The Vietnam War sparked comparisons with ancient imperialism in general and with the Sicilian Expedition in particular among teachers, scholars, journalists, and many other Americans who had studied classical History. The role of such parallels in university lecture halls was emphasized by Walter Carp, a contributor to Harper’s magazine, in an article titled “The Two-Millennia War: Thucydides in the Cold War,” published in March 1981. Reflecting on his student years in the 1950s, when his professor in the course Humanities Studies I suggested an analogy between the Peloponnesian War and the recently named Cold War, Carp noted that the parallels were obvious, with authoritarian Sparta resembling the Soviet Union and democratic Athens representing America. Returning to Thucydides a generation later, Carp was impressed by the extent of the parallels between 5th century BC Athens and the United States of his time, as he perceived similarities between the overconfidence of the Athenians after the Spartan surrender at Sphacteria and Harry Truman’s attempt to conquer North Korea after MacArthur’s victory at Inchon, as well as John Kennedy’s readiness to engage in a war in Vietnam following his victory over Khrushchev in the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Now, in the 21st century, those seeking classical parallels, such as strategy advisor Stefan Hendt, have their eyes fixed on the Middle East, comparing the American intervention there to the Athenian campaign in Sicily, attributing both to greed, fear, and the pursuit of glory, and warning of the consequences of excessive resource dispersion and ignorance of distant lands. And of course, there is the new threat called the “Thucydides Trap.” This phrase, coined by Graham Allison of Harvard’s Kennedy School, refers to Thucydides’ assertion that the Peloponnesian War was caused by Athens’ rise as a new power and the fear it inspired in Sparta, which was already a great power, and is used to justify ominous warnings about an impending conflict between the United States and China.