ABSTRACT

The American people and the American military staggered away from the calamity of Vietnam. Combined with the impending Watergate scandal, Vietnam helped undercut Americans' faith and trust in their government. The professional military retreated, shunned by a population reluctant to be subjected to military service and deeply suspicious of the government and the media. All three links in the Clausewitzian trinity (the bond between the people, the military, and the government) lay fractured.