Another Vietnam.
Those two words have become a cautionary mantra over the 40 years since the fall of Saigon indelibly etched images of U.S. foreign policy failure in memories and history books.
The post-Sept. 11 invasion of Afghanistan and the trillions of dollars spent in vain to rid that country of Taliban and Al Qaeda militants was another Vietnam, many argued then and now.
In this April 1975 file photo, orphans aboard the first “Operation Babylift” flight at the end of the Vietnam War look through the windows of World Airways DC-8 jet as it flies them to the United States.
AP
In this Thursday, May 1, 1975 file photo, U.S. sailors transfer a South Vietnamese boy from the USS Blue Ridge to a merchant vessel off the South Vietnam coast during evacuations from South Vietnam.
Nick Ut /AP
The occupation of Iraq in pursuit of its purported weapons of mass destruction was another Vietnam, having wrecked much of the Middle East country and sown resentment that still fuels Islamic extremism three years after the U.S. withdrawal.
“All-in” U.S. intervention has been averted in conflicts racking Syria, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Ukraine, at least partly in recognition that wars fought on behalf of people who don’t share American values are destined to be lost.
In this April 28, 1975 photo provided the White House via the Gerald R. Ford Library, President Gerald Ford, center, meets with Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, right, and Vice President Nelson Rockefeller in the Oval Office of the White House to discuss the American evacuation of Saigon.
David Hume Kennerly/AP
In this Tuesday, April 29, 1975 file photo, American citizens arrive aboard the command and control ship USS Blue Ridge after being evacuated out of Saigon, South Vietnam, by U.S. Marine and Air Force helicopters operating from Navy ships.
AP
In this Tuesday, April 29, 1975 file photo, U.S. Navy personnel aboard the USS Blue Ridge push a helicopter into the sea off the coast of Vietnam in order to make room for more evacuation flights from Saigon. The helicopter had carried Vietnamese people fleeing Saigon as North Vietnamese forces closed in on the capital.
AP
Historians continue to disagree about reasons for the defeat of democratic aspirations in South Vietnam at the hands of the communist North Vietnam and the Viet Cong. Some argue that a moral obligation was inherited by the Western victors of World War II to press the struggle for freedom for “captive nations,” including those of Eastern Europe, that were dominated by the Soviet Union. Others contend that American forces had no strategic interests in Southeast Asia, or that the war was lost because the Vietnamese were sidelined as the superpowers fought a proxy war on their territory.
In this Monday, April 28, 1975 file photo, South Vietnamese troops and western TV newsmen run for cover as a North Vietnamese mortar round explodes on Newport Bridge on the outskirts of Saigon.
Hoanh AP
Lewis Sorley, a preeminent chronicler of the war that has become synonymous in the minds of many with misguided U.S. military ventures, laid the blame for the defeat in Vietnam on a failure of political conviction at a key moment when a changed command strategy was turning the war’s tide.
A West Point graduate, Vietnam veteran, former Army War College instructor and CIA planning and policy chief, and also the author of six historical accounts of the war, Sorley spoke with The Times this week about Vietnam’s enduring influence on U.S. security policy before Thursday’s 40th anniversary of the fall of Saigon.
In this April 30, 1975 file photo, South Vietnamese civilians try to scale the walls of the U.S. embassy in Saigon in an attempt to get aboard evacuation flights.
Neal Ulevich AP
What was the initial rationale for U.S. intervention in Vietnam?
Most people agree that the decision made during the Eisenhower administration and reaffirmed by successive presidents had to be viewed in the context of the Cold War. Containment [of the spread of communism] was the strategy decided on.
In this April 29, 1975 file photo, people try to scale the 14-foot wall of the U.S. embassy in Saigon, trying to reach evacuation helicopters, as the last of the Americans depart from Vietnam.
Neal Ulevich AP
Why did it fall to the United States to act as ‘defenders of freedom’ in Southeast Asia?
The French were the colonial masters in Indochina and we really needed them in Europe as part of NATO. The French wanted our help in Vietnam. It would be accurate to say we aspired to be leading defenders of the free world but we very definitely didn’t want to be the sole defenders.
We had good reasons for our involvement in Vietnam, but it’s important to remember that our involvement was incrementally increased. Our initial involvement was monetary and logistical. In the spring of 1965, it opened up big time. [Commanding Gen. William] Westmoreland’s response to any crisis was to ask for more troops. At the high-water mark, on 30 April 1969, we had 543,400 troops in the country.
In this May 4, 1975 file photo, a youth waves a weapon and a Provisional Revolutionary Government (PRG) flag as he joins PRG troops on a jeep on Tu Do street in Saigon.
Matt Franjola AP
Was it mounting public opposition to the war in the late 1960s that prompted the decision to draw down forces?
Congress was out ahead of the American people in losing enthusiasm for the war. Westmoreland squandered four years of support by the public. His only focus was on a war of attrition that assumed if you killed enough of the enemy they would lose heart and cease their aggression.
In this April 30, 1975 file photo, a North Vietnamese tank rolls through the gates of the Presidential Palace in Saigon, signifying the fall of South Vietnam. The war ended on April 30, 1975, with the fall of Saigon.
Anonymous AP
[President] Nixon and [Secretary of State Henry] Kissinger didn’t want to just abandon the Vietnamese. What was decided was a phased withdrawal. When Westmoreland finally was replaced by [Gen. Creighton] Abrams, it was not only a new war but a better war. Abrams understood the importance of building up the South Vietnamese armed forces and the need for population security. The Vietnamese expanded their forces from 600,000 to 1.1 million, almost all territorial forces who were on home ground, where their families lived, where their ancestral grave sites were. They really turned out to be excellent soldiers and until Congress decided to cut support for them they fought very effectively.
In this April 29, 1975 file photo, a helicopter lifts off from the U.S. embassy in Saigon, Vietnam during last minute evacuation of authorized personnel and civilians.
AP
How is the fall of Saigon and the chaotic evacuation of the U.S. Embassy remembered40 years later?
We will never live down the shame of having abandoned the Vietnamese. It’s not just that the evacuation left many behind, but when we cut off support for their armed forces, we caused the war to end the way it did.
In this April 4, 1975 file photo, smoke rises from the wreckage of a U.S. Air Force C-5A transport plane after it crashed in a paddy field shortly after takeoff from the Saigon Airport, killing a large number of orphan children who were on board in a rescue flight from South Vietnam.
Dang Van Phuoc AP
How did the Vietnam experience influence U.S. missions in Afghanistan and Iraq?
By the time we began to pull the plug on South Vietnam, they had a relatively effective government and armed forces and a politically homogeneous population. That couldn’t be said of Afghanistan or Iraq. The preconditions in those countries made our involvement doomed before it began. The young men and women in our armed forces in Iraq and Afghanistan — all volunteers — served bravely and selflessly and deserve our thanks and admiration. But what we asked them to do was something not in the realm of possibility.
In this April 1, 1975 file photo, a cargo net lifts refugees from a barge onto the SS Pioneer Contender for evacuation from the fallen city of Da Nang, Vietnam. It took eight hours to load some 6,000 refugees aboard the ship.
Peter O’Loughlin AP
What should be the standard for sending U.S. troops into foreign conflicts?
I hope policymakers conclude that it must be shown that we have important interests, even if the main interest is freedom writ large, and that there is a reasonable expectation of success. If not, let’s not spend lives and treasure in a vain cause in which we have nothing at stake.
In this Thursday, April 4, 1975 file photo, young demonstrators toss sticks and rocks at South Vietnamese riot police in Saigon in a brief confrontation after a rally sponsored by the mainly Catholic anti-corruption movement.
Lo Vinh AP
In this April 5, 1965 file photo, Capt. Donald R. Brown crouches on the ground in Saigon, waiting for the order for attack across an open field against Vietcong positions in a treeline from where enemy combatants with automatic weapons had briefly pinned down the HQ company of the 2nd Battalion, 46 Regiment.
AP
In this Sunday, April 27, 1975 file photo, a cross from a church in Saigon stands against the dawn sky after a rocket attack and ensuing fire.
Matt Franjola AP
In this April 23, 1975 photo provided by the Department of Defense, Vietnamese refugees crowd aboard the Military Sealift Command ship Pioneer Contender to be evacuated to areas further south.
AP
In this April 29, 1975 file photo, South Vietnamese civilians scale the 14-foot wall of the U.S. embassy in Saigon, trying to reach evacuation helicopters as the last Americans depart from Vietnam.
AP
This April 30, 1975 photo provided by former U.S. Marines Master Gunnery Sgt. Juan Valdez shows Marines barricading themselves on the roof of the U.S. Embassy in Saigon, Vietnam. On the 40th anniversary of the fall of Saigon, 13 Marines returned to dedicate a plaque to their two fallen brothers at the site of the old embassy, which is now the U.S. Consulate.
AP
This undated photo provided by former U.S. Marines Master Gunnery Sgt. Juan Valdez shows Vietnamese climbing the wall of the U.S. Embassy in Saigon, Vietnam. On the 40th anniversary of the fall of Saigon, 13 Marines returned to dedicate a plaque to their two fallen brothers at the site of the old embassy, which is now the U.S. Consulate.
AP
This April 30, 1975 photo provided by former U.S. Marines Master Gunnery Sgt. Juan Valdez of Oceanside, California, shows himself, rear center, sitting on the last helicopter leaving the U.S. Embassy in Saigon, Vietnam. On the 40th anniversary of the fall of Saigon, 13 Marines returned to dedicate a plaque to their two fallen brothers at the site of the old embassy, which is now the U.S. Consulate.
AP
Remembering the fall of Saigon
No comments:
Post a Comment