Iraq and Vietnam in Contrast

Iraq                              Vietnam                      

►2,500 US killed so far                                   ►500 men a week died

 

►Reserves and enlisted soldiers                       ►Drafted soldiers for U.S. fighting force-

    National Guard and Army                                 exemptions given for National Guard, Coast

    Reserves make up the force                  Guard, Peace Corps, and for college   

                          

►Enemy fighters are adult males                       ►Enemy fighters are all ages and genders   

                          

►The enemy of the war is made up of: ►The enemy of the war is made up of:

    *  Saddam’s old government                            *  North Vietnamese Army (NVA - Viet Minh)

    *  Ba’ath loyalists                                            *  South Vietnamese Communists (Viet Cong)

    *  Sunnis loyal to the Ba’ath Party                    *  Any Vietnamese who are nationalists and do

    *  Border crossing Muslims who                          not want outside occupation

        are against America (Jihadists)                     *  Foreigners who are pro-North

*  Shiite radicals who want Islamic state

    *  Iraqi nationalists against US and

foreign occupation

 

►House-to-house urban fighting-snipers           ►Jungle combat, booby traps, tunnels 

    suicide bombers (IEDs left on roadways)      hidden enemy, camouflage        

 

►Fear of terrorism                                           ►Fear of communism

 

►After 9/11, Americans were told to               ►Americans were called upon to “Ask

    go on with life: to shop and to                            not what your country can do for you,

    travel to help the economy                                but for what you can do for your

                                                                            country” and sacrifice

 

►Connections to the 9/11 attacks Iraq’s          ►North Vietnamese attack on the USS Mattox

    supposed WMD used to justify the war             in the Gulf of Tonkin used to justify war

 

►Congress gives authority to President to        ►Congress approves the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution

    send troops. Public law 102-1 10-2-02            which allows LBJ to send troops.

 

►Later, the discovery of no WMD or 9/11      ►Later, the discovery of the Pentagon Papers proved

    connection, people question whether                 that Johnson had lied about the war and the Mattox

    or not G.W. Bush lied                           was not innocent on the night it was attacked.

 

►Richard Clarke’s evidence showed   ►The Pentagon Papers showed that LBJ had the Gulf

    Bush had a plan to attack Iraq                           of Tonkin Resolution written prior to the attack there

    written before 9/11

 

►Iraqification                                                  ►Vietnamization

 

►US withdrawl???                                          ►US withdraws and SV falls to the NVA

Iraq and Vietnam in Comparison

Iraq                              Vietnam

►Suicide attacks                                             ►Suicide squad attacked US embassy in Saigon

 

►Innocent civilians killed on accident               ►Innocent civilians look just like the Vietcong.  Also

                                                                            civilians fed, hid, and gave information to the VC.

 

►Supplied money and weapons & worked      ►Fought alongside of the Vietminh,          

    with Saddam Hussein in Iran-Iraq War              during WWII to drive out Japan                      

 

►Americans committed atrocities                     ►Americans committed atrocities against civilian

    against Iraqi prisoners                           villages, like the My Lai Massacre

 

►Saddam Hussein tortures and murders           ►The South Vietnamese government, supported by the

    enemies and political opponents                        US murders & arrests protestors and religious leaders

    throughout his reign

 

►A coalition helped the US to fight:     ►A coalition helped the fight including the South

    England , Italy and Poland and other                 Vietnamese army, 300,000 South Koreans, and

    coalition members in very small numbers,     a small amount of forces from Australia

    along with newly trained Iraqi forces

 

►Questionable neighboring countries:   ►NVA uses “neutral” neighboring countries to

    Syria, Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan                      smuggle supplies south (Laos, Cambodia)

 

►$7 billion a month spent on the war   ►$150 billion spent on the war

 

►Both - Balance between fighting the  

    enemy guerillas and winning the                     ►Both - hard to distinguish between enemy and civilians

    “hearts and minds” of civilians through

    reconstruction and improvement projects

 

►Both - America is seen as an                         ►Both - “bringing democracy” to the people

    imperialist invader

 

►Both - the longer the combat continued         ►Both - the longer combat continued, the more

    the more resistance US troops faced                 Americans who questioned and protested the war

 

►Both - the majority of the forces were           ►Both - Media supported the war early on, and later

    poor Americans and minorities                          showed images that made Americans anti-war.

 

►Both - a technologically superior fighting force was supposed

to quickly defeat an “inferior” guerilla force with out-dated weapons