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The Afghan Disaster, Vietnam, and Biden's Role in Both

The President has his fingerprints on not one, but two foreign-policy disasters.

By Grant PattersonPublished 3 years ago 7 min read
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After the President’s rationale for his Afghan bug-out, a little history refresher is in order.

The philosopher George Santayana once said; “Those who cannot remember the past are doomed to repeat it.”

In light of recent events, let me state that no further proof is needed of the right-headedness of this statement. Biden’s snap decision to pull out the remaining US troops, and their logistical support from Afghanistan is the proximate cause of the horrific chaos we’re all seeing now. Naturally, those of us who are a little older, and perhaps better read, will drift in our minds to April 1975, and the final moments of South Vietnam.

The evacuation of South Vietnam is the first news story I, at the time, six years old, remember. The desperate crowds pressed up against the fences of the US Embassy. The people scrambling on to the last chopper leaving from the roof. South Vietnamese pilots ditching their Hueys in the sea.

It was the greatest blow to American prestige since the fall of Corregidor. And it all happened on TV. The Vietnam War, an exercise in Cold War brinkmanship and devourer of over 50,000 American lives, ended in abject defeat.

It’s certainly tempting to see the similarities between the events of April 1975 and August 2021. A rapid collapse, a fleeing allied army, a desperate scramble for safety. But there are important differences.

The Biden Administration was quick to point that out last month, before it all went to shit. “There’s going to be no circumstance where you see people being lifted off the roof of an embassy,” according to Newsweek. Well, they had to go the airport, Joe. But that’s kind of semantic, isn’t it?

Maybe the location of the rushed evacuation isn’t important. But there are a few other differences that may be. The Biden Administration’s talking points seem to have consisted of:

1. Americans want us out, so we had to get out.

2. The Afghans wouldn’t fight, so they lost. Not our problem.

3. We did it in Vietnam, so why not here?

On closer examination, none of these three arguments stand up. Let’s start with number one, shall we?

It is certainly safe to say that most Americans were fatigued with the seemingly endless war in Afghanistan. As was Biden’s predecessor in the Oval Office. There was a growing consensus in the country that withdrawal was both necessary and desirable. But, did it have to be done so quickly? Where was the contingency planning for the exodus? Why were insufficient forces available to secure airports? Why were people who’d helped America and NATO bogged down in exit-visa bureaucracy, when it was life-and-death at stake? Why were fresh US Embassy personnel flown in just weeks ago, only to be evacuated in haste? Why are thousands of Americans de facto hostages of the Taliban, and how come nobody seems to have any real idea how many are left behind?

While Americans may have wanted out, I think it’s pretty safe to say they didn’t want this. Biden’s Afghanistan endgame can only be described as a clusterfuck, pure and simple. Many Democrats, and journalists usually sympathetic to Big Joe are reluctantly agreeing.

Now, to the second point: The Afghans lost because they wouldn’t fight. While I am sure there may be a strong kernel of truth here, it’s not a completely accurate allegation. Some Afghan units appear to have been quite keen to fight, but with US logistical contractors and air support suddenly unavailable, how could they? Biden seems to find it more convenient to call all of his Afghan allies cowards, rather than accept that his withdrawal plan was too much, too soon.

As for the third point, let’s talk about Vietnam, shall we? According to Richard Holbrooke’s biographer George Packer, quoted in the Washington Post, Biden told Holbrooke back in the Obama Administration, when he was arguing for withdrawal; “We did it in Vietnam. Nixon and Kissinger got away with it.”

Well, well, Joe, that’s a bit rich coming from you. You of all people should know that isn’t really what happened. You should know that, because your fingerprints are on that debacle too.

In 1969, when Nixon decided to lower US troop levels in Vietnam gradually, while increasing South Vietnamese military capacity, the American public was war-fatigued. Nixon had won election on a promise of “Peace with Honor.” He intended to leave, but he also intended to deny the Communists an easy victory. He sought to replicate the success his mentor Eisenhower had enjoyed in Korea.

That meant pulling back gradually but displaying resolve whenever the North became too aggressive. In 1970 through 1973, the Nixon Administration snapped back several times, most controversially in the Invasion of Cambodia in 1970. In the Linebacker II air offensive of December 1972, the USAF and USN hit Hanoi and Haiphong hard, bringing the North back to the peace table.

The Paris Agreement was imperfect at best. But until 1974, the North was hesitant to move on Saigon for fear that “Crazy Man” Nixon would send the B-52s downtown again. But then Nixon self-destructed at Watergate and left in disgrace.

His successor, Gerald Ford, faced an emboldened Democratic-dominated Congress, who not only didn’t want to fight in Vietnam; they also didn’t want to pay for anybody else to fight there. As a young lawmaker, Biden was vociferous in his objections to continued support of South Vietnam and Cambodia in a Democratic caucus meeting in early 1975: “I’m getting sick and tired of hearing about morality, our moral obligation. There’s a point at which you are incapable of meeting moral obligations worldwide” according to the Washington Post.

Aid to South Vietnam and Cambodia was cut drastically. Ammunition and spare parts were at critically low levels when the NVA launched its final offensive. Hoped-for American air support did not materialize.

Ford, a lame-duck President with no electoral mandate and little fire in his belly, at the mercy of a fire-breathing opposition represented by isolationists like Biden, was helpless.

That’s what really happened. Biden doesn’t want to tell that story, because it will make people see him as he really is: A dithering isolationist with no sense of America’s obligations to its allies. Does anyone in Beijing seriously think America will defend Taiwan or Japan now? Does anyone in Pyongyang think they’ll be hindered on the road to Seoul? Is Putin scared that the empty suits in the Pentagon or NATO HQ in Brussels will be any hindrance to his reconquest of the Baltic States and Ukraine?

I think we all know the answer to that.

The point is not that it was wrong to withdraw from Afghanistan; I don’t think it was. But doing it precipitously, chaotically, without realistic intelligence and contingency planning endangered lives needlessly and emboldened the enemy. Even the Soviet Union did a better job of pulling out in 1989. Nobody’s fucked up an Afghan withdrawal worse since Elphinstone in 1841. Total survivors of British expeditionary force: one.

At least in Saigon, they had a task force offshore. The Marines had tear gas. There was a pre-planned evacuation protocol, which allowed all the Americans and a lot of their South Vietnamese pals to escape. Ford did the best he could with what he had. Can the same be said of Biden?

American power, already on the ropes, has been dealt an uppercut by the chaos in Afghanistan. It’s a failure with many fathers, but it happened on Biden’s watch. It’s no damned good to say, “The buck stops here,” while pointing the finger everywhere but yourself.

Harry Truman would not approve.

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About the Creator

Grant Patterson

Grant is a retired law enforcement officer and native of Vancouver, BC. He has also lived in Brazil. He has written fifteen books.

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