The United States cannot overthrow the Diem regime, occupy the country, manage the economy, run the civil administration, and then fight the war for the Vietnamese. It has been used to describe this conflict since at least 1963, when Irving Kristol used it, writing in The New Leader: When used to describe an undesirable military situation, quagmire is frequently found in reference to the involvement of the United States in Vietnam. The word’s meaning and etymology make such use quite logical not only is a quagmire a bog, or area of soft ground in which it can be difficult to walk, but the word is formed by combining quag (meaning marsh) with mire (a word meaning ‘to cause to stick fast in’). Quagmire is a word that is often associated with military conflicts in which the invading army becomes bogged down. It’s the lesson of Vietnam, of Iraq - and we should have learned it by now. That’s not leadership that’s a recipe for quagmire, spilling American blood and treasure that ultimately weakens us. We also can’t try to take over and rebuild every country that falls into crisis. Quagmire spiked the evening of January 12th, 2016, after President Barack Obama used the word in his State of the Union address, speaking of the need to exercise caution in foreign affairs:
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