Norman Podhoretz's Why We Were in Vietnam (1982) is a defense of U.S. participation in the Vietnam War as a moral crusade and necessary stand against global communism, challenging the post-war liberal consensus that portrayed the war as a mistake or immoral adventure. The book accuses American liberals, the media, and the anti-war movement of betraying the troops and South Vietnam through defeatism and moral equivocation, while advocating for a proud acknowledgment of the war's aims and criticizing the post-war 'Vietnam syndrome' that weakened U.S. resolve. It solidified Podhoretz's neoconservative stance and contributed to conservative revisionism on the war.