ABSTRACT
Among the many reasons for studying history, the notion that there must be lessons from the past that we can learn in order to avoid mistakes in the present is among the most touching and tantalizing, yet elusive, of goals. What, exactly, are the lessons of the Vietnam War? At the time of this writing we are particularly interested in how any Vietnam lessons can be applied to the war that America launched in Iraq in 2003, a war that ended combat operations in 2010 but le 50,000 American troops stationed in Iraq to train and assist Iraqi forces through 2011. American troops are still in Afghanistan without clear signposts for an end to that mission. e Vietnam War, with some analogies to Iraq, provides us with the opportunity to sketch out some huge open-ended major mysteries and lay out some minor and medium mysteries as well. So we think it makes a good topic for the initial mystery in the book because we can give a range of specic examples about how we conceive of mysteries and create them.
