Marvin Kalb, who served as chief diplomatic correspondent for CBS News and NBC News, will discuss his newest book, “Haunting Legacy: Vietnam and the American Presidency from Ford to Obama,” in a program from 7:30-9 p.m. Wednesday at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library.
The book, co-authored with daughter Deborah Kalb, focuses on the war’s impact on foreign and military policy.
In “Haunting Legacy,” the father-daughter journalist team explores a crucial issue: In light of the Vietnam debacle, under what circumstances should the United States go to war? The lesson of Vietnam is that the United States is not invincible — it can lose a war — and thus it must be more discriminating about the use of American power.
The authors write that every president has faced the ghosts of Vietnam in his own way, though each has been wary of being sucked into another unpopular war. Ford (during the Mayaguez crisis) and both Presidents George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush (Persian Gulf, Iraq, Afghanistan) deployed massive force, as if to say, “Vietnam, be damned.”
On the other hand, Presidents Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton and Ronald Reagan acted with caution, mindful of the Vietnam experience. President Barack Obama also has wrestled with the Vietnam legacy, using doses of American firepower in Libya while still engaged in Iraq and Afghanistan.
A reception will follow the talk.
