When comparing the Vietnam War, fought from 1965 to 1972 between North and South Vietnam in a battle to stop communism, to the US war in Afghanistan, the US’ war on terror from 2001 to 2014 in response to Al Qaeda’s 9/11 attack in the US, it is clear that there are far wider differences that similarities. In order to come to this conclusion, it necessary to analyse the similarities and differences between these two conflicts, as historiography demonstrates an active debate about how the Vietnam War has informed recent wars, and whether Afghanistan has simply been ‘Obama’s Vietnam’. Some historians and journalists have further suggested that the two wars are not comparable and are fundamentally different. Other Americans have, however, increasingly compared the wars, believing they both deteriorated into seemingly intractable conflicts; flawed by poor decision making, unreliable allies and public corruption. The wars have also been likened to one another in recent years as a result of death tolls, scarcity in public support and a lack of confidence in Afghanistan during the Obama Administration. Using a variety of evidence from both wars, views of historians, government officials involved in the war, and journalists reporting at the time, this essay will examine the policy aims and objectives, the military strategies, the use of weaponry and amount of public support these wars received. Overall however, the extent of the differences between these two conflicts outweigh the strengths of the similarities, as politicians had learned from the mistakes made in Vietnam, thus making fundamental changes in strategy, as well as disparities in aims and objectives of both wars.
The policy aims and objectives between the Vietnam and the US-Afghan conflict demonstrate more differences than similarities. On one hand, Winston and West agree that in both wars, the USA was fighting an ideology with the use of hard power, and both historians and journalists including Max Fisher have likened the Taliban as a modern equivalent to the Vietcong, an interpretation corroborated by Deborah and Marvin Kalb in that the Vietcong and Taliban tried to capture and exploit the fire and passion of nationalism. However, Washington Post journalist David Ignatius disagrees with this. Ignatius stated: “There has been much talk about how this war is Obama’s Vietnam, but the president rejected the analogy. The Vietnamese never killed 3,000 people in America, as al-Qaeda did; we aren’t fighting a nationalist movement in Afghanistan; and he isn’t making an open-ended commitment.”. This interpretation is more convincing as it explains why the aims and objectives were also different between these two wars since the Vietcong and North Vietnam posed no threat whatsoever to the US homeland like the Taliban had, having actually attacked the USA on 9/11. As a consequence, the goals of the US military within the two countries were distinct. In Vietnam, the aim was to kill so many North Vietnamese Army (NVA) soldiers and Vietcong guerrillas that the enemy would give up. They also sought to devastate as much of the area as possible, through carrying out search and destroy missions of any area considered remotely suspicious. Thus, meaning there was no real aim for the soldiers who were less aware of what they were actually fighting for. In Afghanistan on the other hand, killing the enemy was a secondary objective. The USA wanted to help rebuild the nations into democratic states rather than destroy them totally, and the role of the US military was expanded into four primary tasks, giving soldiers a clearer idea of what was necessary to achieve. These included: providing security to the civilians of Afghanistan, helping local officials encourage residents to support the government, fund copious amounts of development projects and establish a western rule of law, as the main mechanisms to fight terrorism.
Therefore, displaying greater amounts in change than continuity between the two wars.
There were also sharp differences in the US military strategy in Vietnam and Afghanistan.
Some historians including Winston, Krep, and Fazal have argued that the widest disparity between the Vietnam War and War in Afghanistan is the attitudes towards death. In Afghanistan, troops served in units in which they had already formed close bonds with fellow soldiers when serving.
In contrast, troops in Vietnam served 1 year tours and in some cases soldiers were flown into battle and killed before anyone had even learned their names.
Weaponry used in Vietnam compared to Afghanistan was also very different. In Vietnam, chemical warfare became an essential means of combat. The US military used Agent Orange; a powerful herbicide used from 1962 to 1971 to destroy foliage so as to allow observation of Vietcong movement from above, and potential food for NVA soldiers. It defoliated 24% of the area in Vietnam, killed at least 400,000 soldiers and, according to the Red Cross, has left over one million people, including many American veterans, severely ill with chromosomal defects, birth deformities, high rates of leukaemia and cancers as a consequence. Additionally, by 1966, napalm was an integral part of the US war effort in Vietnam. This was a jelly-like substance which, when ignited stuck almost anything and burns up to ten minutes. The effects on the Vietnamese victims were devastating on the human body, with either unbeatable pains of third degree burns or death. Following the Vietnam War, necessary changes were made to
Subsequently, in Afghanistan, changes were made to the weaponry used by the US military.
The greatest similarity between these two wars was the public discontent, as trends in historiography also demonstrates. Winston, Kreps and Fazal agree that in both cases, the wars took too long in eyes of public, cost too much in money and human lives, and Presidents Nixon and Obama promises to withdraw troops were not fulfilled to public wishes. This is another reason as to why the wars have been increasingly compared to each other, as the Obama 2012 campaign came under criticism when the troop surge became a focal aspect of his campaign rhetoric. Guardian Journalist Paul Harris has indicated that the wars have been compared due to similarities in death tolls, coinciding with depleting levels of public support.
Fisher however states that comparisons between Vietnam and Afghanistan were made as a consequence of Obama’s announcement in 2009 of an extension of the war until at least summer of 2011, which journalist John Judis similarly describes as he heard ‘echoes of Vietnam’ as a result of the speech.
Judis also further establishes the main link between the two wars which were ‘both hampered by lack of widespread support’.
Deborah and Marvin Kalb prove these similarities through analysing the ubiquity of comparisons between Vietnam and Afghanistan during the Obama Presidency.
On the other hand, when looking closer at the extent of public discontent of the two wars, there is no doubt that the level of dissatisfaction amongst the American public was greater during the Vietnam War. Qualitative evidence proves that protests in opposition to the war in Afghanistan were of a much smaller scale. For example, the greatest turnout for a protest against Afghanistan was 75,000 (April 2002 in Washington DC), whereas the second massive Moratorium march in Washington, D.C., attracted over 500,000 demonstrators against the war in November 1969. This is due to a number of differences. During Vietnam, protesters campaigned against an unfair system of conscription; which targeted minorities and everyone was called up for war, a system which was changed when the war ended, with the creation of an all-volunteer military in the 1970s and an opt-in system.
In terms of public discontent as a result of economic burdens, there was far less during the war in Afghanistan. This is because during the Vietnam War, there was a direct financial impact on US citizens, a crucial factor in why citizens took to the streets, as the government used to levy taxes, which were hiked in 1968. However, during the war in Afghanistan, citizens did not have to bear the financial costs of war as the taxes were removed and costs were added to the national debt.
These changes in public opinion did not necessarily occur naturally. The undeniable levels of criticism during and after the Vietnam War led to a transformation in the way the US conducted military operations. As Secretary Hillary Clinton stated, “We remain the strongest country in the world, but the way we exercise that leadership has changed dramatically”.
In conclusion, there is no doubt that there are a plethora of similarities and differences between the Vietnam War and War in Afghanistan. Many journalists have highlighted that the wars have been increasingly compared in recent years as a result of the explicit the US public’s dissatisfaction with Afghanistan, which has similarly resembled the civilian discontent during the Vietnam War, in that they were both described as lasting too long and costing too much in human lives and money, which can be corroborated by the increasing death tolls, fiscal costs to the US government and protests which came as a result.
Although there is a trend in historians and journalists comparing the Vietcong to the Taliban, the analysis of the actions and aims of both these organisations were different, which conveys that although they may initially appear similar, the connections are not as strong as they seem.
However, the disparities between these two wars strongly outnumber the likenesses. there is a historiographical consensus amongst journalists and historians that the wars are characterised as distinct because the aims and objectives were different, and the Vietnamese had not attacked the USA on their own soil. Moreover, the USA tried to learn from the profoundly criticised mistakes made in Vietnam, meaning paramount changes in the aims and objectives of the operations were altered, causing a transformation in a less brutal military strategy, use of barbaric weaponry and leadership style. Soldiers and civilians suffered significantly less as a more structured system of an all-volunteer military was created and the US public did not have to bear the financial costs. Obama, his advisors and military officials were highly conscious not to repeat a second Vietnam, and Obama felt it was his responsibility to break the link between Vietnam and Afghanistan.
As a result, illustrating that the Vietnam War and US-Afghan conflict were different to a large extent.
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