What are concrete similarities between the Vietnam War and the war in Iraq?

Question

Does anyone know where I can find an up-to-date list of similiarities? All the articles that I can find online were published in 2004 or 2005 and don't account for the past 18 months. Or, if anyone has any insight of their own, that would be appreciated too.

To that Stone K guy: Listen man, I'm not the one who thought it up. I keep hearing people bring up the hypothesis that the two wars are similar, and I just want to know more about it. It's all good. Relax.

Answer 1

There are none, because Vietnam is a tropical land in south east Asia, and Iraq is a desert country in the middle east.

There are also no military similarities, casualty rates in Vietnam could reach in to the thousands in a month, while Iraq the number barely broke 3000 in 4 years.

In Vietnam The US had free reign to bomb targets with little consideration for collateral damage, in Iraq we have to take every possible consideration not to harm civilians when possible.

In Vietnam we faced a legitimate government and its army, in Iraq we face small rouge bands of terrorists.

Vietnam had a draft. Iraq, no draft.

Only similarity was a congress that was unwilling to do what was necessary to win and was willing to cave to public (a vocal minority to be honest) pressure.
Now with those FACTS in place, do you see any similarities in the two?

If the answer your seeking is what I fear it is then, No these answers probably go against your core beliefs.

But I seriously hope you actually consider what I mentioned here. Because it does no one any good to go around making terrible and pointless connections to two blatantly different historical events.

Add on: Then I apologize if i made any inference to the motive of your question.

Its just that you see so many people with the completely *** backwards view on the world and history and it kills me.

I guess I spend to much time looking at the past to tolerate people screwing it up. it is easy to compare things, but it will/can never be the same, and I just like people to understand that. =)

I do the same thing when people start comparing others to Hitler.

Answer 2

nicely, I really have not been to Iraq yet i turned right into a protection rigidity medivac pilot in Vietnam. There somewhat is not any parallel between both wars for my section. And we commonly say that we lost in Vietnam yet did we somewhat? The domino idea changed into the reason we went to warfare in Vietnam. the idea changed into that if communism took carry in southeast Asia like it did in North Korea that international places might want to initiate to fall into Communism by the pacific rim. Many historians now say, although in hind sight, that our stance in Vietnam dissuaded the U.S. and China from pursuing Communist domination elsewhere. Thailand, Laos and Cambodia are examples of countries that are literally not Communist to on the present time. Vietnam changed into yet one skirmish contained in the chilly warfare that we finally received. i imagine it is going to likely be considered if our stance hostile to the U.S. expansionist agenda did not have a great deal to do with the perfect failure of global communism. And heck, even Vietnam is growing a capitalist u . s . a . now that they have got considered how nicely this variety of equipment of authorities delivers for it is human beings.

Answer 3

i just have a few things from personal experience and observation (never been to iraq).

predicated on lies and misinformation:
(RVN - domino theory of international communist expansion)
(Iraq - international terrorism and WMD)
us installed puppet government - incompetent, ineffectual
popular insurgency
no clearly defined front
not popular in america, fragmented the nation
american policies defined by big business
used as a springboard for political careers
unreasonable civilian casualties

NO CLEAR PLAN !!!

Edit >> that said, i do agree the two conflicts are vastly different. someone mentioned superpowers in conflict, hmmm, true, but one could see the conflict between the Islamic world and the judeo-christian world as somewhat similar, both ideological conflicts, beliefs, values, and ideas forming the basis of social, economic, and political philosophy.

Answer 4

I can tell you one.
Vietnam was touted as being a battlefield between the evil forces of communism and the freedoms of democracy.
No more communism now.
So now Iraq is the battlefield between Islamic extremeism or terrorism and the freedoms of democracy. Seems pretty similar to me.
We've traded evil communism for evil terrorism. Let's bring back communism.
Look up 'Domino theory' you'll learn a lot.

Answer 5

Iraq war is not over yet, so it will take some time to get similar to Vietnam war.

Answer 6

The only similarities I can see is some of the weapons--AK-47s, RPGs, etc.

These are very different wars in most ways--but especially in terms of the scope.

Answer 7

Large Occupying Nation fighting locals without success.
No clear defined victory.
More troops did not improve the situation. It only killed more troops.
Huge drain upon the treasury.
Divided a nation.
Reasons for going in appeared transparent.
Support of a puppet government.

Answer 8

Fighting an insurgency, supporting a weak and corrupt local government for two.

Answer 9

There are many more differences than similarities. No draft, none needed. No version of the NVA involved. No overt support of the insurgents from opposing super powers. Good morale among the American troops, no drug problem, no fragging problem.

Answer 10

Higher morale at beginning and very low morale now.