Abstract
Previous chapters have stressed the diminishing importance of Yugoslavia as a security interest with the end of the Cold War and the tendency of Americans to look inward to domestic issues and avoid foreign obligations and burdens. But the legacy of the Vietnam War also contributed to both the American public’s lack of enthusiasm for a Bosnian involvement and the foreign-policy elite’s perception that intervention in the former Yugoslavia would have the ‘tar baby’ effect of the Vietnam involvement. This thinking was particularly apparent during the Bush administration’s decisions on Bosnia. This chapter will explore the nature of that impact and the problems connected with the attempt to use the Vietnam analogy for analysis of the Bosnian War.
Keywords
- Foreign Policy
- Military Action
- Bush Administration
- Security Interest
- Pearl Harbor
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution.
Buying options
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Notes and References
Useful sources on Vietnam include F.M. Kail, What Washington Said: Administration Rhetoric and the Vietnam War:1949–1969 (NY: Harper and Row, 1973).
George McTurnan Kahin and John W. Lewis, The United States and Vietnam (NY: Delta, 1969).
Theodore Draper, Abuse of Power (NY: Viking, 1967).
and Donald S. Zagoria, Vietnam Triangle: Moscow, Peking, Hanoi (NY: Pegasus, 1967).
Alex Roberto Hybel, How Leaders Reason: US Intervention in the Caribbean Basin and Latin America (Cambridge, MA: Basil Blackwell, 1990) especially pp. 5–8.
Robert Jervis, Perception and Misperception in International Politics (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1976) pp. 217, 220.
Yuen Foong Khong, Analogies at War: Korea, Munich, Dien Bien Phu, and the Vietnam Decisions of 1965 (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1992) p. 3.
Quoted in David Halberstam, The Best and the Brightest (NY Random House, 1972) p. 175.
Copyright information
© 1997 Wayne Bert
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Bert, W. (1997). Vietnam and the Debate on Intervention in Bosnia. In: The Reluctant Superpower. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230372764_9
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230372764_9
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-39919-2
Online ISBN: 978-0-230-37276-4
eBook Packages: Palgrave Political & Intern. Studies CollectionPolitical Science and International Studies (R0)