Professor of history and author (PATRIOTS: The Vietnam War Remembered from All Sides) Christian G. Appy examines the lingering damage to America’s self-image as a result of the Vietnam War, urging us to heed the mistakes of the past so we are not doomed to repeat them.

Called to Vietnam to help foster stability after the French left in the 1950s, America was unprepared for the declaration of hostilities (the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution) pushed through Congress in 1964 by President Lyndon Johnson. Thousands of American lives would be lost in what later seemed to have been a futile exercise of military force that, long before its less than satisfactory denouement, sharply divided the nation. It was not a divide born of mere political posturing; it was a deep cultural and generational wound that has never healed. For many, Appy asserts, Vietnam busted the trust in our government, in its intention always to occupy the moral high ground. The Vietnam experience initiated and galvanized a broad-scale anti-war movement that still flickers across our screens to this day. It made protest, along with combat, part of the national conversation.

"Christian G. Appy examines the lingering damage to America’s self-image as a result of the Vietnam War, urging us to heed the mistakes of the past so we are not doomed to repeat them."

Fifty years on, many Americans recall the war being served up with supper on the 6:00 news, especially the bizarre term “body count.” “High body counts…led to medals, rapid promotion, and plum assignments” for the upper echelons of the military; that, in turn, led to inflation of kill numbers by their subordinates in the field of battle. Worse, as one medic recalled, “there was a real incentivizing of death.” Back home, one of the more devastating events, arguably a turning point even for some fence sitters, was the gunning down by National Guardsmen of student protestors at Kent State University.

Refusing to be stopped, “peace activism was given new life.” Students, spurred by bitter accounts from returning soldiers, gradually came to be regarded as rational spokespeople for the changing times. Meanwhile, “hard hat” working men, protesting the protestors, came to be vilified as “aggressive, super patriotic, anti-intellectual…” Race was part of the complex puzzle: many black soldiers went to Vietnam to establish their place of honor in American history, while others, like Muhammad Ali, famously reminded African Americans that they were fighting for the rights of people in Southeast Asia that they hadn’t been granted at home.

Concomitant to the cultural shift that made the anti-war stance acceptable --- non-traitorous --- was the nagging suspicion that not everything our government does is for the greater good. Yet even now, Appy opines, “The faith in American exceptionalism is so often repeated and reinforced it has the authority of settled truth.” Appy would have us remember that Vietnam “is our record; it is who we are.” Only by applying stringent self-judgment based on that acknowledgement might we begin to find better ways to resolve international conflicts.