The Death of Vietnam
In an editorial subtitled "Those who flinched in the hard times, and those who didn't", The Wall Street Journal chastises those, like former Clinton Administration diplomat Peter Galbraith, who put the "chicken" in "chickenhawk".
In this respect, Mr. Galbraith and his ilk are heirs to that generation of '60s leaders who took the U.S. into Vietnam only to turn against the war in fits of self-doubt, self-flagellation, excessive fine-tuning and political cravenness, after thousands of servicemen had lost their lives. Sad to say, this time around the doubters included all too many conservatives who supported the war at first but then distanced themselves from it as the insurgency grew. They had their own reputational "exit strategies."This is an important moment in American history. For over 30 years, our military has been studying "The Lessons of Vietnam" to train today's generals and lieutenants alike how to avoid the next Tet and the next fragging, respectively. But as we all should know by now, the greatest lesson of Tet must be learned by politicians and bureaucrats, not soldiers.
Up to now, politicians and bureaucrats have been fairly resistant to learning that lesson. I sincerely hope those who've gotten past their adolescence during the Consciousness Revolution continue to be in the majority within the political class, so they can continue to weed out their radical counterparts within the bureaucrat class and supress their political masters.
