ABSTRACT
Several different factors work together to constrain the performance of the American government in low intensity or limited warfare environments–that is, in what is perhaps best called ‘small wars’. At the most general and fundamental level is what one may conveniently call American political culture. This chapter discusses the extent to which American involvement in small wars has been constrained by public opinion and congressional fiat in the years since Vietnam scarcely. The anti-war movement aroused by the American debacle in Vietnam shaped the political consciousness of a generation of Americans and ultimately dethroned two presidents. At senior levels of the United States government there has been little effort to develop doctrines or mechanisms that might provide a strategic framework for the conduct of small wars. Improved coordination of the military and non-military instruments of national power remains the key to improved American performance in small wars.
