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"BY GOD, WE'VE KICKED THE VIETNAM syndrome once and for all." This is President Bush speaking in his press conference following the suspension of hostilities on March 1. "By God!" On the night he announced the unleashing of the ground campaign he had asked the American people to pray to God for the safety of American forces; in declaring the provision "cease-fire, " he concluded by saying: "May God bless our valiant military forces and their families, and let us all remember them in our prayers" (New York Times, 2/28/91). Meantime, General Schwarzkopf, in his final military briefing, had thanked "God" that the Iraqi troops had not used chemical weapons. Whatever "By God!" may mean in such a context, it is clear that, at that time, God was very much in the thoughts of those most responsible for "kicking the Vietnam syndrome."
But what was the "Vietnam syndrome"? For some it was no more than the list of military lessons learned from Vietnam, e.g., never war without insuring domestic consensus, never war without clear objective, never war with only half-way measures (New York Times, 3/3/91). All that adds up to calling Vietnam a military "defeat" (or "debacle, " or "fiasco"), perhaps, but why call it "syndrome"? "Syndrome" suggests pathology (whether physical or psychic), a cluster of symptoms (in this case, psychic), such as: loss of self-esteem, depression, self-doubt, disillusionment with public authority, dismay at the futility of the bloodshed, guilt-feelings over some of the things we did, compunction now over the way we treated returning soldiers then, cynicism about the "justice" of