For those of us who grew up in the late 60s and early 70s, Vietnam was part of our daily lives: on TV, in the papers, at the dinner table, on campuses and streets. This war halfway across the globe frayed our own social fabric in ways its proponents couldn’t possibly have imagined. Ironically, the US and Vietnam have long since reconciled but we’re still fighting the cultural battles the war unleashed at home. These collateral effects have proven far more consequential to the history of our country than the war itself. It’s a lesson I’ve internalized and one of the reasons why I’m so cautious about overseas entanglements.