ABSTRACT
U.S. presidents argued for a tight set of war aims in Indochina: contain communism, advance democracy, and demonstrate U.S. resolve to friends and foes from Berlin to Hanoi. This chapter examines whether these war aims meet jus ad bellum criteria of legitimate authority, just cause, and right intention. The chapter goes further, providing evidence of two unstated war aims that do not meet the just war criteria. More specifically, JFK, LBJ, and Nixon all prolonged the war based on their own concerns about appearing tough to the Russians (as individual men) and in order to vindicate “national honor.” It is simply not ethical to prolong war for one’s ego. However, although it is problematic to invest more blood and treasure on the rationale that more sacrifice in some way vindicates past losses, nonetheless, an appropriate concern for honor will invest in the well-being of veterans, widows, orphans, and the like.
