ABSTRACT
Comparing the Vietnam War to the intervention in Iraq is fraught with diffi culties because the wars are so different. For example, in terms of scale the US commitment in Vietnam was much greater both in troop numbers (half a million to 140,000), and deaths (58,000 to 2,300); the terrain of Iraqi desert is very different to Vietnamese delta, highlands and paddy fi elds; the political environment of the Cold War contrasts with the War on Terrorism; the war in Iraq was against the ruling regime rather than propping it up; and the nature of the insurgency that US forces face is disparate compared to the one faced in Vietnam. However, it is an issue worth examining because of the fear of the US entering another Vietnam ‘quagmire’,2 and because the Vietnam War has been so infl uential in shaping how the military has prosecuted operations in Iraq.
