Farewell the Tranquil Mind: Security and Stability in the Post-Vietnam Era

This article examines the major propositions of the noninterventionist rationale to see whether they constitute the basis for a sound U.S. limited-war strategy over the next few decades, particularly with respect to Southeast Asia. Of major interest will be the extent to which these propositions promote the prospect for peace with security. (1) It is historically inevitable that colonial influence be expunged from the Asian continent, so let the United States make its exit gracefully now; (2) Southeast Asia falls within the area of influence of the People's Republic of China (and possibly the USSR); the United States should thus leave it alone; (3) The United States should never fight a land war on the Asian mainland; (4) The United States is a Pacific power, not an Asian power; (5) America's strategic orientation should be toward Europe, not Asia; (6) Communism as a monolithic force is a myth; (7) The United States is not the world's policeman; (8) The United States should not support despotic or corrupt regimes among its allies; (9) The domino theory is dead; (10) While in general the United States should go the whole way for an ally, South Vietnam was a legitimate exception; and (11) Intervention in foreign wars such as that in Vietnam promotes division and conflict within American society; the news media, by exposing to public scrutiny the true facts, finally forced the war's end, thus ending the source of national discord. If accepted as guides to future policy, the noninterventionist propositions discussed in this article would tend toward a fundamental reorientation of the approach to security employed by the United States over the past 30 years. That is to say, they effectively counsel retrenchment from a globalist stance to a regionalism of indeterminate scope, but in any event one far less ambitious and expansive. Published in Parameters: US Army War College Quarterly, v5 n2, p2-13, 1976.