Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, May 10, 1990 TAG: 9005100484
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A15 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RICHARD MORIN
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Fifteen years after its ungraceful end, the Vietnam War continues to invoke conflict, fascination and memories. Vietnam recently made the cover of Time magazine. ABC News recently broadcast a special on Vietnam and Southeast Asia. The Khmer Rouge continues to rage across the killing fields of Cambodia.
Americans remain understandably preoccupied with Vietnam and the war. A Gallup survey in 1987 asked a national sample of adults which of a list of 13 events in this century most shaped their views. The Vietnam War (19 percent) led that list, followed by the Great Depression (12 percent) and the Reagan presidency (10 percent).
The debate over Vietnam has changed surprisingly little from the early '70s. Great division still exists over whether we should have been involved in that war. A majority of Americans remains sharply critical of the way the war was conducted.
Four years ago, The Washington Post and ABC News asked a national sample of adults whether, in hindsight, the United States should have avoided sending troops to Vietnam, or should have sent troops but "gone all out to win the war."
About half - 54 percent - said the United States should not have sent troops. Another 36 percent said the United States was right to have entered the war and should have "gone all out to win." The rest were undecided.
Support for Vietnam was greatest among older people, the generation who lost children in the war. That generation's children, the Baby Boomers, remain strongly opposed, and the attitudes of younger Americans suggest great ambivalence to the war.
An April survey by Yankelovich Clancey Shulman for Time magazine produced roughly similar results: 57 percent said the United States was wrong to have gotten involved in the Vietnam War, 29 percent said it was right and 14 percent were undecided.
And a recent Gallup poll found that 74 percent of those interviewed agreed that the "United States made a mistake sending troops to fight in Vietnam." In 1966, only 35 percent expressed a similar view.
Americans continue to believe it was the politicians who lost the war. A survey by Market Opinion Research in 1988 found that by more than a 2-1 ratio, people agreed with this statement: "We lost the Vietnam War because American political leaders did not give U.S. armed forces the full support they needed to win."
Vietnam has become a touchstone, a political reference point in the late 20th century. God help the president if his latest foreign adventure reminds the public of Vietnam. The phrase "Another Vietnam," like the phrase "another Watergate," resonates deeply with many Americans.
A few months ago, The Post and ABC News asked this question on one of our national polls: "Do you think the United States is heading for the same kind of involvement in Colombia as it had in the Vietnam War, or do you think the United States will avoid that kind of involvement this time?"
Similar questions were asked by The Post and other news organizations about the Panama invasion last December, about El Salvador and Nicaragua a few years ago, about Libya after our air strike against Gadhafi, after Marines were slaughtered in Lebanon, and after the Grenada invasion. (For the record, in each case a majority thought those actions would not lead to another Vietnam.) So it may be that one of the greatest contributions of Vietnam is to serve as a bad example.
What lessons, if any, have people learned from Vietnam? The Market Opinion Research survey two years ago attempted to answer that question.
The pollsters asked if "the Vietnam War showed that we should never again fight a ground war in Asia." No, it didn't show that, said a plurality of those interviewed.
Did it show that we've got to ban graphic TV coverage of the horrors of combat if "we are ever again to fight a tough war?" No, it didn't show that either, said more than half of those questioned. Perhaps it showed that "the U.S. cannot fight and win a guerrilla-type war." A majority again disagreed.
So what did we learn from Vietnam? The two lessons Americans said they learned were rather simple, according to the poll. Three out of four said Vietnam proved that "we should not send troops to support an ally government that does not have the support of most of its own people." And a similarly large majority also said the war showed that "the U.S. government must have the support of all its people in order to wage a war against another country."
Those are the lessons of Vietnam. They are such obvious lessons, so painfully learned.
A Gallup survey for the National Geographic Society found in 1988 that only 32 percent of a national sample of adults could correctly locate Vietnam on a map of the world.
And a more recent Gallup poll asked this question: "In the Vietnam War, was the U.S. fighting on the side of the North Vietnamese or the South Vietnamese?" A third of those interviewed didn't know, or got it wrong - including 19 percent who said the United States fought with the North Vietnamese.
by CNB