Is history repeating itself, or is it just a coincidence? When taking a look at our current situation in Afghanistan, many people alive during the war in Vietnam might feel a sense of deja-vu. Even if you don’t know too much about the details of both wars, just by knowing bits and pieces of history you could see their striking resemblance.
In 1961, president Kennedy received proposals to Americanize the war in Vietnam, but he declined all of the proposals. He was skeptical about sending a massive deployment of additional troops, feeling it was an ineffective mission, and that it would only slow the Vietnamese military in taking the conflict into their own hands and defeating the Vietcong against their communist regime. Instead of taking others proposals, he took command of the decision making. In May of 1961, president Kennedy sent 400 United States Army Special Forces personnel to South Vietnam to train South Vietnamese soldiers, following a visit to the country by vice-president Lyndon B. Johnson. By 1963, feeling that they would lose South Vietnam to the communists, president Kennedy would eventually schedule a coup against South Vietnamese president Diem and his brother and political adviser, Nhu. The coup would end in a double assassination of Diem and his brother Nhu; a result of the coup in which Kennedy did not approve.
On November 22, 1963, just twenty days after president Diem of South Vietnam was assassinated in the back of an armored personnel carrier while en route to the Vietnamese Joint General Staff headquarters, the young and beloved president of the United States, John F. Kennedy, would lose his life to the bullet of an assassin. This would now put then vice-president Lyndon B. Johnson in the chair of commander-in-chief. In 1965, Lyndon B. Johnson would receive the same proposals of sending more troops into Vietnam. He accepted one of the proposals without giving them enough thought, which in turn would lead tragically into a long and unpopular war.
Today’s major conflict, the war in Afghanistan, is on our current president’s top agenda. The war in Afghanistan passed it’s eight-year mark on October 7, 2001. Similar to the Vietnam war, our United States troops continue to work with and build the Afghan military. Both the United States military and the Afghan military are in a war against the Taliban; a war against terrorism. Our relatively brand-new president, Barack Obama, is faced with the exact same decision of sending additional troops and deciding on a mission. Just recently he too was offered proposals of sending additional troops, but declined all of the proposals shown to him. Instead, like president Kennedy, president Obama is taking this decision into his own hands and giving it an enormous amount of his attention. The editors of the Washington Times have recommended the president read Lewis Sorley’s book “A Better War”, about the latter stages of the Vietnam conflict when the United States was successfully pursuing a strategy similar to the one president Obama announced in March. President Obama is currently using the lessons of the past in making the best decision on our current situation in Afghanistan. Several people, including his national security adviser, have recommended he read several books on the decisions and positions both John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson took on Vietnam, and what those decisions ultimately led to.
While it’s reported that president Obama and others in the White House have read “Lessons in Disaster: McGeorge Bundy and the Path to War in Vietnam,” a book by Gorden Goldstein on the decisions made during the Vietnam war, the president’s decision is as of yet unknown. The comforting thought in all of this is that the president is putting his time and thought into his decision, as apposed to not engaging or going forward with a proposal too quickly. These lessons of the past, and the fact that our president is looking at them closely, may prevent us from escalating into a tragically longer, and more unpopular war.
