MUNCIE, Ind. -- While NATO planes bomb Yugoslavia daily in an attempt to stop the ethnic cleansing of Kosovo, many Americans are afraid that further involvement could lead to a Vietnam-like war, says a Ball State University historian.

America’s disastrous adventure in Vietnam is not far removed from the nation’s consciousness even though it’s been 24 years since the conflict ended, said Tony Edmonds, a Vietnam War history expert.

"Vietnam and the lives it cost continue to haunt us," he said. "Vietnam is a part of our popular culture. We see it in our movies and television shows. We read novels about it."

Edmonds contends it is misleading to compare America’s involvement as part of the NATO force attacking Yugoslavia with the Vietnam War.

In the 1960s, American policy sought to stop the expansion of communism around the globe. Preventing the fall of South Vietnam to communist North Vietnam became part of America’s containment doctrine. Three decades later, the communist threat has subsided. Yugoslavia and other Balkan states are a collection of ethnically-diverse states where religious and ethnic hatred has exploded again.

"If Ho Chi Minh had been another garden variety, right wing thug, not one American soldier would have been sent to Vietnam," he said. "But, he was a communist thug leading North Vietnam’s war on South Vietnam. That made all the difference."

While Yugoslavian leader Slobodan Milosevic is a former communist, the threat from communism is long gone, contends Edmonds, who believes that many see America’s "moral security" at risk in the Kosovo conflict.

A major part for the rationale for NATO action is clearly ethical because the Serbians are acting in a horribly wrong fashion and must be stopped, he said.

Edmonds is the author of two books and several papers on America’s involvement in Vietnam. He has witnessed effects of the war on the American psyche by teaching a history class since 1981 on the conflict in Southeast Asia. The class is one of the most popular history sections at Ball State with students seeking entrance often doubling the available seating space.

"These students have relatives who fought in the war or protested against it," he said. "They also are interested in it because they haven’t had their own war. The Persian Gulf War doesn’t count. It lasted a few days in 1991 as compared to Vietnam, which actually has been in constant turmoil since the Chinese invaded in 202 A.D."

While some Americans are comparing Vietnam and Kosovo, others are attempting to elevate Milosevic to the level of Adolph Hitler, the leader of Nazi Germany in World War II responsible for the deaths of more than six million Jews, gypsies and other "non-Aryan" races.

In comparisons to modern leaders, Milosevic can be likened to Iraq’s Saddam Hussein, a ruthless dictator, Edmonds said.

"To compare him to Hitler trivializes what happened in World War II," he said. "The extermination of millions in the death camps cannot be compared to what is happening today. But, where do you put him on a scale of horrors, a rat is a rat is a rat. Some are rattier than others. He compares more to Saddam Hussein, who has gassed his own people, than to someone on Hitler’s level."

(NOTE TO EDITORS: For more information, contact Edmonds by e-mail at aedmonds@bsu.edu or by phone at (765)285-2779.)