I think you can argue that the experience in Vietnam made
the US think harder about being less assertive in its foreign policy. I think that this
experience made the US feel that military force was not always the right way to advance
US interests around the globe.
The Vietnam experience
showed American leaders that overwhelming military force could not cause the people of
another country to like America and agree with our ideals. This made them much more
cautious about using military force in cases where we needed to win over the people of a
country (rather than just defeating them militarily).
I
would say that Vietnam did cause lasting change in the sense that it really affected our
response to things like the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait and the situation in Somalia.
However, you can argue that our involvement in Afghanistan shows that we have not
completely learned the lesson of Vietnam.
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