Nov. 16, 1980: President-elect Ronald Reagan calls the Vietnam  War a “noble cause,” echoing the views of a “small but increasingly vocal minority of scholars,” The Times’ Barry Siegel says.

“Virtually all scholars still say America should never have gotten involved in Vietnam because the costs were too high and the goals unachievable. But some now argue that, although the war effort was badly misguided, recent events prove the concerns of the pro-war camp to be honorable and legitimate,” Siegel says.