A Realist's Moral Opposition to War: Hans J. Morgenthau and Vietnam
In: Peace & change: a journal of peace research, Band 26, Heft 1, S. 55-77
ISSN: 0149-0508
This article examines Hans J. Morgenthau's critique of US policies in Vietnam. Morgenthau, renowned for his advocacy of realism in foreign affairs, was one of the few political commentators to raise questions about nation-building efforts in South Vietnam in the 1950s. After full-scale military intervention in the 1960s, he became the foremost academic critic of the war. Morgenthau demonstrated a dramatic evolution in his views. In the 1950s, he expressed reservations about Indochina policies based on pragmatic concerns. Over time, however, his analysis of Vietnam policies focused on their ethical shortcomings. His examination of the ethics of the Vietnam war led him to revise his notion of how national interests should be determined in making foreign policy, from a calculation based on purely strategic factors to one that also takes moral factors into account. Adapted from the source document.