Iraq and the Lessons of Vietnam

Essays by Christian G. Appy, Andrew J. Bacevich, John Prados, and others offer history at its best, meaning, at its most useful. Howard Zinn From the launch of the Shock and Awe invasion in March 2003 through President George W. Bushs declaration of Mission Accomplished two months later, the war in Iraq was meant to demonstrate definitively that the United States had learned the lessons of Vietnam. This new book makes clear that something closer to the opposite is truethat US foreign policy makers have learned little from the past, even as they have been obsessed with the Vietnam Syndrome. Iraq and the Lessons of Vietnam brings together the countrys leading historians of the Vietnam experience. Examining the profound changes that have occurred in the country and the military since the Vietnam War, this book assembles a distinguished group to consider how America found itself once again in the midst of a quagmireand the continuing debate about the purpose and exercise of American power. Also includes contributions from: Alex Danchev * David Elliott * Elizabeth L. Hillman * Gabriel Kolko * Walter LaFeber * Wilfried Mausbach * Alfred W. McCoy * Gareth Porter Essential. Bill Moyers