Last week Defense Secretary Ashton Carter laid a wreath at the Vietnam Veterans
Memorial in Washington in commemoration of the “50th anniversary”
of that war. The date is confusing, as the war started earlier and ended far
later than 1966. But the Vietnam War at 50 commemoration presents a good opportunity
to reflect on the war and whether we have learned anything from it.
Some 60,000 Americans were killed fighting in that war more than 8,000 miles
away. More than a million Vietnamese military and civilians also lost their
lives. The US government did not accept that it had pursued a bad policy in
Vietnam until the bitter end. But in the end the war was lost and we went home,
leaving the destruction of the war behind. For the many who survived on both
sides, the war would continue to haunt them.
It was thought at the time that we had learned something from this lost war.
The War Powers Resolution was passed in 1973 to prevent future Vietnams by limiting
the president’s ability to take the country to war without the Constitutionally-mandated
Congressional declaration of war. But the law failed in its purpose and was
actually used by the war party in Washington to make it easier to go to war
without Congress.
Such legislative tricks are doomed to failure when the people still refuse
to demand that elected officials follow the Constitution.
When President George HW Bush invaded Iraq in 1991, the warhawks celebrated
what they considered the end of that post-Vietnam period where Americans were
hesitant about being the policeman of the world. President Bush said famously
at the time, “By God, we’ve kicked the Vietnam Syndrome once and for
all.”
They may have beat the Vietnam Syndrome, but they learned nothing from Vietnam.
Colonel Harry Summers returned to Vietnam in 1974 and told his Vietnamese counterpart
Colonel Tsu, “You know, you never beat us on the battlefield.” The
Vietnamese officer responded, “That may be so, but it is also irrelevant.”
He is absolutely correct: tactical victories mean nothing when pursuing a strategic
mistake.
Last month was another anniversary. March 20, 2003 was the beginning of the
second US war on Iraq. It was the night of “shock and awe” as bombs
rained down on Iraqis. Like Vietnam, it was a war brought on by government lies
and propaganda, amplified by a compliant media that repeated the lies without
hesitation.
Like Vietnam, the 2003 Iraq war was a disaster. More than 5,000 Americans were
killed in the war and as many as a million or more Iraqis lost their lives.
There is nothing to show for the war but destruction, trillions of dollars down
the drain, and the emergence of al-Qaeda and ISIS.