Some call this isolationism, but it might better be called prudence or pragmatism. After all, President Dwight D. Eisenhower refused in 1954 to send US troops to save the French at Dien Bien Phu because he feared that they would be swallowed up by the divisions in Vietnam.

For example, following Vietnam s partition in the wake of France s defeat at Dien Bien Phu in 1954, Ngo Dinh Diem, Vietnam s last non Communist president, was able to turn to the US military for support. However, staggering levels of corruption under Diem and his US backed successors, and the replacement of the military s most competent commanders with Diem s cronies, ultimately led to the rout of the South Vietnamese Army.