American Exceptionalism and the Legacy of Vietnam

Download or read book American Exceptionalism and the Legacy of Vietnam written by Trevor McCrisken and published by Springer. This book was released on 2003-12-19 with total page 247 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: American Exceptionalism and the Legacy of Vietnam examines the influence of the belief in American exceptionalism on the history of U.S. foreign policy since the Vietnam War. Trevor B. McCrisken analyzes attempts by each post-Vietnam U.S. administration to revive the popular belief in exceptionalism both rhetorically and by pursuing foreign policy supposedly grounded in traditional American principles. He argues that exceptionalism consistently provided the framework for foreign policy discourse but that the conduct of foreign affairs was limited by the Vietnam syndrome.