Vietnam War

====Myths==== <!-- Redirect target of [[Mythology of the Vietnam War]] and [[Vietnam War myths]] -->
{{See also|The Myth of the Spat-on Vietnam Veteran|Vietnam stab-in-the-back myth}}
Myths play a central role in the [[historiography]] of the Vietnam War, and have become a part of the [[culture of the United States]]. Much like the general historiography of the war, discussion of myth has focused on U.S. experiences, but changing myths of war have also played a role in Vietnamese and Australian historiography. Recent scholarship has focused on "myth-busting",<ref name="Milam">{{Cite book |last=Milam |first=Ron |title=Not A Gentleman's War: An Inside View of Junior Officers in the Vietnam War |publisher=University of North Carolina Press |year=2009 |isbn=978-0-8078-3712-2}}</ref>{{Rp|373}} attacking the previous orthodox and revisionist schools of American historiography of the Vietnam War. This scholarship challenges myths about American society and soldiery in the Vietnam War.<ref name="Milam" />{{Rp|373}}

Kuzmarov in ''The Myth of the Addicted Army: Vietnam and the Modern War on Drugs'' challenges the popular and Hollywood narrative that US soldiers were heavy drug users,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Kuzmarov |first=Jeremy |title=The Myth of the Addicted Army: Vietnam and the Modern War on Drugs |publisher=Univ of Massachusetts Press |year=2009 |isbn=978-1-55849-705-4 |pages=[{{GBurl|id=qDbtvEIxWigC|dq=nixon+%22tide+of+drug+abuse%22|p=3}} 3–4]}}</ref> in particular the notion that the My Lai massacre was caused by drug use.<ref name=Milam/>{{Rp|373}} According to Kuzmarov, Richard Nixon is primarily responsible for creating the drug myth.<ref name=Milam/>{{Rp|374}}

Michael Allen in ''Until The Last Man Comes Home'' also accuses Nixon of myth making, by exploiting the plight of the [[League of Wives of American Prisoners in Vietnam]] and the [[National League of Families of American Prisoners and Missing in Southeast Asia]] to allow the government to appear caring as the war was increasingly considered lost.<ref name=Milam/>{{Rp|376}} Allen's analysis ties the position of potential missing or prisoner Americans into post-war politics and recent presidential elections, including the [[Swift Vets and POWs for Truth|Swift boat]] controversy in US electoral politics.<ref name=Milam/>{{Rp|376–377}}