“From Saigon to Baghdad: The Vietnam Syndrome, the Iraq War and American Foreign Policy”

Arisa Gagarin

ASA 2 | A01

Week 5

In this article, Andrew Priest explores recent literature on the aspects of the “Vietnam syndrome” between Nixon’s presidency and the war in Iraq. He focuses on four main themes that scholars have used to explain it – the end of the Cold War consensus, the American post-Vietnam “national malaise” and the Watergate scandal, policy makers attempting to learn from their failures so as not to make the same “mistake” in the future, and American being more cautious of foreign policies. Priest suggests that implications from the Iraq conflict will most likely “herald a period of reassessment” in American foreign policy as well.

Q: What can be done to prevent or treat “Vietnam syndrome” or the alleged “Iraq syndrome”?