Time to take a U-turn in Afghanistan?
The ghost of Vietnam, thought to have been buried in its jungles, has risen again as President Obama considers the course of the war in Afghanistan. The war, now in its ninth year and increasingly detested, even by senior American soldiers, continues to be fought in support of a corrupt government regularly criticised by its own citizens.
The gory Vietnam War fought 40 years ago still sends chills up the spine. Today, its memory has come back to haunt the young president, his advisors, his government, and his country. Vietnam became the longest and most hated war in American history. Eight years of guerrilla warfare resulted in more than 60,000 American deaths, two million Vietnamese deaths and created twelve million refugees.
Even today, Americans ask whether their endeavour in Vietnam was a sin, a mistake, a necessity or a righteous attempt to protect the South Vietnamese from a totalitarian regime. Voices, even from within Obama’s own party, have now started to raise similar questions about Afghanistan. The feeling is growing that the United States is being drawn into a Vietnam-like quagmire.
History may not repeat itself, but the similarities between Obama in 2010 and Lyndon Johnson in 1963 are striking. Both aspired to reshape America, have had to fight inherited and perhaps unwinnable wars abroad, at a time when they were approaching critical and costly domestic reforms.
Johnson's “Great Society” programmes ranged from curtailing poverty to improving medical care. Most of his reforms were enacted within the first two years of his presidency. By 1968, the war in Vietnam had worn out his reputation to such an extent that he decided not to run for re-election.
Against the backdrop of his key domestic project, the reform of healthcare, Barack Obama’s popularity has been slipping, though his approval rate is still above 50 percent. The results of the US mid-term elections will partly depend on the progress of the Afghanistan campaign.
A CNN Research poll in October showed 59% of Americans opposed sending more troops into the country, and 52 percent of Americans believe the war in Afghanistan has turned into another Vietnam. So are they right?
The starkest similarity is the issue of sanctuary. Just as the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese troops used Laos and Cambodia as sanctuaries, the Taliban has used the tribal areas of neighbouring Pakistan as a refuge. In 1970, the US invaded Cambodia to strike at these sanctuaries, and in 2008 the US moved into western Pakistan, fighting the Taliban with unmanned drone aircraft.
China, France, Japan and the United States could never really achieve victory in Vietnam, and Afghanistan is gaining a similar reputation. It has become known as the “Graveyard of Empires” after resisting the supremacy of Alexander the Great, the British Empire and the Soviet Union.
Back in 1963, President Kennedy was wrestling with Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem’s inability to turn the tide against Vietnamese insurgents, a situation that appears to mirror Obama’s dilemma. Hamid Karzai’s government reeks of corruption, the influence of warlords, and a failing strategy against the Taliban.
So the war in Afghanistan does bear striking similarities to the Vietnam War, both in terms of the problems the USA faces and the methods they have used. Derrick Crowe of the Huffington Post draws a stark conclusion: “If you're in a situation that's requiring you to look to the American experience in Vietnam for guidance, you should start looking for the door.” Unless the war takes a u-turn, the ghost of Vietnam might soon possess the White House.
(Photo courtesy The U.S. Army @Flickr)
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