This Memorial Day comes a month after the 50th anniversary of the Fall of Saigon, which was largely used to recall the collapse of the entire American project in Vietnam. In short, the failure of the war is now viewed as both a rebuke of the American Exceptionalism myth and the rigid Cold War mentality that had Washington in a vice grip for much of the 20th Century.
“The leaders who mismanaged this debacle were never held accountable and remained leading players in the establishment for the rest of their lives,” noted author and professor Stephen Walt in a RS symposium on the war. “The country learned little from this bitter experience, and repeated these same errors in Iraq, Afghanistan, and several other places.”
Today, after 20 years of those post-9/11 wars, the American people — including many of the veterans who fought there — have seemingly got the message. In poll after poll, they reject the use of force as the first tool in the toolbox. They eschew the idea of prospective war with Iran, and China over Taiwan.
But do our leaders “get it”?
Donald Trump swept into office in 2016 on the idea that he would end “endless” conflict and shared the national disdain for being lied to in order to invade Iraq, and for spreading American troops too thin to fight Washington’s wars of choice overseas. Now in his second term he has made similar exhortations — recently he rebuked the “neocons” who “spent trillions and trillions of dollars failing to develop Kabul, Baghdad, and so many other cities” in his recent Middle East trip.
His Vice President JD Vance is a veteran who has admonished the interventionist impulses of the past. Delivering the commencement speech to U.S Naval Academy class of 2025 on Friday, he said his boss wants only to send men and women into conflict with clear goals rather than “undefined missions” and “open-ended conflicts” of the past.
The new administration incorporates other veterans, however, like his Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who is still giving off mixed signals when it comes to the use of force purely in the national security interest (see his threats against Iran, his responses in the Yemen airstrike Signalgate chats).
Sen. Tom Cotton, another veteran, is a powerful member of the Senate Armed Services Committee who continues to rally around an aggressive posture with Iran, even as news leaks that Israel is prepping to attack them militarily.
So if Memorial Day is for remembering, what do we want the Trump administration to “remember” about our past wars and the policies that led to them. How do we want Trump and his top people in the Pentagon, the National Security Council and State Department — three institutions that play a critical role in our foreign policy, to remember?
RS asked a number of recent veterans — including those who fought in Iraq and Afghanistan – what they would say to Trump, today, about the importance of Memorial Day.
“My one wish for this administration is that they understand veterans and the sacrifice of the military, and the cost of war. Not just focus on the so-called ‘wins’ he wants to honor,” said James R. Webb, who served in Iraq as a Marine Corps rifleman, referring to Trump’s desire to designate victory days for the two world wars.
“In short, the cost of war is high, and although there are times when it must be paid, we should never be eager to settle up that account,” said Robert Givens, a retired Air Force officer who served in both Persian Gulf I and II wars.
“I would hope this administration avoids the mistakes of its predecessors, including the first Trump administration, which for decades have unhesitatingly sent Americans to die in overseas conflicts that did not make us safer or more prosperous,” said Harrison Mann, a former U.S. Army major who resigned a post at the Defense Intelligence Agency last year in protest of his office’s support for Israel's war in Gaza.
“The President should honor our war dead by learning from (past) mistakes and resisting appeals to send more Americans to die for nothing in Iran, Mexico, and elsewhere.”
Others want Trump to take his pledge to “America First” seriously in that he realign military policy toward defending the country and away from using (and abusing) the Armed Forces to pursue political goals, nation building, democracy promotion or fight on behalf of partners or even allies when the mission or risk is not clearly defined.
Dan Davis, who served in the first Persian Gulf War as well as Afghanistan, said he would like the President to “remember that we all signed up to defend our country. We did not sign up to guard Syrian oil. We did not sign up to ‘put pressure’ on Russia in Eastern Europe. We did not sign up to take out violent actors who threaten African regimes. We did not sign up to die on the Taiwanese islands or shores.”
None of that, he said “used to be controversial. Today my views are considered heresy, by some,” he added. “How dare I suggest that I or my sons wouldn't volunteer to fight and die for some other country and their interests, even when our security is not materially threatened.”
John Byrnes, who served in the Army in Iraq shortly after the invasion in 2003, had a similar message.
“To President Trump and his national security team: Please continue with a national security strategy focused on keeping America safe without unnecessarily risking our troops. To the civilian and military leadership at the Department of Defense, please honor the White House's public commitments to avoiding and ending unnecessary wars — you above all others know the value of the young lives you lead.”
“And to the troops: Thank you for stepping up and into the shoes of the men and women we honor this Memorial Day.”
For the last several years, the U.S. military has been dealing with a recruiting problem of which there is not one single cause. Even this issue has been politicized, but the bottom line is, despite the Hegseth DoD heralding a boom in new recruitment, the forces have scaled back their recruitment targets and the fundamental issues remain. Costly interventions overseas — which continue today in Syria and Iraq and the proxy war in Ukraine — unresolved problems affecting health and well being of soldiers and their families on military bases here in the U.S., and the specter of war, do not help.
Adam Weinstein, who served in Afghanistan with the Marines and is now a Quincy Institute fellow, said “military leaders often remind us that Memorial Day is about more than barbecues and long weekends and they’re right to do so. But the weight of our collective loss must not only be honored in remembrance; it should shape our choices.”
For sure, the parades and wreath laying ceremonies at military cemeteries are one way to remember, symbolizing both national regard and grief for those who had been lost. Too often, however, there is a disconnect between the official rituals, somber but devoid of true reflection, and what Americans believe to be the core lessons learned. The end result is, well, nothing durable in the way of shifting behavior or policy in any meaningful way.
“The memory of the fallen should not be tucked away, brought out only once a year,” Weinstein added. “It must remain present, especially when the call to war returns. Memorial Day should be a solemn warning as much as a tribute — a reminder that war is not abstract, and its cost is paid in lives.”
Seth Harp, a U.S. Army veteran who served a tour in Iraq, wants the administration to recall the existential impact of our interventions on the rest of the world.
“I would like the Trump administration to remember not just the soldiers who died, but also the millions of innocents who were killed, the trillions of dollars squandered, and the cataclysmic decline of America's standing in the world as a result of the last quarter century of endless wars.”
As Vietnam Veteran and Quincy Institute co-founder Andy Bacevich said in that aforementioned Vietnam War symposium, “American foreign policy elites have spent the last 50 years engaged in a concerted effort to evade their responsibility for that disaster…Yesterday's mistakes become the basis for tomorrow's actions.” Breaking the cycle might be the best thing Trump can do for our veterans, for all of America, today.
