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Historical Analogies
Introduction
The Vietnam War that ran from November 1955 to April 1975 has on many occasions been historically analogized with the ongoing Iraq War that started in March of 2003. During his reign, President Bush disagreed with allegations of comparing the Iraq War to the Vietnam War. The Iraq War has not yet lasted as long as the Vietnam War but there is no certainty that it will not. The latter lasted for more than eighteen years and in it, millions of people lost their lives. The death toll of the Iraq War has not yet reached millions, but it might soon get there. The Vietnam and the Iraq Wars are similar in more ways than they are different (Gardner & Young, 2007).
The Iraq War, which is also refereed to as Operation Iraqi Freedom, the 2nd Gulf War, or the war in Iraq, was started by the United Kingdom and the United States governments. They did this by invading Iraq as they felt that Iraq’s intention of using mass destruction weapons was a threat to their countries. By then, these two countries were under the leadership of Prime Minister Tony Blair and President George Bush respectively. Historians, analysts and other professionals have tried to analyze both the Vietnam War and the war in Iraq as many innocent civilians lost their lives in both these wars.
Discussion
President Bush once declared that, “The analogy is false” (St. John, 2006). The “analogy” in this case referred to the resemblance of the Vietnam War to the Iraq War. St. John, who was once an army intelligence officer, admits that the Iraq of today looks like the Vietnam that once was about thirty years ago (2006). He had been taken there during that warring period.
In concentrating on the strategy and tactics, the Americans are fighting a guerilla war. The Iraqis, just like the Vietnamese, do not play by the Americans rules. Unlike the Americans, the Vietnamese were ready to die for their own beliefs and so are the Iraqis (Levobic, 2010). The number of suicide bombers is higher than in most wars. Like in the Vietnam War, the Iraqis attack at a place and time of their own choosing, thus evading the concentration of troops (Levobic, 2010). This is because U.S. weapons can easily be brought to use in these areas. They have incorporated urban warfare, with insurgents keeping close to United States troops. They have also enticed the civilians to guard or support their actions. Due to this, the unsure Iraq battleground brings forth huge challenges for American troops looking for ways to separate civilians from the soldiers without estranging majority of the Iraqis.
Before the Vietnam War ended, more bombs had been dropped on Indochina than they had been dropped in any other part of the world when compared to the wars that had taken place during that time. Until today, the military of the United States still believes in the power of arms. However, it also struggles with the challenging duty of establishing a suitable balance between captivating the minds and the hearts using aid and reconstruction and using power to uproot insurgents.
In the Iraq War, the troops from the United States have generally rejected to take responsibility of the civilian casualties in Iraq, partly because they come in large numbers. As was in the case of Vietnam, five hundred dying or dead Iraqis are usually reported as five hundred “insurgents” in the military press (Gwertzman, 2005). Refusing to be accountable for the civilian casualties, while thoroughly taking every count of the deaths on the American side, has its disadvantage. Such an act gives the Iraqis an impression that the American lives are of more significance than the lives of those these same Americans had come to liberate.
In the early years of the Vietnam War and sometimes in the latter ones, officials from America intentionally represented the enemy in a distorted way. The nationalists from Vietnam were not considered and all opposition was referred to as Communist. In Iraq, the Bush administration did not consider the nationalists at all. Insurgents were labeled all other names apart from nationalists (Nessen, 2008). This was done ignoring that a large number of the Iraqis are opposed to Americans occupying their land. Intelligence reports said that the insurgent support was growing and spreading widely.
Like in the Vietnam War, none of the warring parties is willing to learn about the culture and the history of the other. The military has numerous specialists fluent in Arabic. Other than that however, those specialists that have a good understanding of the culture and history of Iraq were marginalized from the war and peace plans by the Pentagon (Nessen, 2008). These same actions took place during the Vietnam War, as Americans did not understand Vietnam’s Buddhist culture. A recent case that justifies this point is the bombing of a mosque on April 2004 that took place in Fallujah. Middle East suicide bombers, like the Vietnam Buddhists who were involved in self-immolation, are unfathomable to the average American who may not be familiar with such cultures and beliefs (Nessen, 2008). Because the Iraq War was a conflict of both religious and political competition, Americans have one too many times depended on the guidance of a number of Iraqi self-serving runaways and Arab intellectuals who have experience in maneuvering this situation.
The alleged victory in Vietnam cannot be convincingly referred as so, as is the case in Iraq. The sovereignty transferred back to the people of Iraq, which was set on 30th of June, did not make much sense except in President Bush’s administration’s perspective. He longed to do away with Iraq before the November elections of the United States (Gardner & Young, 2007). When questioned about the significance in the urgency of giving back the sovereignty to the Iraqis on that particular date, the administrators did not seem to have a solid answer during that time. One thing that was clear was that there was no viable political body that had the needed domestic support in Iraq to take over and lead the country. This was after turning over of the country to the Iraqis.
Having this in mind, the April 2004 Iraq insurrection had an impact on President Bush’s political career parallel to that of Johnson administration’s Tet Offensive of 1968. The Tet offensive uncovered the positive message that was ever being told by Americans in Vietnam to be untrue. As a result of this, the Iraqi insurgents’ savage attacks approximately 40 years afterwards, had to deal with tarnish to the reliability of the Bush government. In either case, ground events implied that the US government was neither in control nor did it have a plan.
A similarity can also be found in the domino theory that has now been disgraced. This theory implied that “the fall of Vietnam would lead to a Communist takeover of all of Asia” (St. John, 2006). President Bush promised the Middle East a parallel effect in which conquering Saddam Hussein would make way for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict resolution. This would lead to a new democracy in the region. If the current situation is not put to a stop or done away with, things might worsen than they already have.
The Iraq and Vietnam Wars have both risen because of choice (Lebovic 54). In both wars misrepresentation and deceit was used by Americans, first to involve the U.S. troops and then to retain them in the countries. President Bush led Americans into war on the allegations that Saddam Hussein was in possession of weapons of mass destruction and had also involved himself with al Qaeda operations. Neither of the allegations was proved. It was said that the Iraqis would warmly welcome the American soldiers and that the Iraqi oil would cater for reconstruction. Neither of these claims came to fruition as expected. During the Bush administration, half-truths were told one after another in order to justify America’s presence in Iraq.
As history does seem to repeat itself, Americans did not have an idea of what they were getting themselves into when they took part in the Vietnam War and the same case seems to apply to the Iraq War. In April 1965 during the Vietnam War, President Johnson said, “We will not withdraw, either openly or under the cloak of a meaningless agreement” (St. John, 2006). Forty years later, President Bush said, “We’ve got to stay the course and we will stay the course” (St. John, 2006).
Conclusion
The former president may disagree in the resemblance of the two wars but the facts are quite evident. Although there are visible differences, the similarities are much more blatantly evident. Americans still insist that the Iraqis are secretly making mass destruction weapons and the Iraqis insist that such activities stopped in the year 1991. Although some troops have been withdrawn from the country by current President Barrack Obama, the war is still far from over. New deaths in Iraq are still being reported each day.
Reference
Gardner, L. C., & Young, M. B. (2007). Iraq and the Lessons of Vietnam, or, How Not to Learn from the Past. New York: New Press.
Gwertzman, B. (April 25, 2005). “Nash: Differences and Similarities between Vietnam and Iraq Wars.” Council on Foreign Relations. Web. Retrieved on 26 August, 2011.
Lebovic, J. H. (2010). The Limits of US Military Capability: Lessons from Vietnam and Iraq. Baltimore, MD: JohnsHopkinsUniversity Press.
Nessen, R. (21 March, 2008). “Iraq and Vietnam-Differences and Similarities.” Brookings. Web. Retrieved on 26 August, 2011.
St. John, R, B. (2006). “Parallels Between Iraq War and Vietnam War Are Piling Up.” The Progress Report. Web. Retrieved on 26 August, 2011.
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