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Discuss: Could Afghanistan Become Obama's Vietnam?

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People fight to be on the last plane out of Nha Trang, South Vietnam, March 31, 1975. (Jean-Claude Francolon/Liaison Agency)
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People fight to be on the last plane out of Nha Trang, South Vietnam, March 31, 1975. (Jean-Claude Francolon/Liaison Agency)

When President Obama announced the deployment of more troops in Afghanistan, many critics made comparisons between the current situation and the war in Vietnam.

How much relevance does the Vietnamese conflict have for our Afghan intervention?

At a February 24 panel discussion at the Asia Society, historians and scholars will examine the validity of a pervasive analogy and seek historical lessons in trying better to understand the challenges of state-building in an Afghan context.

Do you think the US is more likely to succeed today in counter-insurgency warfare than 40 years ago? Will the troop surge bring us closer to the establishment of a democratic government for Afghan citizens?

Join the discussion below.

T.S.Chandrashekar M.A.M'PhiL/PhD | 02:27:10 02:01am
Could Afghanistan Become Obama's Vietnam? I think this question itself has to be tackled carefully. The struggle for Afghanistan by US or the UN, UK, France, Russia, India..... is for Democracy and Development. What was Afghanistan during the Taliban Days * Anti Science * Religious Fanatics * No value for Democracy or Freedom * Against Women's Rights * Against Westernization to name a few so Obama's or US victory in Afghanistan is victory for democracy and freedom and nothing more The time is to support US Govt and its people to remain strong and uplift democracy in the world and in Aghan in particlular Thanks T.S.Chandrashekar M.A.M'PhiL/PhD International Peace Political and Social Activist Bangalore India
Victor | 02:25:10 10:17am
In a post hoc ergo propter hoc outrage, military historian Max Boot declared last night that "losing" Vietnam was directly responsible for the murderous Pol Pot era shortly thereafter in Cambodia. I have heard all kinds of arguments about Vietnam over the years but this is a new one one, at least for me. What is Mr. Boot thinking? That we should have doubled down with 1 million troops in Vietnam and just continued on endlessly? What basis is there to conclude that we would have "won" or stopped Pol Pot short of a full scale intervention in Cambodia too? I was disappointed that the other panel members just sat there and let him get away with it. In my opinion, views like this from the revisionist right are an effort to replace the Vietnam "syndrome" with all the wrong lessons. I'll take the syndrome any day.
Jerry Travis | 02:23:10 07:48pm
It seems to me that Afghanistan and Iraq are sort of "bookends" vis-a-vis Viet Nam. Viet Nam had a relevant context . . . the Cold War and the "Domino Theory", however wrong that may have been. Iraq seems to be mindless adventurism compared to Viet Nam. Afghanistan, on the other hand, has a relevant context in the legitimate, even needful, campaign against al Qaida and its allies. If it is vulnerable to invidious comparisons, it would be the long history of failure in Afghanistan from Alexander through the Soviet adventure.
Robert | 02:24:10 09:49pm
What we can learn from the Viet Nam war is that we can spend billions of dollars and lose thousands of lives in pursuit of an unachievable military "victory", only to discover at the end that our plan for "victory" was too ambitious and too misconceived and that, the true cost of what it would take to "win" is a price that calls upon middle class america for substantial personal sacrifice, a price and a degree of sacrifice, that the average american is either unwilling, or not ready or unable either to make or to pay. Then, at the end of what many americans believe lkely will end up a failed military misadventure, the american people likely will be of the opinion that their substantial loss of life and fortune expended in pursuit of an Afghanistan "victory" likely would better have been spent investing in refurbishment of America's much deteriorated infrastructure and the rejuvenation and re-fortification of the morale and "espirit de corps" of america's "war weary" middle and lower classes, both of whom already are substantially exhausted from america's decade long war in Iraq. As failure to achieve quick and decisive military victory in Viet Nam resulted in the eventual substantial loss of popular suport for the war by average american taxpayesrs, america's failure to achieve a quick and decisive victory in Afghanistan also is likely to result in a substantial loss of support for the war in Afghanistan as they watch the steady dissipation of america's national resources as america goes about its pursuit of "victory" in Afghanistan. In short, in the end, the war is Afghanistan is likely to end up having many parallels with the war in Viet Nam, unless some very major pro-american advancements arise out of the current surge, and arise very soon.
Suzanna | 02:24:10 05:04pm
I worry about your oversimplification of the reason for going to war with each country, the idea that some wars are justified others not. The proponents of every war would argue that it is just, and people against that war would call it unjust. The deeper question here is not 'are the reasons for going to war comparable' but 'what lessons can be learned from the failures in Vietnam and applied to the fumbling efforts in both Iraq and Afghanistan today?' I think the importance of the comparisons between Vietnam and Afghanistan lay in the failings of the first and how to avoid those the second time around (if possible and if we have not already failed at them again). A lesson from Vietnam which can be applied to Afghanistan is that without a strong local government and un-corrupt infrastructure in place when we leave all efforts may be null.

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