Part of the tragedy of America's third time of trial -- the Vietnam War: the other two being the Revolutionary War and the Civil War -- is that the debate about the Vietnam War's moral meanings was never resolved. For if we talk about Vietnam -- and we can't talk about this history without talking about -- people with strong, rival and incompatible senses of the common good. 

The Vietnam War reveals a depth of division within American culture that remains and colors all debates over the wars  the United States has participated in since, as well as other salient issues such as class, race, sex and the environment.

The Vietnam War is "the unfinished war," what we today call "endless war." This raises the uncomfortable question we have learned not to attend and even to exclude from our collective consciousness and conscience: Do we, as citizens, have any longer a sufficiently shared conception of the common good and meaning of America?