It is not surprising that the Vietnam conflict is a factor in a presidential election almost 40 years later. Most people learned, after details of the Tonkin Gulf incident in North Vietnam waters were made public, that the incident never happened. The supposed action against American ships was patently untrue and the whole premise that President Lyndon Johnson used to get Congress to approve the war was based on a lie.

The same dynamics are at play this year in deliberations about the president’s role in the decision to go to war in Iraq. Members of Congress were incensed to learn that Saddam Hussein was buying material to manufacture nuclear weapons from Niger. This was later shown to be false, but Congress, in its rush to be patriotic and support the president after Sept. 11, 2001, once again approved a war based on false information.

Apparently, Congress did not learn from Vietnam but the American public ought to. Voters should be very wary of a president who rushes to support war before all the facts are known. Even when essential information is proved incorrect, lives are lost, the nation’s reputation is diminished and war becomes defined, and unfortunately used, not as a last resort but a tool by sitting presidents to whip up support for their personal political agendas.

History is a great teacher if we are willing to learn.

Nancy Allen

Brooksville