I recently read a 550-page tome entitled Hue, 1968, by Mark Bowden. The battle for Hue, the third-largest city in Vietnam, took place during the “Tet Offensive.” North Vietnamese and Viet Cong troops managed to capture Hue, and it took weeks of close-in fighting to recapture the city.
This battle came after Gen. Westmoreland, the general in overall charge of the war in Vietnam, reassured the American public and President Johnson that the war was nearly won.
Interestingly, although Westmoreland said the war was almost over (the famous phrase was “light at the end of the tunnel”), he kept asking for more troops.
The battle for Hue was horrendous. Both sides committed atrocities. Both sides suffered huge casualties, although the majority of the people killed were Vietnamese civilians.
Hue was the beginning of the end of the Vietnam War. Increasing numbers of Americans, including soldiers, believed that the war could not be won.
Bowden’s book is not an easy read. You will be introduced to an American (or a Vietnamese), and a few pages later he will be shot through the throat or have the top of his head blown off.
When Trump spoke last night about the need for more troops in Afghanistan for a war that has already gone on for something like 16 years, I thought about Hue. So much for the promise to end this war. Do you think adding a few thousand more troops to that bleeding and unhappy country will result in a “victory”?
I've wondered so often why we can't just accept the fact that there's no end to the war in Afghanistan, throw in the towel like we did in Vietnam and bring all of our troops home. But to Trump and his general buddies, this would be "losing" and that's something they can't bear to do. No matter how many American lives are lost, we are stuck there for the unforeseeable future. Sad!
ReplyDeleteThomas Friedman said today that our choices are lose early, lose late, lose big, or lose small. Note that all of Friedman's choices have the word "lose."
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