Vietnam – October 2019

OCTOBER 2019 51

WHAT

MADE

VI ETNAM

A ‘JUST’

WA R

By Eric Patterson

Until two presidents prolonged it

ifty years after the war in Vietnam, Americans are

still debating the morality of U.S. involvement

there—the reasons the government went in and the

way it got out. Political scientist Eric Patterson has

compiled a checklist of sorts that provides one way of judging the

justness of the war-making strategies pursued by four presidents.

In Just American Wars: Ethical Dilemmas in U.S. Military

History, Patterson, a professor at the Robertson School of Govern-

ment at Regent University and a research fellow at Georgetown Uni-

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out eight principles that serve as the basis for ethical, moral con-

duct in war. He traces those principles to writings of philosophers

such as Cicero in ancient Rome and St. Augustine in the early years

of Christianity.

The eight principles of ethical warfare are legitimate authority,

just cause, right intent, likelihood of success, proportionality of

ends, last resort, proportionality in conduct of the war, and discrim-

ination in conduct of the war.

Patterson, a lieutenant colonel in the Air National Guard, uses

those principles to look at ethical dilemmas in various aspects of

American wars from the Revolution to the post-9/11 world. In the

Vietnam chapter, he focuses on the war aims of U.S. presidents and

whether those aims were pursued for legitimate reasons (just

cause) and with honorable motivations (right intent).

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