ABSTRACT
The war in Vietnam has been the costly emotional experience in the history of the United States since the Civil War. The scars are deep, for each additional year of American involvement has brought further disillusionment and alienation. It is clear that Vietnam and other sources of turbulence in the domestic and world environments have had an agonizing effect upon the institutions that are involved in the politics of American national security. Military and civilian members of the defense establishment differ as to what adjustments of policy, program and organization are needed in the aftermath of Vietnam and in response to other problems. In important respects, the postwar reorientation of American foreign policy was bold and innovative, as well as broadly supported. Ironically, the new concepts and theories which explained and justified those policy changes, plus the civil-military bureaucracy that grew out of them, evolved into rigid myth systems and an institutional behemoth which impeded further adaptation to changing reality.
