Abstract
No question has more perplexed Americans since 1975 than that of why, de- spite its vast power, the United States could not impose its will on what Lyn- don Baines Johnson once contemptuously dismissed as that“raggedy-ass little fourth-rate country.”Some Americans, scholarly voices in the wilder- ness for the most part, have had the temerity to suggest that the North Viet- namese and National Liberation Front of South Vietnam had a great deal to do with it. But the answers that most Americans seem to prefer have focused on the misuse of the nation’ admittedly vast military power. The United States did not employ its military power wisely or decisively, it is argued. Military leaders such as General William C. Westmoreland, some say, did not understand the type of war they were in and used the wrong strategy. Others claim that civilians such as Johnson and Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara imposed restrictions on the use of America’s military power that made it impossible for the military to win.1
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