Kremlin Threatens that Ukraine Could Become Our 'New Vietnam'
Don't they have something confused here?
The Kremlin is nervous. The aid bill has passed, and new arms deliveries will soon start arriving again. Russian historians are warning Americans that “You are getting into another Vietnam.” Either Russian historians are clueless as hell about the history of U.S. involvement in the rice paddies and jungles, or they think Americans are smart as hell and know their history.
To be honest, they have me scratching my head.
After majoring in political science and Russian at Rutgers College, I received a master’s in international Affairs from Columbia’s School for International and Public Affairs. I can say that I invested about 200-plus hours of my academic life studying the Vietnam War. I read upward of several thousand pages on the subject matter.
In a very nuanced way, the Kremlin’s claim that we are getting ourselves into another Vietnam could be correct. Beginning with the fall of the French army during the Battle of Dien Bien Phu in 1954 and the decision by the U.S. to replace them to counter the communists in the region, month by month, our commitment to the region grew until it became our national obsession. At first, our assistance was restricted to Green Berets training the local forces, but we replaced France when they pulled entirely out of the region, letting their colony go. Fearing the vacuum of power would turn it communist and the dominoes would tumble, the quagmire had commenced.
President Biden has made it clear from the get-go that no NATO troops will be fighting in Ukraine. French President Emmanuel Macron recently discussed the possibility of NATO troops fighting in Ukraine. No other NATO countries cleared his comments, and the foolishness of the words even flashed for a moment the tragedy of Vietnam across the screen: The French then wouldn’t let their former colony go in 1947, got caught up in a vicious war and then ended up getting the U.S. stuck in the quicksand when it came to France’s aid.
Something tells me these nuanced details of Vietnam are not what the Kremlin is talking about. Instead, it is trying to scare Americans into a sentiment that shaped our foreign policy for nearly 30 years after a less-than-glorious pullout from Vietnam in 1973. The notion is that any foreign problem that requires the involvement of the U.S. military can and will turn into a Vietnam-like quagmire.
The wonderful bit of irony here and the bizarre mix of historical facts that the Kremlin feels comfortable manipulating, given how poorly most Americans understand history, is that the aid being given to Ukraine is being done to avoid ever having to send U.S. troops to Ukraine. If we don’t support Ukraine and the country falls, there is a very good chance NATO and Russia will fight elsewhere in Europe. Not immediately, for Russia will need at least a decade to rebuild its military, but another invasion will probably happen.
By giving all the aid we can now, without sending troops to Ukraine, we are nullifying the thoughtless Vietnam comparison.
Ironically, what Ukraine has become for Russia is precisely what it suggests it could become for us. Ukraine is Russia’s new Afghanistan; it is our Vietnam. Russia can’t win outright and can’t afford to lose. It is a thorn in the Russian body that should have long ago led to Putin’s demise. Still, given the degree to which the Russian elite are cowards and incapable of thinking on their own, Putin instead has become, in many respects, stronger.
Ukraine is not and won’t be our Vietnam. With the passing of the Ukraine aid bill in the House and the Senate’s imminent approval this week, the arms will flow, and Russian tanks and front lines will again become the most dangerous places to be in Ukraine. It is our national imperative to make Ukraine a hybrid war for Russia: part Vietnam and part Afghanistan.