Vietnam and the Debate on Intervention in Bosnia

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.