Rheanna Ostrea

Blog 5

ASA 02 A03

October 18, 2015

In “From Saigon to Baghdad: The Vietnam Syndrome, the Iraq War, and American Foreign Policy,” focuses on how US intervention in the Vietnam War caused cautiousness around military intervention into foreign countries and the long term effects it created in the American society. The Vietnam Syndrome was used on foreign policy decisions that lead to the creation of the Weinberger Doctrine, which I believe was a smart way to fix the problems of military intervention. Although, I believe that the doctrine started to become unclear throughout the years which was seen with the first Bush’s administration. The reading also made me feel like the United States keeps repeating the same mistakes, which is seen in the Iraq war, even though they try to learn from history. I agree with the reading that in entering the Iraq war the administration did not think of the past to fix the problems but reacted in the moment.

Question: Why does the United States keep repeating the same mistakes they made in the past even though they have made doctrines in order for it to not happen again?