by John M. Curtis
(310) 204-8700

Copyright April 30, 2005
All Rights Reserved.

hirty-years after the fall of Saigon, Vietnam burns as a symbol of American failure. In a post Sept. 11 era, today's foreign policy of containing Islamic extremism strangely parallels the Truman Doctrine, holding the line against Soviet expansionism. While Soviet ambitions were real a problem following WW II, the Bush Doctrine now draws the line against radical Islam. Calling Iraq the “central front in the war on terror,” President George W. Bush has painted Iraq with the same broad brush as former President Lyndon B. Johnson when he, and his once zealous Defense Secretary Robert S. McNamara, concluded they must, as president John F. Kennedy once said, “. . . bear any burden, meet any hardship to insure the survival of liberty . . .” Bush adopted the same view, sacrificing U.S. lives, resources and, yes, key social programs, to insure Iraq's freedom and liberty.

      Though North Vietnam President Ho Chi Minh died in 1969, he was the spiritual force behind Vietnam's liberation movement. It was Ho Chi Minh, after a nearly 30-year guerrilla struggle, that defeated the French in 1954 winning Vietnam's independence. When the United Nations partitioned Vietnam into its communist north and democratic south, Ho continued his struggle for unification, eventually driving the U.S. out in 1975. Fifty-eight-thousand U.S. troops lost their lives in Vietnam, fighting, as Johnson and McNamara used to say, to hold the line against communism. While communists control the country, Vietnam didn't, as the U.S. State Department insisted, become another domino in the Soviet Union's unrelenting march toward world domination. Yet it was that kind of claptrap, that type of propaganda, that resulted in one of the most divisive periods in American history.

      Only 10 months after the assassination of John F. Kennedy Nov. 22, 1963, the Gulf of Tokin incident occurred Aug 4, 1964 in which the Pentagon insisted that the U.S. navy was attacked by North Vietnamese patrol boats. Four days later the U.S. Congress passed unanimously the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, giving Johnson the authority to escalate military action in Vietnam. While this event was vigorously disputed in the 1971 Pentagon Papers by former Pentagon analyst Daniel Ellsberg, the fact remains that the U.S. sacrificed 58,000 lives, wasted untold billions and caused political and social upheaval. Even McNamara admits today that he and the Pentagon made serious mistakes both in terms of the over-reaching Truman Doctrine but, more importantly, about Vietnam's colonial history and national independence. As was the case then, miscalculations proved most costly.

      Bush's Iraq bears striking similarity—but real differences--to Johnson's Vietnam. Secretary of State Colin L. Powell's powerful Feb. 5, 2003 presentation to the U.N. Security Council, accusing Saddam Hussein of stockpiling weapons of mass destruction, sold the case. McNamara offered comparable testimony accusing North Vietnam of unprovoked attacks, justifying U.S. military intervention. In 1964, the White House, State Department and Pentagon were absolutely convinced that the Soviets were behind Ho Chi Minh's guerilla war against South Vietnam. Today, the White House, State Department and Pentagon are equally convinced that Iraq represents “the central front in the war on terror.” But have the same mistakes that led to Vietnam portend more problems and regret down the road? While there's no draft today, nearly 1,600 U.S. soldiers have already lost their lives.

      Jordanian-born terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawai, a follower of Osama bin Laden, leads the deadly insurgency, wreaking havoc on U.S. troops and Iraq's fledgling government. Ho Chi Minh had a loyal, well-equipped guerrilla army fighting against U.S. and South Vietnamese troops led by President Nguyen Van Thieu. Thieu resigned in disgrace shortly before the U.S. pulled out and the fall of Saigon. No matter how well supported by U.S. forces, Thieu couldn't stop growing disloyalty within his own ranks, sympathetic to Ho Chi Minh's epic struggle for Vietnam independence and unification. Bin Laden's pan-Islamic movement was never a factor in Iraq until Saddam's regime fell April 9, 2003. Since then, Saddam's Republican Guard and Sunni-dominated Baathist Party scrambled to join al-Zarqawai's underground, fighting Iraq's new government and U.S. occupation.

      Celebrating the 30-year anniversary of the Fall of Saigon, communists still have a stranglehold on Vietnam, yet, somehow, its gross domestic product grows at 7.1 percent—4% above the U.S. economy. My generation was raised to fight war,” said Nguen Thanh Trung, a South Vietnamese defector, currently a pilot with Vietnamese Airlnes. But today's generation is here to capitalize on peace,” doing a 180 from the days of Ho Chi Minh's successful guerrilla war. No one can bring back the lives of 58,000 Americans or 3-million Vietnamese who fought and died in the Vietnam War. If there's any valid parallel, today's Iraqis have mixed feelings about U.S. occupation. Whether they hated Saddam, many Iraqis—even those supporting the new government—resent U.S. occupation. Before Ho's Vietnam or Saddam's Iraq, indigenous people resisted occupation—funny how things haven't changed.

About The Author

John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He's editor of Onlinecolumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.

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