November 12, 2006
I heard Art Bell two nights ago and Richard Perle this morning complaining that we could not afford to lose in Iraq. Both compared the situation now to our leaving Vietnam 30 years ago. But I think we may have won that war, and it makes me optimistic that leaving Iraq and siccing our bastard global manufacturing companies on them is the best thing to do. A few years ago, I "read" (the unabridged audiobook) a terrific novel, Up Country, by Nelson DeMille that led me to ask, "did we win Vietnam when we weren't looking?" Up Country is part murder mystery, part spy novel, part history of the war in Indochina, and part Vietnamese travelogue as it takes the reader on a journey through Vietnam in the 50s, 60s, 70s, and 90s, and from South to North by way of the coast, and the Ho Chi Minh Trail. It takes you through some of the major battles of the war as experienced by the protagonist then, and recounted when as an army investigator in 1998 he is asked to solve a murder that may have occurred during the Battle of Hue in 1968. DeMille was there in 1968 and went back a few years ago, and as he weaves his story, he provides a terrific description of life, culture, and business in Vietnam today. This week's Newsweek: "Economic reforms pushed by Southern entrepreneurs have fueled an economy that's grown nearly as fast as China's over the last decade. Manufacturing jobs are plentiful, and the national poverty rate has plummeted from 57 percent in 1993 to about 18 percent today. Hanoi now boasts the trappings of affluence—imported cars, boutique coffee shops and stores brimming with everything from Louis Vuitton handbags to the newest Mercedes-Benzes. It's also home to several high-ranking political leaders from the South, including Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung and President Nguyen Minh Triet, elevated to their posts earlier this year." I'll of this leads me to ask: can us 'mericans stop saying we lost the war? How would that honor or demean the 50,000 names on the wall, the 5000 Koreans, the 500+ Australians that died, the 2,000,000 Vietnamese (civilian + armies south and north?) If we leave Iraq what are the chances of something like this happening there within 30 years? Is Paris Hilton, the Internet, and Nike the faster leaner army that Rumsfeld sought (and can we send her to North Korea?)
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We didn't achieve our stated objectives. Perhaps the end results were in-line with our societal goals, but our attempt to militarily force the issue failed. Therefore we didn't win the war. Maybe it's more pertinent to change our thinking to include the concept that not every world problem can be solved through military aggression instead.
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When I was teaching English in HCMC few years ago, all the kids knew Britney Spears songs by heart. I remember thinking to myself how ironic it was that what military might couldn't accomplish, a 16-year-old teenager did (i.e., "hearts & minds"). When I went back for a visit a few months ago, a hell of a lot more had changed. I couldn't help wondering if the sentiment expressed here is true. [fixed CIA Overview link]
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Of course, Marx might say that their drift toward capitalism was merely another step on the road toward the world-wide victory of true Communism.
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I think sooner or later, fundamentalist regimes fall or get made over because dogma makes for bad decision-making. Markets and democracies seem to be better able to handle social and technological change.
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Y'see, there is a distinction between America and capitalism. America withdrew its forces from a country it was trying to defend, which shortly afterwards fell to its enemies. There's no honest name for that but defeat. Much later, it seems, capitalism is recovering some ground in Vietnam. The US army is not: but even if it had, that would not erase the fact of the earlier defeat. If we're going to claim Vietnam as a victory, we might as well deny that Al Qaeda succeeded in demolishing the twin towers - because after all. something else will be built one day. Moreover, we'll have to concede that Japan was not defeated in WWII, because their economy subsequently out-performed ours. My advice is not to get sentimental about capitalism, cuz it sure as hell ain't sentimental about us.
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You think we went into Iraq to save it from Communism?
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I'm no expert, of course, but from the books I've read on the subject it seems to me that the American withdrawal from Vietnam wasn't so muc defeat as it was admitting the defeat that had happened long before the actual withdrawal.