During the Vietnam era the world community was just as clear in its condemnation of U.S. policy as it has been in support of it today. Certainly the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Vietnam under Richard M. Nixon was at least in part motivated by serious concerns that foreign opposition to the war was deteriorating America's ability to conduct foreign affairs. Today, even Arab nations have joined the international force in Saudi Arabia.

In 1964, Earle G. Wheeler, chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told Congress that America would lose everything it had fought for in the Cold War if it did not fight to the finish in Vietnam. Last week, two former chairs, William Crowe and David Jones, told Congress that America should wait for the sanctions to work.

Unlike the Vietnam War, the Gulf crisis has seen legitimate questions raised from the beginning on every op-ed page and around every dinner table in the nation. The very historical existence of the Vietnam conflict and the continuing existence of a Vietnam metaphor is strong assurance that Vietnam will not be repeated.

Vietnam changed the way Americans view the Presidency and foreign policy. Support for Lyndon B. Johnson's bombing in response to the Gulf of Tonkin incident was widespread, despite doubts about the incident's veracity. Today, the media's former trust has been replaced with cynicism.

This conflict has had its own share of administrative fiasco, with the U.S. supporting Saddam Hussein until just before his invasion of Kuwait. But that's nothing compared to the near-absolute suppression of democratic principles supervised by the U.S. in Vietnam.

The United States faces tough choices in the Persian Gulf. I am not yet convinced that the invasion of Kuwait warrants a war with Iraq. But simply leaving is not the answer. Leaving Vietnam in 1964 would have meant allowing the South Vietnamese the right of self-determination (even if that determination would have yielded Communist tyranny). In the Persian Gulf, withdrawal would mean acquiescing to the conquest of an entire people and allowing the victor to turn his attention to new victims.

At least for now, we should ignore the voices that say, "Let's get in there and get this over with." At the same time, we should ignore the raised fists and the anachronistic shouts of "Out now!"