Vietnam War -Political Interference
My recently published fictional historical novel, RECALL, documents countless episodes of political interference in military affairs. To name a couple, DC civilian micromanagement imposing limiting rules of engagement and the pursuit of ill-advised strategies evolving from political considerations, not military deliberations in many cases. The conduct of the war was often characterized by deceit and arrogance ignoring CIA and military intelligence estimates and ignoring the Chiefs of Staff’s recommendations. The Generals and Admirals, the experts on war, were effectively sidelined.
Administrative decisions led to a war of attrition in SE Asia. Eventually that cost us 58,148 American lives between 1961 and 1975. Almost six times more were wounded and 75,000 Vietnam vets are seriously disabled out of the 2.7 million who served tours in country. While the percentage of those KIA to WIA is about the same as WWII, amputations and crippling wounds were 300% higher in Vietnam.
My novel and blogs maintain the war did not have to turn out as it did- A political loss despite a military victory. It was a war that divided and polarized the country. I’ve posted 28 blogs on this subject and others concerning our harmful involvement. Founded on reading declassified CIA documents from the ‘80’s, pouring through dozens of historical accounts, plus adding my personal experience and my vet buddies’ observations, it’s taken me over fifty years to form my opinions.
Judging from comments from others on my posts, many share my viewpoint that political interference hindered the war effort and prevented a definitive “victory” in terms the common man on the street could understand – Not some Washington DC nuanced version.
What have we learned? I’ll briefly summarize with links to previous blogs to render my take on the topic. Feel free to disagree or find it confirmation bias if you concur. The topics are contentious.
- Based on what many consider a tenuous pretext, the Domino Theory, JFK got us involved as military advisors, MACV in 1961.
- The Vietnam War became our war in 1965 when LBJ ordered the Marine’s 9th Expeditionary Brigade to land on the shores of Danang, South Vietnam. Following that escalation, his administration’s arrogance and political policies over the next three years doomed the war effort despite the military’s performance under ridiculous self-imposed rules of engagement and misguided strategies. LBJ bragged they could not bomb an outhouse in North Vietnam without his OK and that he was smarter than his Generals. Hubris unlimited?
- During 1968, the Tet offensive year, politics became pivotal in the public’s opinion regarding America’s “quagmire” situation in Vietnam. The antiwar fever went off the scale urging the Democrat administration to get out of Vietnam. LBJ felt the pressure to get out and pursued the Paris Accords. Then things got messy. LBJ claimed Nixon torpedoed the Paris negotiations during the ’68 election year to advance his personal political aspirations. The “Chennault Affair” is covered in an earlier blog addressing this allegation. Dirty politics go way back. Nothing new. I urge you read this blog to understand the history.
- Towards the end of Johnson’s term, desperation set in to get the war over. LBJ pursed a policy that blew me away when I discovered it years later. The deceit and perfidy of the decision bordered on treason as McNamara and Rusk telegraphed the next day’s bombing missions in North Vietnam though Swiss Embassies in DC and Hanoi. Care to think how that contributed to pilot MIA’s, KIA’s, POW’s and loss of aircraft? This astounding revelation only became public knowledge in the ‘80’s with CBS reporter Arnett’s Canadian documentary. Where was the Fourth Estate who pummeled Nixon over Watergate during this fiasco? MIA?
My historical narrative, RECALL, has more shocking stories like these. We need to learn the lessons of history or we are doomed to repeat them, to paraphrase Santayana. Half our nation was not born in the sixties. The novel could serve as a primer for this turbulent era for them and a reminder for those who may not recall that period of our history.
Comments are invited, if civil. Vietnam still raises passions, but we must try to understand our past through discourse, and relate its influence on our present state of affairs. I see a connection, do you? / R Lawson
WikiImages / Pixabay
Leave a Reply