronkiet lieing on national TV saying the U.S. was losing the TET offensive (when it was actually the biggest North Vietnamese defeat which cost them 100,000 men and to flee back across the North Vietnamese line), at least one major newspaper wire hiring a North Vietnamese spy to report on the Vietnam war and the Soviet Union funding (with money and drugs) the U.S. anti nuke and peace rallys. Also South Vietnam fell about three years after the U.S. military left so it wasn't a military loss.

It wouldn't be the first time the U.S. cut and run. In 1807 a U.S. navy ship was captured and held by Muslim pirates for ransom (European countries were paying their ransom). About a couple of dozen marines and 300 mercenaries beat up the pirates, but Congress thought it was too expensive to fight a war so far away so there was some diplomatic patch work done and the U.S. left, but was forced to go back in and finish the job. From start to finish it was a 7 year war. That war, also called the forgotten war, isn't taught either.

Answer 4

Well Bushie wasn't there so he didn't learn anything. Also this is a different generation of people who got caught up in the 9/11 vengeance storm. And some conservatives never learned those lessons- coming in on the occupier's side (as we did in Vietnam & Iraq) will ensure losing. Preemptive wars are hard to fight and justify when the going gets tough, which it will. Fighting an indigenous population is really hard when they are fighting for their way of life and country and our guys aren't sure why they are there. And most of these wars (Vietnam and Iraq) were caused by outside meddling in the first place- why would the very same thing help a region?

Answer 5

Because the American people don't understand real war anymore. You can't just drop a few bombs and the enemy surrenders. America still fears another Vietnam and with a long drawn out struggle in Iraq right now it looks that way to the public. The media isn't helping either.

Answer 6

There are lots of lessons, many of them largely unexplored. Most people thought of Vietnam so negatively that it was best not to think of it at all, and the youngsters have little reason to learn. If you remember high school history, you'll recall why. It's taught in a most rudimentary and boring, thoughtless way.

Answer 7

Didn't you hear? The anti-war people all came to the consensus that comparing the war to Vietnam was a stupid thing to do after the President did recently.

Answer 8

The big lesson that we should have (and may have) learned in viet nam is not to back corrupt bastard dumbass dictators like diem, all the generals who did coups after him. so far we are not doing that in iraq. some would argue that bremer was a dumbass. i agree, although not as much as the shah of iran, or diem both of whom were u.s. backed dictators. bremer was not nearly as corrupt nor immoral like shah and diem. we did not leave bremer in charge for years a years. so far we have not violated the big lesson of viet nam -- we let the iraqis pick their own president. he is a spineless, do nothing dumbass who needs to do his job so that we can leave soon without the whole place going to hell in a hand basket. but the iraqi ppl picked him not the u.s. we just have live with him.
semper fi

Answer 9

Where-ever there is something to take, our greedy political puppets will start a war to take over that land. Insane, but true.
(Read "The New Yorker Magazines" archival reports on the Bush family when we were fighting in the 1990's, 'Desert Storm', etc.)

I will make it clear: 'Vietnam' was about 'rubber-trees', and after that war everything is made out of plastic. 'Iraq' is about 'oil', and the rich are getting richer as oil prices soar, even Hillary Clinton has investments in oil. The war in Iraq is about dominance and Iran is standing in the way.

Answer 10

Because the same party that wanted us to pull out of Vietnam is now calling for us to leave Iraq. It's what they do