At 30: Iraq and the Vietnam Syndrome

The Iraq war, of course, is not like Vietnam, in many ways. But in many other, profound, ways they are much alike. Jonah Goldberg, writing in USA Today, finds the comparisons silly. What about the 57% of Americans, according to Gallup this week, who feel the current war is "not worth it"?

By Greg Mitchell

(May 01, 2005) -- The flood of stories in the press marking the 30th anniversary of the fall of Saigon is near its end (the anniversary having passed on Saturday). There have been articles lamenting that we ever set foot in Indochina, others claiming that we could and should have won the war, and every view in between.

Then there’s Jonah Goldberg’s Op-Ed in USA Today. He used the occasion not to try to come to grips with that war but denounce those -- mainly, he said, “liberal baby boomers” -- who on a “near-daily” basis link Iraq to Vietnam. He said they are simply filled with "nostalgia" for their glory days of antiwar hedonism.