ANALYSIS | After the war in Vietnam tore America at the seams, it seemed unlikely the country would again involve itself in a decade-long war. Yet, 10 years later, America finds itself in Afghanistan, and back to the future. Vietnam and Afghanistan share similarities and differences. The enemy is different, but the mission is similar: The former fought to stop the spread Communism; the latter to stop terrorism. The debate over Afghanistan’s parallelism to Vietnam has raged from the beginning of the conflict in 2001, and is very much up for debate. Yet, there is no doubt the 10-year-old war in Afghanistan has affected “politics” very much the same as that war long ago in Southeast Asia.
Rethinking Our Military
The blood and treasure lost in Afghanistan has caused us to reflect on how we use our military resources. Much like post-Vietnam America, politicians must take pause before deploying troops overseas. This was evident in the Obama administration’s reluctance to devote troops in support of the Arab Spring.
Questions surround whether a Cold War military is appropriate for fighting today’s wars. Yes, America was successful in toppling the Taliban, but even with troops on the ground, Osama bin Laden escaped. In the end, it was Navy SEALS who killed the most wanted man on the planet.
Changing the structure of our military proves an arduous task. In his farewell address, President Eisenhower warned Americans of the “military-industrial” complex: the illicit affair between big business and America’s military. The system has had 50 more years to entrench itself into society. According to CNBC, America spends $513 billion on defense and that figure does not include the $118 billion required to fund ongoing military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. In 2009, America gave some $ 11 billion in military aid to foreign countries, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Israel, for example, received about $2.3 billion, which goes to buying military goods from defense contractors; essentially creating a military welfare program. America spent extraordinary financial resources to win the Cold War, even after a Vietnam-weary public prevented the large scale deployment of troops. While Americans share that same weariness of war, one difference is in 2011 the citizenry also is weary of spending.
Changed Elections
The War in Afghanistan helped our two most recent presidents win election for opposite reasons. President Bush used the early gains in Afghanistan to his benefit in the 2004 election. According to Gallup, Bush’s first term average approval rating was 62 percent, while his second term average was 37 percent. In the end, Bush’s handling of the War in Afghanistan and Iraq proved his undoing. The 2008 elections became a repudiation of not only Bush, but the Republican Party as a whole. President Obama was able to use the slow progress in Afghanistan and bin Laden’s taunts to win the presidency.
Lyndon Johnson too saw his country turn on him in what seemed a blink of an eye. In February of 1964 Johnson enjoyed an approval rating of 79 percent. As the war against Ho Chi Minh engulfed Johnson’s presidency, his rating dropped to a low of 35 percent in 1968. Accordingly, the 1968 election not only shifted the presidency to the Republicans, but the country. From 1932 to 1968, Democrats won seven out of nine presidential elections. From 1968 to 2007, Democrats were victorious in only three presidential elections. This shift cannot be attributed to Vietnam alone, but following the war, America’s foreign policy came in to question. Americans turned to Republicans who have historically been perceived as the stronger party regarding foreign affairs.
American Decline
Finally, like Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq have shaken America to its core. The late 1970s saw not only an economic recession, but a recession of confidence as well. Vietnam shattered American invincibility, and the thought that more resources always wins in the end. Once again, Americans feel their influence waning. Economic turmoil is coupled with two wars that are ending and seem endless all at once. The training of the Afghani military has gone excruciatingly slow, as did Vietnamization. Worse, Afghanistan has highlighted our politician’s inability to lead. Many credit one man for the progress after Vietnam, namely Ronald Reagan. He may divide Americans as much as Vietnam did. But it would have been difficult to predict in the19 70s that within twenty years America would win the Cold War and lead a major military operation during the Desert Storm, but we did. Americans now wonder if the politicians are again up to such a task.
A Newsweek article asked a young Taliban fighter about the war in Afghanistan, he declared, “Your watch’s battery will run down, and its hands will stop. But our time in the struggle will never end. We will win.” Ho Chi Minh once said, “You can kill ten of my men for every one I kill of yours, but even at those odds, you will lose and I will win.” You decide if these wars are similar.