It was not the promised unconditional surrender. Instead, we placed some (minor) conditions on our capitulation. Once again, we should realize that no matter how strong our military, we are limited in what we can accomplish through such might. Richard Nixon found that out.

Nixon, like the current president, promised to easily end wars. Nixon’s presidential campaign said that he had a secret plan to end the Vietnam War. Apparently that meant that two years later he would have the United States secretly invade Cambodia. When this became public knowledge, a huge backlash emerged. Perhaps surprising to the modern observer, outrage came from both sides of the congressional aisle. Congress then still performed some of its checks-and-balance function, and the invasion became a catalyst for the War Powers Resolution, which has been ignored by our present legislature.

Nixon addressed the nation on April 30, 1970, to justify the new or broader war and said that the United States would become a “pitiful, helpless giant” if it failed to use its military might abroad in furtherance of freedom: “If, when the chips are down, the world’s most powerful nation, the United States of America, acts like a pitiful, helpless giant, the forces of totalitarianism and anarchy will threaten free nations and free institutions throughout the world.”

Nixon missed the point. If we were a PHG, it was not because we refrained from the use of our power. We had a half million troops in Vietnam, and we had bombed the bejesus out of that country and were now going for Cambodia. We had bombed Laos even more and even longer, but these actions had not, and did not, produce the desired results. If we were a pitiful, helpless giant, it was because our widespread use of military force could not defeat our foes. When his physical strength does not cow his target, the bully becomes helpless. We were helpless in Nixon’s time not because of military restraint but because we knew nothing but military force and did not understand its limits.

That lesson has not carried over to today. Our military might has been overwhelming in Iran, but reliance on such force without an understanding of our target has again made us seem like a pitiful, helpless giant. More bombs are not always the answer.