Quagmire theory

The quagmire theory explains the cause of the United States involvement in the Vietnam War. The quagmire theory suggests that American leaders had unintentionally and mistakenly led the country into the Vietnam War. The theory is categorized as an "orthodox" interpretation of the Vietnam War.[1]

History

The quagmire theory comes from David Halberstam’s account of the U.S. military policy in Vietnam, The Making of a Quagmire.[2] According to Halberstam, a reporter in Saigon at the time, the said "quagmire" was a frustrating military and diplomatic dilemma.[3]

The theory was more deeply developed by Arthur Schlesinger in his book The Bitter Heritage.[4] According to the quagmire theory as described by Schlesinger, the quagmire metaphor represented the one-step-at-a-time process that the United States inadvertently became entrapped in the military and diplomatic swamp of Vietnam. Schlesinger detailed the process of American involvement in a war that was not really in the American interest and as a result of inadvertent decision making and false hope.

"In retrospect, Vietnam is a triumph of the politics of inadvertence. We have achieved our present entanglement, not after due and deliberate consideration, but through a series of small decisions. It is not only idle, but unfair to seek out guilty men. Each step in the deepening of American commitment was reasonably regarded at the time as the last that would be necessary. Yet, in retrospect, each step led only to the next, until we find ourselves entrapped today in that nightmare of American strategists, a land war in Asia--a war which no president . . . desired or intended."[5]

Schlesinger believed the war to be a "tragedy without villains" and identified nationalism rather than communism as the most influential factor driving US involvement in Vietnam.[6]


References

  1. ↑ McMahon, Robert J. "Changing Interpretations of the Vietnam War" The University of Illinois. Retrieved on 20 April 2014.
  2. ↑ Halberstam,David (1965). "The Making of a Quagmire: America and Vietnam during the Kennedy Era". Rowman and Littlefield, 2008. ISBN 0742560082.
  3. ↑ Kimball,Jeffrey (2005). "To Reason Why: the debate about the cause of US involvement in the Vietnam War." Wipf and Stock Publishers, Aug 11, 2005. ISBN 1597523879 . pg. 12.
  4. ↑ Schlesinger, Arthur (1966). "The Bitter Heritage". Houghton Mifflin Co. ISBN 0395081564.
  5. ↑ Schlesinger, Arthur (1966). "The Bitter Heritage". Houghton Mifflin Co. ISBN 0395081564. Pg. 37.
  6. ↑ Wilson, Mary (1995). "Incomplete and Profoundly Confused: A Bibliographic Essay on the Vietnam War". Vanguard University, 1995.


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