July 9, 2004

The Ghosts of War

By CHRISTIAN G. APPY

For three decades American leaders have tried to bury memories of the Vietnam War only to have them pop up again like indestructible poltergeists. In 1991, for example, a few days after the Persian Gulf War came to its apparent end, President George H.W. Bush declared a double victory. Not only had the United States driven Iraqi forces out of Kuwait, he trumpeted, but we had also managed to vanquish the ghostly memories of a war that was lost a generation earlier on the other side of the

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