During the Cold War, many lessons were learned. The United States has had to learn these lessons to survive in a rapidly changing world. He learned lessons from the Gulf of Tonkin incident and the subsequent resolution that led to the invasion of Vietnam. She learned lessons from the horrors of the Vietnam War. And he learned the lessons of the My Lai massacre in Vietnam, one of those horrors. One of the lessons learned from all of these incidents is that in times of uncertainty, restraint is required. This lesson can be applied to situations like the Iraq War. in which the United States finds itself today. The lack of restraint used in the Vietnam War was enormous. If the United States had shown more restraint when the United States was attacked by an enemy just before the Vietnam War, the conflict could have easily been avoided. President Johnson did not show restraint in his decision when two American destroyers were allegedly attacked by North Vietnamese forces, commonly referred to as the Gulf of Tonkin Incident. “Johnson told Americans that communist torpedo boats had fired on American destroyers on August 2 and 4, 1964. Following this, Congress voted almost unanimously on August 7 to give Johnson approval to intensify the American involvement in Vietnam…. “More recent analysis...now clearly shows that North Vietnamese naval forces did not attack (USS) Maddox and (USS) Turner Joy that night in the summer of 1964” (Dakks). Johnson should have known the facts about the Gulf of Tonkin incident before proposing the Gulf of Tonkin resolution which allowed him to justify the invasion of Vietnam. During the Cold War, the United States did not show sufficient restraint when it invaded Cambodia. President Nixon should have realized that invading Cambodia... middle of paper ... sounds like invading Cambodia. He was certainly not present during the My Lai massacre. The lesson could have been applied during the Iraq War, but it was not a factor then. The United States could have won the Vietnam War and applied its knowledge to the Iraq War if it had known that it was okay to exercise restraint in times of uncertainty. sufficient restraint was not shown during the Iraq War and the Vietnam War. The invasion of both countries could have been avoided. Once the country was invaded, the mistakes that changed the course of the war could easily have been avoided. Massacres took place, demonstrating the lack of restraint. And the wars could have been won if the United States had seen the mistakes made during the war and tried to fix them. The United States could have won the Vietnam War if it had shown restraint in times of uncertainty..