The Foreign Service Journal, January 2012

J U N E 2 0 1 1 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 67 compelling, eminently readable as- sessment of the long shadow cast over the American presidency by the Viet- namWar. Appropriately titled Haunt- ing Legacy , their well-documented book draws on recent interviews with top policymakers from the Vietnam War era through today. The Kalbs’ provocative thesis is that “Vietnam has infiltrated the presiden- tial DNA, even though presidents have struggled with this DNA in different ways.” To make that case, they pres- ent insightful, succinct accounts of what they call the “lessons of Vietnam” — some learned, some forgotten, some misunderstood — as presidents from Gerald Ford through Barack Obama have applied them. As the authors point out, President Obama was only 13 years old when U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War ended with helicopters taking off from the rooftop of Embassy Saigon, creat- ing unforgettable images. But like his predecessors, he, too, continues to deal with the pervasive legacy of that war — even though the battlefields, the tech- nology used and the purpose of U.S. military intervention have all evolved a great deal since. In successive chapters the authors trace the major military events of each presidency, beginning with the 1975 S.S. Mayaguez incident, to which Pres- ident Ford ordered a muscular re- sponse. Their narrative ends in the spring of 2011 during Obama’s strug- gle with the decision about troop levels in Afghanistan, on which he was out- maneuvered by the Pentagon. (As for the other military commitment that has dominated his time in office, by the time you read this review virtually all American troops in Iraq — “boots on the ground,” in the parlance of Viet- nam War draftees — will have come home, just as Pres. Obama promised.) That legacy affects not only foreign policy but domestic politics, as well. The military service records of presi- dential and vice presidential candi- dates throughout American history, as the Kalbs point out, form a checkered pattern. Traditionally, such credentials led to the election of war heroes, from GeorgeWashington through Ulysses S. Grant and Dwight Eisenhower. In recent years, however, Bill Clin- ton’s defeat of World War II fighter pilot George H.W. Bush, the defeat of Swift Boat veteran John Kerry and the rejection of a Vietnam war hero, Sena- tor John McCain, have run counter to the pattern of military men going from the battlefield to the White House. The Vietnam War generated many distinctive concepts and terms for the discourse about U.S. military commit- ments abroad. Some of these remain prominent today: “Afghanistanization,” “quagmire,” “boots on the ground” and “exit strategy,” to mention just a few. While the role of the Foreign Serv- ice is expressly beyond the scope of this book, I hope it will inspire readers to explore the rich oral history collec- tion compiled and maintained by the Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training (www.ADST.org). Th ere they will find instructive background material about this period, both under the rubric of Vietnam and the names of individual Foreign Service person- nel who served there, to supplement the contents of this important study. Aurelius (Aury) Fernandez, a retired USIA FSO, did not serve in Vietnam but still recalls the specter of a potential assignment there. He has served as AFSA Governing Board secretary and as a member of the FSJ Editorial Board. B O O K S T HE NEW EDITION OF Inside a U.S. Embassy IS NOW AVAILABLE . Visit www.afsa.org/inside for details. Looking for Additional Reading Suggestions? You can find the AFSA and State Department reading lists in our online bookstore, offering a wide selection of books on the Foreign Service. AFSA earns a royalty for every purchase you make on Amazon.com when you enter via the AFSA Bookstore. Visit www.afsa.org/ fs_reading_list.aspx