Now more than ever, Iraq = Vietnam

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Oh. My. God. Thanks to the Facing South blog, which is the kick-ass voice of the progressive south, for publishing this quotation from 1969 of Richard Nixon explaining why the U.S. had to stay in Vietnam to serve the cause of global peace. The parallels to that conflict have been many ever since the begining, but now it’s starting to seem like Bush has copied the play verbatim!

Will we never learn?

My fellow Americans, I am sure you can recognize from what I have said that we really only have two choices open to us if we want to end this war.

I can order an immediate, precipitate withdrawal of all Americans from Vietnam without regard to the effects of that action.

Or we can persist in our search for a just peace through a negotiated settlement if possible, or through continued implementation of our plan for Vietnamization if necessary, a plan in which we will withdraw all our forces from Vietnam on a schedule in accordance with our program, as the South Vietnamese become strong enough to defend their own freedom.

I have chosen this second course. It is not the easy way. It is the right way.

It is a plan which will end the war and serve the cause of peace not just in Vietnam but in the Pacific and in the world.
– Facing South: Off topic: The “Vietnamization” phase

1 thought on “Now more than ever, Iraq = Vietnam”

  1. I just can’t escape the awful implications of this analogy. What seemed like Vietnam as we went in, has turned out to be so much like it in so many ways. In more ways than I could ever predict.

    But I wasn’t even born when we were in Vietnam, so I can’t predict what happens next. Sadly, Dowbrigade News has more insight:

    But still, despite the uproar on campuses (then), and the blogosphere (now), the center held, and the “silent majority” supported the boys on the ground, and by extension, their mission.

    And then there was Tet. In January, 1968, the administration was telling us that things were finally turning our way. A light was visible at the end of the tunnel. Over the previous five years, 22 tons of explosives were dropped for every square mile of territory, which worked out to 300 lbs for every man, women and child in Vietnam, 2.6 million of whom were killed.

    At a tremendous human and material cost, during the Tet holiday that January, the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong launched simultaneous attacks across the country, attacking cities, military installations, infrastructure and even the US Embassy in the capital, Saigon.

    The attack was a failure militarily, but in the war of perception it was the turning point. It showed the American people that the war was not winnable, at least not without descending to a level of savagery and vengeance which would shake the very foundations of who we are and what we stand for as Americans. It was a price the American public, at that point in history, was not ready to pay.

    Why don’t we learn? Why can’t we stop???

    Reply

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