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The real difference between Iraq and Vietnam |
Ðằng Vân
Point of View
On Thursday 23 August 07, when President George W Bush compared the war in Iraq to the Vietnam War, he provoked an outcry.
Indeed, at the annual convention of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, a group which represents two million veterans, he said:
"Three decades later, there is a legitimate debate about how we got into the Vietnam War and how we left…Whatever your position in that debate, one unmistakable legacy of Vietnam is that the price of America's withdrawal was paid by millions of innocent citizens, whose agonies would add to our vocabulary new terms like 'boat people,' 're-education camps' and 'killing fields'." (ABC/AFP/Kyodo)
For once he was spot-on.
In April 1975, the largely Democratic Party-inspired opposition to the Vietnam War finally broke the back of the proverbial camel and America decided to withdraw from the war. The price in suffering was not only paid by the two million Vietnamese refugees, but more importantly by the entire 80 million freedom-loving citizens of Vietnam. It is fair to argue that the systematic iron rule of Communist tyranny is much worse than the rule of an individual dictator like Saddam Hussein or a theocracy like the mullahs of Iran.
But this is where the similarities end. In 1954, the Americans, emboldened by their earlier victories in Europe and the Pacific, entered the Vietnam conflict totally unprepared and without compromise. Instead of being sensitive to the political and religious aspirations of the true Vietnamese nationalists embodied by the various non-communist political parties in South Vietnam, they chose to listen to the outgoing French colonialists, and lend their support to Mr. Ngo Dinh Diem, a staunch Catholic in a land dominated by the triple religions of Buddhism, Confucianism and Taoism. With American support Diem was installed as president of South Vietnam in 1955.
Nine years later, in 1963, after having realized that Diem was too unpopular and unable to remain in power, the Americans threw their support behind military officers to overthrow the Diem regime. They thought that these generals were more pliant to American needs.
The true Vietnamese nationalists had never been given a chance by the Americans in South Vietnam to fight Communist North Vietnam. The generals had the support of the Americans but did not have the support of their people and the war was lost in April 1975.
George W Bush may or may not have entered the war in Iraq on false pretenses. But he has learned the lessons from the Vietnam War in that his administration has been much more sensitive to the religious and political aspirations of the Iraqi people. His administration has bent backward to accommodate the various conflicting interests of the majority Shiites, the minority Sunnis and the ethnic Kurds in the north. Although the domestic opposition to the Iraq war has been extraordinary, he has stayed the course and committed additional troops in order to improve the security situation on the ground. Evidence has begun to emerge that he has succeeded.
As the US presidential campaign intensifies, it has been largely accepted by both sides of politics in America that even in the circumstances where a democratic president is elected next year, American troops shall be gradually reduced, not drastically withdrawn so as to cause the sudden collapse of the Iraqi government.
President George W Bush has given a lease of life to the Iraqi political leaders. It is now up to them to earn it themselves.
But: how about the 80 million Vietnamese who are languishing in communist Vietnam?
Why did George W Bush allow his State Department to remove Vietnam from the list of Countries of Particular Concerns when religious leaders and followers are still languishing in jail?
Why did George W Bush and his friends in the West reward the Hanoi tyrants with the APEC Summit in November 2006?
Why did George W Bush invite Vietnam’s State President Nguyen Minh Triet and associates to America in June 2007 and treat him as a head of Sate?
The sad answer lies in the fact that modern American politics is completely manipulated by powerful religious, financial, industrial vested interests. There is simply no more room for genuine convictions. As a consequence, George W Bush drew on the Vietnam War to plead for continued American involvement in Iraq, not because he has any compassion for the Iraqi people, but because he had to protect the interests of his political mentors.
Nor does he have any true compassion for the 80 million Vietnamese living in Vietnam. They happen to be a most convenient reference at an appropriate time. That’s all.
In the depth of his heart, their freedom and democracy are no concern of his. They have missed the boat and should now fight for themselves.
Dear Mr. President,
We can assure you that the Vietnamese people shall fight and earn their freedom from the Communist tyrants that you have invited to the White House, with or without your help.
Ðằng Vân
25 August 2007