Comparison of Iraq and Vietnam wars

In recent political debate there have been many comparisons between the Iraq war and the Vietnam war .

During the war
The Vietnam War was a gradual escalation of violence over several years conducted under the doctrine of communism, which was supported by the Soviet Union and Communist China; with increasing U.S. involvement to enforce a U.N mandated division of the country. The Iraq War commenced as a military campaign coined "Operation Iraqi Freedom" when the U.S.-led coalition launched an invasion of the country to remove Saddam Hussein from power for violations of U.N. Security Council resolutions concerning Iraq's weapons of mass destruction programs.

The Vietnam War began as an insurgency conflict, supported by communism, in South Vietnam; which primarily consisted of South Vietnamese guerillas known as the Viet Cong. As the conflict escalated, the war developed into a low intensity conflict, then advanced towards medium intensity warfare, involving regular army troops from North Vietnam, pitted against the regular armies of the US, South Vietnam, Australia,and New Zealand, among others. Air to air combat involving the North Vietnamese Air Force's Mig-17, Mig-19, and Mig-21's fought against US jet aircraft,as they escorted B-52 Bombers to targets over North Vietnam. Soviet supplied Surface to Air Missiles (SAM's), emplaced in North Vietnam, remained the greatest threat to US attacking aircraft through out the war. Ultimately, along with conventional anti-aircraft defenses (AAA),they would bring down over 2,000 US jets and other fixed wing aircraft,along with the accompanying loss of US pilots, which added a large number of US Prisoners of War (POW's),to the already too long casualty list. The Iraq War started as a conventional war during the initial invasion. It evolved into a guerilla war in the months following the Fall of Baghdad in April 2003.

The Vietnam War was a war of two political ideologies: nationalist forces supporting communism, and that of the free world forces opposed to communism. The Iraq War is a war among numerous ethnic, religious, and political factions fighting for control of the country,coupled with the US's fight against terrorism

Countries hostile to the United States and its allies sent money, weapons, and military advisors to both war zones. During Vietnam, the North Vietnamese were supported by the Communist nations of China, the Soviet Union, and North Korea. Anti-coalition forces in Iraq are being supported and supplied both directly and indirectly by various countries around the world, notably Syria and Iran.

Media coverage played a significant role in influencing public perceptions of both wars. After the ], for example, CBS' Walter Cronkite directly criticized the military leadership and the Johnson administration, saying "We have been too often disappointed by the optimism of the American leaders, both in Vietnam and Washington, to have faith any longer in the silver linings they find in the darkest cloud." He concluded by saying that the U.S. was "mired in a stalemate" and called for a negotiated end to the conflict. Similar criticism has been expressed regarding U.S. leadership in the Iraq War. Opposition to the Vietnam war escalated, primarily due to the increased conscription of US citizens to fight the war, this added to the political turmoil, resulting in draft riots, and repeated clashes between anti-war demonstrators and the police; all of which was roughly concurrent with the Civil Rights Movement. There have been occasional protests, but because the protesters themselves are not "threatened" of being physically involved in the Iraq War, by being drafted(conscription) into military service, the protests against the Iraq War and the Bush Administration, have been largely peaceful.

As US conscription increased, combined with steadily higher US casualties and material losses (primarily jet aircraft-air losses) public support for the Vietnam War collapsed, congress began withdrawing funding for combat operations. Although now equipped with an "all-volunteer" military, the Iraq War, is now facing a similar erosion of public support, Congress is threatening to withdraw funds The Vietnam War,as was the Korean War (1950-1953) before it, were fought as "Limited War's", with boundaries and restrictions (no atomic weapons, etc.). Operations Urgent Fury (Grenada 1983), Just Cause (Panama 1989), Desert Storm Iraq 1991, and Iraqi Freedom Irag 2003 to present, all represent, in the absence of the former communist threat (the end of the cold war), America's responsibilities and effort's to maintain stability and peace through out the world.

Unlike Vietnam, which primarily consisted of conscripts (drafted men), there have been few reports of mass resistance to the Iraq war among active duty U.S. personnel, although, as had had happened during Operation Desert Storm in 1991, there have been some individuals whom had refused to deploy to Iraq (e.g., Pablo Paredes, and 1st Lt. Ehren Watada) or to carry out missions (e.g. the 343rd Quartermasters).. As is normal, to some extent, there have been some indications that "instances of insubordination" may have simply escaped the attention of the media until recently.

At a Press conference on the 7 July 2007 the top U.S. commander in Iraq, Gen. David Petraeus compared the current intensification of the insurgency to the Tet Offensive in Vietnam .

The media output regarding the War in Iraq has been carefully controlled. Notably, journalists have been embedded (a term first used in Desert Storm) with US "coalition" units and the American public have been banned from seeing pictures as innocuous as flag-draped coffins. These are standard operating procedures within the US military, and represent a normal relationship between the military and civilians..

Due to the extended stay of US forces in Irag, there has been a higher profile of the problem of "distinguishing" friend from foe. A problem that was dominent during the early years in Vietnam, when the Viet Cong operated as a guerilla at night, and was a civilian by day. That problem however, was largely eliminated when the "VC" surfaced during the TET offensive of 1968, and were mostly destroyed, as a consequence. Unfortunately, in Vietnam, The NVA (North Vietnamese Army) picked up, where the VC left off. Now the US military and their allies, had to engage a regular army in conventional battles. So far, unless a regular standing army, such as was possessed by North Vietnam, is somehow introduced into the Iraqi conflict, US forces and their coalition will be spared the bloodshed that results when two organized military opponents engage each other. These problems,combined with the already high stress conditions of war and extended tours, may or may not have contributed to forces allegedly involved in incidents with some of the local populations. In Vietnam, notably the My Lai Massacre and in Iraq, Haditha Massacre.

As in Vietnam, many casualties inflicted on US service personnel have been attributed to anti-personnel devices placed away from the combat areas, or booby traps.

President Bush on the comparison between Iraq and Vietnam
On August 22 2007 President Bush gave a speech before the Veterans of Foreign wars national convention where he compared cost of withdrawing from Vietnam with the cost of withdrawing from Iraq. "Then as now, people argued the real problem was America's presence and that if we would just withdraw, the killing would end". Bush alleged that America's withdrawal from Vietnam was the reason for the Khmer Rouge taking power in Cambodia and the Viet Cong in Vietnam Reaction to Bush's comparison range from Gary Kamiya of Salon magazine claiming that the argument is bogus saying it "was a gross distortion of history. In fact, almost all historians agree that it was not the U.S. withdrawal that was responsible for the Khmer Rouge's rise to power and subsequent genocidal campaign, but the Vietnam War itself, and in particular President Nixon's massive bombing of Cambodia" to William Shawcross, a former Vietnam correspondent who witnessed the aftermath of the war, writing on The Sunday Times warning of "a bloodbath even worse than happened in Indochina" if the Americans withdrew from Iraq.

Bush further claimed that Osama Bin Laden had made the comparison between Iraq and Vietnam as well: "In an interview with a Pakistani newspaper after the 9/11 attacks, Osama bin Laden declared that "the American people had risen against their government's war in Vietnam. And they must do the same today." His number two man, Zawahiri, has also invoked Vietnam. In a letter to al Qaeda's chief of operations in Iraq, Zawahiri pointed to "the aftermath of the collapse of the American power in Vietnam and how they ran and left their agents.""

In their article "the "Waning Power of the War Myth", Salon claimed that "The implication of Bush's speech is that there is no real difference between Iraq and Vietnam." and that Bush "is implicitly arguing that we should have stayed in Vietnam, and should stay in Iraq, indefinitely."

Bush acknowledged that after the Vietnam war neither the Viet Cong nor the Khmer Rouge followed the Americans home to continue the war, but said that this time would be different. "Unlike in Vietnam, if we withdraw before the job is done, this enemy will follow us home. And that is why, for the security of the United States of America, we must defeat them overseas so we do not face them in the United States of America.

War Nerd

On April 16 2004, the Exile published an article by Gary Brecher, the War Nerd, entitled "It's Not Nam, But It'll Do" that criticizes the comparisons between Iraq and Vietnam. Brecher suggests that a far better comparison would be between the Iraq War and the 1982 Lebanon War.

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