ABSTRACT
Momentous changes were taking place in the US during 1973 and 1974. In part they were a product of the Vietnam War. It encouraged other nations to join an economic boycott in order to protest against post-war Vietnam’s foreign policy. As a result, Vietnam came to tie itself ever further to the Soviet Union because it alone was willing and able to provide vital assistance. America wanted a victory in a war in order to recoup its self-esteem, but no administration could afford to pay the costs in lives and money. With history rewritten and the Vietnam War analysed, dissected and discarded, America may free itself of its debilitating failure and see fit to act, once again, to create the world in its own image. There was a dovish consensus amongst the young and amongst elite opinion in the aftermath of the war, but this was shattered by the Iran hostage crisis and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.
