NOTES ON LOW-INTENSITY WARFARE

Abstract : Ex clades, victoria? That old commonplace-From defeat, victory-has it that from the deepest abyss of defeat as from the culminating point of victory, nations start on intersecting paths: the complacent winners to defeat, and the losers who have learned the lessons taught in blood and humiliation, to victory. Actually, history scarcely upholds the commonplace. The defeated may not survive to learn, and of course empires are made by those among the victorious who do not become complacent. Now it seems that this country, already unique in so many other ways, may offer a new precedent to history and a new refutation of the commonplace: the complacent defeated certainly cannot aspire to victory. Three allies and much of our international authority were lost in the Vietnam War as well as much blood and treasure, and yet delusions of adequacy persist. Because of the characteristic ambiguities of that war, the nation, though roundly defeated, has nevertheless been denied the customary benefit of military defeat. Little was therefore learned in the experience, except for two false lessons.