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How Could Vietnam Happen?

After the US entered it's occupation phase in Iraq, there has been a gathering discussion on whether the Bush administration has fallen into another "Vietnam." The analogy is tempting - "quagmire," "credibility gap," "pacification," and other retro-memes have wormed their way back into the language. Though it is hard to see through the rhetorical smog to the facts on the ground in Iraq - to see whether we in fact are in an operational and political quagmire comparable to Vietnam - one place we are retracing old ground is in the misuses of American power. I have written about this in a previous post ("The Issue of Resolve"), and was reminded of it again by an article written 35 years ago by James Thomson, an East Asia specialist who served in the White House and State Department from 1961 to 1966.

In his piece for the Atlantic Monthly, "How Could Vietnam Happen? - An Autopsy," Thomson tried to understand how a small group of officials could move the US from a limited political commitment in Southeast Asia into a brutal, senseless, and corrupt war. ...