On Vietnam and Afghanistan

I was drafted toward the end of Vietnam. I was in the barracks on 23 January 1973 when President Richard Nixon made his peace with honor speech about the coming end of the Vietnam War. Within two years South Vietnam had fallen. In April of 1975, the famous photo was published of the Huey helicopter desperately trying to leave the US Embassy in Saigon with people left behind on the roof and screaming as they fell from the runners of the helicopter that took off with them hanging on desperately. That April of 1975, I was but a month from graduating with a Master’s in New Testament and Theology from a seminary. The involvement in Vietnam had lasted 21 years, from 1954-1975. First, there were advisors sent in, and then finally the actual war. The actual war began with the Gulf of Tonkin resolution in 1964, so the war period lasted about 11 years with the prior 10 years being considered an advisory period.

Nothing was gained from that war save the death of 58,220 Americans. Over 150,000 were wounded and over 1,600 were MIA and by now presumed dead. We also did gain a heavy legacy of PTSD, Moral Injury, homeless veterans, etc., etc. The people of Vietnam got what they wanted, an opportunity to make their own mistakes without an outside authority controlling them. The early years of the new Vietnam were rife with paybacks, executions, etc. But, the early fervor has settled into a reasonably peaceful country that is run under a political philosophy with which our country does not agree. Oddly enough, recent administrations have had meetings with Vietnam as both countries are interested in preventing Chinese expansionism: “The enemy of my enemy is my friend” philosophical approach to international relations.

We did gain one other thing. We gained a bunch of flag-waving yahoos who saw the Armed Forces as having been betrayed and a war as having been lost that could have been won. Nothing would convince them that this was an unwinnable war, short of a massive nuclear attack to destroy North Vietnam. Somehow, we did not pour enough people into the war or enough resources or enough whatever. And, they became convinced that this would never happen again on their watch.

We all know what came next. It has happened again. Afghanistan has fallen after 20 years of war. There was no advisory period, so Afghanistan will go down as our longest war on record until now. The yahoos had their chance to have a “proof-of-concept” war in which we supplied what the Armed Forces needed. Despite warnings at the beginning that we should not engage in nation-building (for instance, from President George W. Bush), we engaged in nation-building. Just like in Vietnam, it has not mattered whether the President was Republican or Democrat, neither party was able to actually win in Afghanistan.

The butcher’s bill has been lower in Afghanistan due to much better equipment and much better medical care. So far, about 2,400 of our Armed Forces have died. About 21,000 have been injured. We will not have final figures for several years. But, the toll of PTSD and Moral Injury appears to have been higher. The constant usage of the National Guard by USA Presidents and their being ground down due to repeated deployments has created a social price that will probably end up being higher than the Vietnam social price.

But, the yahoos are at it again! One only needs to go to conservative political media to see how somehow President Biden lost the war. They are again saying that the Armed Forces have somehow been betrayed and that somehow the politicos must be responsible for the loss. There is no conception of an idea that perhaps we should only have been there long enough to make the point that one does not attack America. There is no conception that we cannot win a war where the populace does not fully support our presence. There is no conception that the only way we could have won the war was by engaging in behavior that would have had us classified on the world stage as being on the same level as a Russia who took the Crimea or a China that violates Hong Kong on a regular basis.

There is also no memory among the yahoos that the withdrawal was started by a prior President and continued by his successor. Withdrawal from Afghanistan was first announced by President Obama on 22 June 2011. We still had 10 more years of war coming, but we did not know that as a country. On 27 May 2014, full withdrawal was announced to be finished by 2016. On 29 February 2020, after a two-year abortive attempt to “win” the war, President Trump announced that a deal had been reached with the Taliban (oh, shades of Nixon!). On 17 November 2020, the Pentagon announces that combat troops will be down to 2,500 by year’s end. On 20 January 2021, President Biden was inaugurated and inherited both low troop strength and unwinnable war. Within less than 6 months, the Taliban began its march through the country.

Sadly, right-wing politicians and the right-wing media are lining up and–yes-lying through their teeth as they peddle the line that somehow President Biden “lost” the war. These are the same type of yahoos as those who took the death of so many of us in Vietnam and used it to further their political agenda. Had the President chosen to send more troops, they would now be screaming about the unconscionable return to a country that President Trump had decided to leave. I have a sinful dark spot in my heart that harks back to when I was a drafted teenaged soldier that is having serious difficulty either being merciful or loving toward these people. May God forgive me for my lack of forgiveness toward these people.

Sadly, I can hear the voices of the yahoos again. They are in full battle-cry. For them, there is no history. There is no President George W. Bush, no President Obama, no President Trump who bears any responsibility. No, they are again yelling about this amorphous, not-identifiable, group of politicos and America-haters who somehow did not support the war enough. Sadly, they or probably their children will try to find a future war to “redeem” the supposedly sullied honor of the USA. How many will they try to kill in the future to prove that the USA is number one and all-powerful?

To paraphrase the Book of Proverbs, my son do not fall into the clutches of the yahoo lest you eat a bitter fruit.