How Elites Misread Public Perception of the Iraq War

After the Vietnam War, a generation of U.S. leaders developed what became known as "Vietnam syndrome"-a pathological belief that public support for the use of force was too fleeting, and the U.S. military's power too uncertain, for foreign military operations to be advisable. This syndrome bedeviled U.S. decision-making for years, but by the mid-1980s, its power had begun to wane.