Does anyone remember Vietnam and see the similarities with Iraq?

Answer 1

That's a big question! Here are only some of the major similarities and differences between the wars in Vietnam and Iraq.

Similarities:
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1- USA is in an area fighting guerillas on their home turf. Very difficult fight.

2- USA has helicopters doing a major part of the fighting support. The Hueys were a great help in Vietnam, and the Blackhawks and other helicopters are doing a load of work in Iraq. In battle and in flying in supplies, the choppers saved a lot of US lives.

3- USA is trying to win the support of locals, and largely failing. The Vietnamese in the South were demoralized by the disrespect the US had for their military performance, and for the corruption of the South Vietnamese government. Average Iraqi citizens also dislike and distrust the USA, seeing them as invaders and oil grabbers, not liberators. If Iraq grew bananas, USA wouldn't have knocked off Saddam, that's a fact the Iraqis are aware of. The South Vietnamese probably saw it the same way. If not for the importance of that coastal country, there's no way the US would have gotten involved.

4- USA needs (but is losing) American sympathy for the war. Just like Vietnam, they went in as heroes with full support on the homefront. But once the body bags started coming in, the average American went against the war.

5- USA had a weak President both times. Johnson, although much more intelligent than Bush, was more of a domestic genius. He was good at getting deals done to further some of Kennedy's civil rights laws. But foreign policy was his weak point. Bush has no skills in either area. He focuses his entire 8 year Presidency on the war, because without it, he would fail miserably in domestic affairs. He was even disrespectfully labeled "Mr Bush" until 9/11 happened, with people feeling he stole the Presidency from Gore and never earned the title of President till 9/11. If the war continues before he is out, he will also be, like Johnson, a lame duck President, unable to stop the monster he helped create.

6- USA had many allies in Vietnam. Some of the countries helping out with troops were Australia, South Korea, Cambodia, Thailand, Taiwan. Other countries helped with medics of supplies. In Iraq, it was an international 'coalition of the willing' who joined them, although with a much smaller troop contribution than in Vietnam.


Differences:
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1- USA has better technology in Iraq than in Vietnam. Obviously, twenty-five years later, the army is better lead, better protected, and better supported medically. Also, guerrilla tactics were expected here, and lessons from Vietnam, were probably analysed before going in to avoid the same errors.

2- USA has a better control over the media. Back in the 1960-1970s, color TV was beginning, and reportage was expanding to show the real story of how it is in a war. No one knew then the negative effects it would have on public morale. The ground troops were not doing as badly as some movies have given the impression. They had better than average battle statistics in almost each major campaign. But they lost the TV war! Now, CNN knows exactly how to manipulate public opinion in favor of the war and downplay any "pessimists". It also is very careful not to show Americans killing anyone, and even more careful at showing how they are helping civilians (whose homes they destroyed off screen looking for insurgents). At times they screw up, like that Abudabi prison embarrassment a couple of years ago showing how the treatment there really is for Iraqi prisoners.

3- USA is in different terrain Its now an urban center and a desert. They have to deal with house to house fighting, road bombs, and grenade launchers from buildings. Vietnam was tropical, a jungle with little familiar terrain and many viruses for the troops to catch. In some ways, Iraq is an easier battle terrain. There is also no river war to wage, as there was in Vietnam.

4- USA only has to deal with a guerrilla army, not regulars. In Vietnam, the NVA were the forces of the government of North Korea, and the VC (or 'Vietcong') were the guerilla forces. Both were against the USA and fought on their home ground. In Iraq, there is no enermy regular army to fight. The insurgents are badly supplied, badly lead, and only have one advantage: religious zeal for their homeland which they can defend in close quarters.

5- USA can't carpet bomb the enemy anymore with B-52s nor can they burn villages to the ground as in Vietnam. They are more sophisticated at killing now. Its not 'politically correct' anymore to look like the bad guys! Nevertheless, similar results are occuring. Local population suffers slowly from bad surroundings and poor nutrition rather than a quick death by napalm. Take your pick at which is worse.

6- USA now has to deal with a religious fragmentation of the country they are in. Vietnam, being Buddhist, had no religious fanaticism. In Arab countries, its rampant! There are dozens of sects vying for power, making it hard to unite the country, as the Americans are naively trying to do. In some ways, that makes the country harder to control.

7- USA was fighting communist expansion in Vietnam, but in Iraq its...hold on, what did they go in there for again?? I am not sure till now. Maybe oil? Maybe Middle Eastern expansion? Maybe to protect Israel? Maybe to set up a Disney Land among the Arab nations? We'll have to wait 20 years until all the dirt on that comes out.

Bottom Line: Its a very different war. Militarily, Iraq looks like an easier situation than Vietnam. Politically, it looks almost as tough, with public opinion going against USA. But finally, it'lll take more than Iraq to make USA have its empire harmed. At worst, if they withdraw and Iraq is still a mess, they will be embarrassed and have high troops loses to account for.

Answer 2

The similarities are just in the political realm. The battles are different. We fought a philosophy in Vietnam. The players were communist. I remember players from Russia, Cuba, China, Thailand, Laos and others. The one rumor that persists is, the USA was defeated in Vietnam--actually, we never lost a battle on the field. The only battles lost were the politicians, the liberals (Hanoi Jane) and the College indoctrinated protesters. The US people lost the police action in Vietnam. The similarity in both places is taking place in the press. The liberal "cut & runs" are protesting the costs, (war profits), the death toll (not even 1% of Vietnam), the health care (better than Vietnam), the baby killers (insurgents kill 99.9% of women and kids with bombs), Oil war (no oil in Vietnam, just bad guys). In closing, if the politicians would stay out of the" police action" and allow the military to fight a "war", this would be over and we would move on, but if you allow the politicians and liberal protesters to win another war, we will lose 10 fold in all the above mentioned when the Islam nations have the bomb. If you believe they won't use it, I have a bridge for sale CHEAP!!!

Answer 3

What similarities are you talking about? Certainly not the amount of soldier deaths, we lost several hundred a week there. I am here on second tour. I hate to see the comparison.
The only similarity I see is that the cowards on the left are showing their true selves.
Cut and run defeatism should not be accepted by any American no matter what political side you are on. Quitting is not a different strategy.
So I dont see much similarity, but maybe you could show some that you think are.

Answer 4

To set the record straight it was a DEMOCRAT who lied to get us into Vietnam. LBJ invented the Tonkin Gulf incident. Also for you revisionist historians Nixon didn't widen the war he ended it with his Vietnamization program. The invasions of Laos were launched for the purpose of protecting his withdrawls. That aside..........

The only similarities I see between Vietnam and Iraq are that liberals hate all wars that have a vital US interest at stake. Yes, the war in Iraq had something to do with oil. SO WHAT. We need it, its a vital US interest to keep it flowing. Vietnam was to prevent the spread of communism. Both vital US interests. Why don't we ask Liberals why we sent troops to Bosnia. No vital US interest there.

Answer 5

What is this fetish with comparing Iraq and Vietnam? I think we should compare the war to the Punic or Zulu wars. Each of the events were unique periods in American if not world histories. Trying to amke comparisons does and injustice to both. Too many things and decsions were made that were based on the context of the era.

Answer 6

The "peacehawks" and hippies standing up and protesting the war. Ended in US soldier being picked up off the embassy in Saigon during the Vietnam War. I'm waiting to see how Iraq turns out, but I imagine it won't be much different.

Answer 7

between the themes with the conflict in Vietnam develop into no longer that the U.S. "tried to instill a democracy in a rustic that did no longer like it in the 1st place" - it develop into the synthetic separation of the newly-autonomous Vietnam into "North Vietnam" and "South Vietnam" - whilst the Vietnamese human beings (aka "The North") have been scuffling with to unify their u . s .. the different problems have been denying the elections to Ho Chi Minh and helping a dictatorship (no longer a democracy) under Diem in "South" Vietnam. i do no longer see those activities occurring in Iraq, by fact the conflicts have a lots distinctive political nature. there may well be different "magnificent" similarities in the way the conflict is carried out, yet you're able to be able to ought to offer us a greater helpful occasion than the only you gave.

Answer 8

Well, there are important differences.

We were allowed into Viet Nam by the French and the new South Viet Nam authorities.

Our excuses in Iraq originally did not have to do so much with containing Islamic fundamentalism as they had to do with deposing a dictator and finding weapons of mass destruction.

Of course, what's similar is the quagmire effect. But we don't have super powers aligning and actively supporting the enemy. The Russians and Chinese are just watching us get in deeper. They don't have to lift a finger.

Answer 9

Yes...it is a shame we still have people in the U.S. that want to see us defeated in Iraq the way we were in Vietnam - by anti-American propaganda.

Answer 10

Yes, I remember it everyday. I remember how the pacifists/communists did everything possible to undermine us, the troops, to see that our efforts went for naught.

And you know what, that same group is doing the same crap again, and I really do hate them for it.

Answer 11

Sadly, both places involve loosing our natural treasure, the men and women who gave there lives.