Rarely acknowledged by US officials at the time were the ways in which the unrestrained use of American firepower had multiplied enemies and discredited friends. By the end of 1975, all three Washington-supported governments had been overthrown. At the time, it was widely recognized that the Nixon administration’s policy in Southeast Asia had been disastrous.. Lamentably, the self-serving belief that the freedom and security of people around the world depended on US military might, somehow survived.
