Is Afghanistan another Vietnam?
A majority of Americans say yes, according to a new poll, but opinion makers are sharply divided.
A U.S. soldier in Afghanistan
(Goran Tomasevic/Reuters/Corbis)
In a new CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll, 52 percent of people questioned say that the 8-year-old Afghanistan conflict has turned into another Vietnam War. Is there anything to be learned from the comparison? (Watch the man behind the 1968 "Pentagon Papers" leak on "Vietnamistan".)
It’s pointless to compare the wars: The American tendency to turn every conversation about Afghanistan into a rehash of debates about Vietnam "is really quite perverse," says Matthew Yglesias at Think Progress. "And not just because the countries are different but because the situations are so different." In Afghanistan, we’re not facing the threat of a communist victory: "Vietnam wasn’t an abstract exercise in U.S. military prowess. It was part of the Cold War."
Reading Material
The levels of anguish are certainly parallel: In interviews before their deaths, say Bob Woodward and Gordon M. Goldstein in The Washington Post, two of President Lyndon Johnson’s key Vietnam advisors spoke frankly about the dysfunctional decision process involved in that war. "I felt that I owed [Johnson] my best judgment ...," said then–Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara. "The question was how to present it effectively to a man who didn’t want to listen."
The Anguish of Decision
The key similarities can’t be overlooked: As in Vietnam, say Stephen J. Solarz and Michael O’Hanlon in The Washington Times, "we cannot succeed [in Afghanistan] without a viable domestic partner. Right now Mr. Karzai's government is not measuring up, and so we must use every tool at our disposal to push, prod, and cajole him to a higher standard of effectiveness."
An Intermediate Option
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5 Comments
Posted by Michael, Tuesday, October 20, 2009, 6:58 pm And how about this similarity? The story of Vietnam is one of a president with an ambitious social justice agenda that he did not want to see derailed by a foreign defeat. God grant that at least that lesson has been learned!
Posted by Arthur, Wednesday, October 21, 2009, 2:38 pm Tossing more money and lives at a problem when you don't go in to win is Viet Nam. It appears that there is no coherent goal. Military has one plan. The administration has another. Every politician in Washington has another, but only to get re elected. No one has a goal. We lack leadership, and our commander in chief is not leading. He wavers between following his generals, and listening to Rahm and Soros. Same with our school system. It is broken. Tossing billions more at our schools, without figuring out the problem and fixing it is Viet Nam.
Posted by dj spellchecka, Wednesday, October 21, 2009, 4:20 pm here's another case, like the voters' support for the public option, where the country is way ahead of the government...we are certainly not the first who have tried to 'control' afghanistan... if o'hanlon really thinks we can ween karzai off of the widespread corruption, he's dreaming...
Posted by David, Thursday, October 22, 2009, 8:50 am There are similarities with Viet Nam, but war has similarities. Afghanistan must be considered in context with PakistanIndia, with al QaedaMiddle East, and with AfghanistanRussia. We must stop thinking war as in WWII. This is more than a political war it is religious, it is cultural, and above all, as in all wars, it is about power, control, and domination.
Posted by Victor, Sunday, October 25, 2009, 7:48 pm Although this entire blunder into Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan has only killed 6.000 of our kids, it is heading towards another Vietman on it's poorly planned, militrary led, warprofiteerring inspired commission by the despicable Mr. Cheney etal. America has already lost this war and should get out now. The suffering, misery, and losses to the American people sacrificing our kids trying to protect people that hate us is just criminal. Some would think America leanred its lesson from Vietnam, bit obviously it hasn't, at all.
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