Is America’s historical amnesia curable?

No matter how deadly pandemics are, America’s case of historical amnesia may be a worse ailment. Based on history, it may not be curable, and, so far, it has been highly contagious and cross generational. One example makes the case.

Fifty-eight years ago, with only two dissenting votes in the Senate, Congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution. President Lyndon Johnson signed the bill into law, committing the United States to a decade of war in Vietnam, the first of several wars it would lose. Does anyone remember that resolution or the circumstances leading to its enactment? That virtually no stories appeared provides the answer.

On patrol in international waters in the Gulf of Tonkin, the destroyer USS Maddox was attacked by several North Vietnamese PT boats. No damage or casualties resulted for the Maddox. 

On Aug. 4, 1964, the Maddox was ordered back on patrol accompanied by the destroyer USS Turner Joy. Both sent flash messages reporting attacks by North Vietnamese PT boats.  

Congress reacted with uncommon speed, reflecting the tense nature of the Cold War then and the near miss of the Cuban Missile Crisis nearly two years before. As President John Kennedy declared, it was “freedom versus tyranny.” The existential conflict pitted the U.S. and West against the “monolithic, Godless communism” of the Soviet Union and “Red China.” And given the primacy of the so-called “Domino Theory” then in vogue, as LBJ colorfully put it, “If we don’t stop them commies at the Mekong, we’ll be fighting ‘em on the Mississippi.”

As was known then to the officer in tactical command aboard the Maddox, the attacks were “doubtful.” In fact, none occurred. But that would not be the last time presidents practiced “fire, ready, aim,” as George W. Bush would learn 39 years later in unleashing American military might to disarm Saddam Hussein of weapons of mass destruction he did not possess.

Nearly six decades later, what have we learned or, in this case, forgotten? Instead of “liberty v. tyranny,” today’s paradigm is “democracy v autocracy.” Replacing “monolithic communism” is “great power competition.” And the dismantling of “Western values and the rules based system” is the new Domino Theory.

Regarding democracy and autocracy, making that case is difficult if hypocrisy is disallowed. The first names of most of our friends in the Gulf are king or crown prince. Two of the soon-to-be 32 democratic members of NATO are far from liberal democracies. The main challenge for democracies is not autocracies but making democracy work.

As noted, great power competition is as flawed a concept as monolithic communism was. By 1960, the Sino-Soviet split was wider than the Grand Canyon. Walt Rostow, JFK’s deputy and LBJ’s national security advisor, made that clear in his 1954 book “The Prospects for Communist China.”

And the erosion of the so-called “rules-based system” reflects the reality that not everyone, beyond China and Russia, always agrees with or wants to play by the West’s rules. The unhappy history of Western colonialism and imperialism persists in many parts of the world. As American prestige continues to decline along with its influence, a more useful framework is needed. This column has proposed “dangerous coexistence.”

But the answer to the question of whether America’s historical amnesia is curable remains. One would think that President Biden, who is certainly old enough to remember the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution and the Vietnam War and who was an active participant in the Senate and White House as president and vice president, surely understands the folly of forgetting history and the importance of not repeating past mistakes. 

I have written that one explanation for this congenital condition of amnesia is a “stupid gene” in America’s strategic and political DNA. Obviously, times and conditions change, often radically. Still, America’s political leadership, regardless of whether Democrats or Republicans are in charge, continues to make similar errors in not recalling history. In the distant past, America had two vast oceans to protect it. In the more recent past after two world wars, America was protected by its overwhelming economic and military power.

Today, in absolute terms America’s economic and military power is enormous. But in relative terms, both are declining. Calls for a Manhattan-like project to reassess America’s role have been unsuccessful in generating real change. Is the rather bleak answer then that American historical amnesia may indeed be incurable?

It would seem so.

Harlan Ullman is senior adviser at the Atlantic Council and the prime author of “shock and awe.” His latest  book is “The Fifth Horseman and the New MAD: How Massive Attacks of Disruption Became the Looming Existential Danger to a Divided Nation and the World at Large.” Follow him on Twitter @harlankullman.