America’s longest war

Abstract

America’s war in Vietnam is the textbook example of great-power arrogance and self-deception, of the abuse and dissipation of wealth and power. American leaders knew and cared little about the people of Vietnam, their history, their culture, their aspirations. Vietnam was of no intrinsic importance to the United States. In the years when the French controlled Indochina, they pursued a mercantilist policy, allowing minimal foreign involvement in the region’s economy. American business developed no stake there, and although the area was potentially rich in natural resources, there was nothing there that could not be obtained elsewhere, or that the locals could afford to deny to the world market. Similarly, the region was of minimal strategic importance. A case could certainly be made for keeping Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam from being controlled by a presumed adversary, whether Japan in 1941 or China or the Soviet Union in the context of the Cold War. But, of course, a case for containing the influence of an antagonist could be made for every corner of the earth – and outer space as well. Friendly control of what had once been French Indochina was unquestionably desirable. But if Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam were all hostile to the United States, the shift in the world balance of power would be imperceptible. No vital American interest would be threatened. Nonetheless, more than fifty thousand Americans gave their lives in a war in Indochina, as did hundreds of thousands of, Cambodians, Laotians, and Vietnamese.