Title: Vietnam War: 30 years later - Center for American Progress
Headings: Vietnam War: 30 years later
Vietnam War: 30 years later
What are the most important lessons this country learned from Vietnam?
Do you see any similarities between Vietnam and what we are seeing in Iraq?
Do you see major differences between the fighting forces of today and those in Vietnam, especially in terms of the demographic makeup of the armed forces?
Did that disconnect between those who fought and those who protested create more anger against U.S. troops?
Do you see similarities in the domestic challenges for Presidents Johnson and Bush – the fact that they are trying to maintain U.S. commitment to a war that the American public is increasingly doubting?
If Americans did not support the war by the mid-1960s, why were they not supportive of the anti-war movement?
What do you think Americans should remember in commemorating the Vietnam War?
Other Commentary on the Vietnam War:
For more information on the Vietnam War, please see the following:

Content: We made the mistake of propping up a weak, unpopular government in South Vietnam, and later we were complicit in overthrowing the government because we finally realized they were incompetent. Nearly 60,000 Americans ended up dying. Twenty-five years after the war, the war's chief architect, Robert McNamara, who served under both Presidents Kennedy and Johnson, looked back at the war and said that it was all "terribly wrong." Vietnam was one of the most horrible chapters in American history. We didn't get involved in Vietnam because of oil or markets or raw materials. We didn't get involved in Vietnam for any practical reasons. It was hubris and pride. We stumbled in based on misinformation. We thought that the Vietnamese communists were part of an international communist conspiracy. We thought Ho Chi Minh was a pawn of China and Russia.