Many lessons were learned during the Cold War. The United States has had to learn these lessons to survive in a rapidly changing world. He learned his lesson from the Gulf of Tonkin incident and the ensuing resolution that led to the invasion of Vietnam. He learned lessons from the horrors of the Vietnam War. And he learned his lesson from the My Lai massacre in Vietnam, one of those horrors. One lesson learned from all these incidents is that in uncertain times it is necessary to exercise restraint. This lesson can be applied to situations like the Iraq War. where the United States finds itself today. The lack of restraint used in the Vietnam War was egregious. If more restraint had been used when the United States was attacked by an enemy shortly before the Vietnam War, the conflict could easily have been avoided. President Johnson used no restraint in making his decision when two U.S. destroyers were allegedly attacked by North Vietnamese forces, commonly referred to as the Gulf of Tonkin Incident. “Johnson told Americans that Communist torpedo boats fired on U.S. destroyers on August 2 and 4, 1964. Congress later voted almost unanimously on August 7 to give Johnson approval to step up U.S. involvement in Vietnam …. “More recent analysis… now makes it clear that North Vietnamese naval forces did not attack the 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 that allowed him to justify the invasion of Vietnam. During the Cold War the United States did not exercise sufficient restraint when it invaded Cambodia. President Nixon should have realized that invading Cambodia... in the middle of the card... meant invading Cambodia. He certainly wasn't present during the My Lai massacre. The lesson could have been applied during the Iraq War, but the lesson wasn't a factor then. The United States could have won the Vietnam War and could have applied the knowledge to the Iraq War if it had known that it is correct to use restraint in uncertain times. not enough restraint was exercised 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 would have changed the course of the war could have easily been avoided. Massacres occurred which demonstrated the lack of restraint used. 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 war in Vietnam if it had used restraint in times of uncertainty.