Vietnam Syndrome Define the \"Vietnam

Vietnam Syndrome

Define the "Vietnam Syndrome" and describe how it affected the United States after the 1970s.

A scholar of American civil rights history defines the Vietnam Syndrome as the "fear of getting bogged down in another quagmire" that "made a majority of Americans reluctant to intervene militarily in Third World countries" (Sitkoff, 1999). After the humiliating defeat in Vietnam, the conviction of many Americans of the invincibility of the U.S. military was shattered and because of the enormous damage the war inflicted on the United States, in terms of manpower lost and economic losses, not to mention psychological stars, many Americans because weary of going into another war unless it was absolutely necessary. The war should be the last resort in settling disputes in the international arena, they argued.

The Vietnam Syndrome affected the United States after the 1970s tremendously because Americans were determined not to repeat the mistake of Vietnam. The failure of Vietnam was perceived differently by different people. Some people thought that the war was morally wrong and therefore should not happen again. Others believed the war was unwinnable, so they argued that the United States should not go to war without making sure that America would definitely win. Others thought that the Vietnam War was lost because of strategic or tactical errors in the conduct of the military and became determined to employ new methods in new conflicts. But all of them agreed that something was fundamentally wrong with the Vietnam War -- veteran diplomat George Kennan described the war as "the most disastrous of all America's undertakings over the whole two hundred years of its history" (Sitkoff, 1999) -- and that the United States should not repeat its mistakes in Vietnam ever again.

The impact of the Vietnam Syndrome became manifest in the decision of the Congress to pass the War Powers Act in 1973, which made it illegal for a U.S. President to engage in combat operations abroad for more than ninety days without congressional approval. The public pressured Congress to investigate the activities of the Central Intelligence Agency, exposing nefarious acts of the CIA, including assassinations of foreign political leaders, and placing limitations on the CIA mandate in its conduct of sabotage activities in the Third World. The Vietnam Syndrome also made the public suspicious of the government, distrusting official government pronouncements. Many Democratic politicians also questioned the necessity of fighting Communism all over the world and in its all manifestations.

The syndrome also manifested itself during the Reagan Administration when it became harder for the Reagan government to support anti-Communist guerilla forces in El Salvador and Nicaragua. The government could not convince the public of the necessity to send U.S. troops to either of the countries, and because of the public and congressional constraints placed upon the government activities, the Reagan Administration was involved in the Iran-Contra affair to finance the Nicaraguan anti-Communist rebels. The Vietnam Syndrome continued to influence America during the first Persian Gulf War. The U.S. military used overwhelming force against the forces of Iraq, relying heavily on air power, to secure an easy and quick victory, with minimal losses to American lives. After the war, President Bush proclaimed that "by God, we've kicked the Vietnam syndrome once and for all!" (Sitkoff, 1999).