The Definition of Insanity
Despite the indisputable American foreign policy failure in Vietnam, history keeps repeating itself.
There are many reasons why the United States failed so tremendously in Vietnam. You can look at the various military defeats, the weakness of the South Vietnamese government, or the absence of a clear goal leading to the general uninterest and lack of morale amongst American soldiers. But, in my opinion, the ultimate root of the failure came from the United States government not understanding Vietnamese culture and history. The War Remnants Museum in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam contains a quote from ancient Vietnamese General and national hero, Lý Thường Kiệt which states, “The Southern mountains and rivers belong to the Viet people. It was so clearly written in the Celestial Book. Those who dare to attack our territory will be immediately and pitilessly annihilated.” These words reflect one of the greatest desires the Vietnamese have always had, being able to govern as an independent state.
The times of peace and prosperity have been few and far between for the people of Vietnam. For almost the country’s entire history, there has been some kind of foreign country occupying its territory. From 200 B.C. to 938 A.D., the Chinese empire was the predominant force influencing the region and returned for a brief time between 1407 and 1427 before being driven out by a successful Vietnamese rebellion. Europeans first entered the region began in 1527 and as Catholic missionaries began having success in converting people to Christianity, the levels of European influence continued to grow. In 1858, the French led a full-scale invasion and expanded their control over the coming decades while consolidating modern-day Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia into the Indochinese Union. Later, the Japanese would invade the region during World War II and force Vietnamese laborers to provide resources to support the Japanese army at the expense of being able to provide sustainability for the local population1.
The brutal conditions of French colonialism and Japanese occupation created desperation for independence and the removal of foreign influences from the country within the Vietnamese population. From an outsider’s perspective, this would seem like a difficult task, but the Vietnamese had overcome Chinese rule historically, so how hard could it really be? Ho Chi Minh’s ability to galvanize a formidable force while declaring, “The entire Vietnamese people are determined to mobilize all their physical and mental strength, to sacrifice their lives and property in order to safeguard their independence and liberty,” eventually led to successfully driving these foreign invaders out of the country as well.
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Now think for a second, if you were Vietnamese and following Ho Chi Minh in his quest to unite Vietnam and create an independent state, how would you view the United States entering your country? Would you care that, up until that point, they had enjoyed nothing but military success? Would the fact that they were the largest superpower in the world really bother or intimidate you given that your ancestors had fought with China for centuries and you had just lived successfully driven out French colonial rule? Or would this just fit into the pattern that you had been taught existed and had experienced your whole life? The United States was just another foreign invader trying to prevent Vietnamese independence and take away your right to self-determination.
It’s understandable that the American public did not know much about Vietnam before the Vietnam War. There wasn’t much reason for anyone at that point in time to know much about small, developing countries in Indochina. But the seeming lack of knowledge amongst high-ranking government officials about the culture and history of a country, where four different presidents were willing to direct both financial and military resources over a 25-year period of time, is in my mind inexcusable. It would be one thing if this was a blip on the radar, but you can point to numerous times throughout American history, even as recently as the United States' involvement in Afghanistan, where a similar mindset was displayed. If government leaders had truly understood the history of colonialism and occupation that accompanied the incredibly strong desire for a united Vietnam free from foreign influence, the negative consequences of the Vietnam War could have been at least mitigated. Instead, the viewing of Vietnam as simply a potential communist state that could lead to surrounding countries going down the same road, led to the unnecessary death of thousands of Americans and millions of Vietnamese.
Martin Luther King Jr said, “The war in Vietnam is but a symptom of a far deeper malady within the American spirit.” Although you can argue the “malady” Dr. King is referring to as a variety of things, the most prevalent one I see that is still alive today is the idea of American exceptionalism. The idea that the United States is inherently different from other countries has led to an alarming level of hubris, or excessive self-confidence. The United States’ involvement in Vietnam, and the subsequent disaster that occurred, should have removed the idea that the American solution was always the most correct solution from the minds of its leaders. However, this mindset is not evident in foreign policy decisions that have been made during the following years in the Middle East and South America.
As a country, the conflict in Vietnam should have made us reevaluate how we view other countries before deciding to militarily intervene. After all, how could a small, seemingly irrelevant, aspiring communist country just south of China defeat the greatest military superpower in the history of the world? How could the country that led the liberation of Europe from the Nazis just thirty years earlier, not be the moral compass the world must follow? Instead, the United States has, to a lesser extent, seemed to have followed the same pattern of intervening in the political events of other countries.
Less than a decade after the U.S. withdrew from Vietnam, President Reagan ordered an invasion of Grenada following the overthrow of a Marxist president with the intent to remove Soviet and Cuban influence from the region. While executing the mission, American forces faced an unexpected level of resistance and suffered serious casualties. In 1994, President Clinton ordered troops to Haiti in an effort to restore Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide’s power. Even though most troops withdrew within a year and the Clinton administration praised the operation as a model for promoting democracy without disrupting the security of foreign countries, within five years it was recommended all remaining troops be removed due to the increasing economic and political instability2. Time and time again, similar mistakes have been made and, despite the generally good intentions behind the United States’ democratization efforts, the results have been the same.
History gives us patterns. Vietnam had a history of driving out significant world powers after being occupied. Either the United States government did not know about that history or they thought that they would be able to break the mold. Frankly, either answer is embarrassing and led to the most critical foreign policy blunder in American history while simultaneously leading to a distrust in government amongst its citizens at home. Additionally, the Vietnam War created a pattern of failure when trying to install democracies in foreign countries with political tumult militarily. Still, multiple attempts were made to do this after the conflict in Vietnam was complete in places like Afghanistan and Iraq.
While I was in Vietnam, I had a unique opportunity to personally see the lasting effects that these conflicts have on societies. One of the more memorable experiences occurred while meeting with Vietnamese citizens who were exposed to the chemical known as Agent Orange. Although Agent Orange was intended to clear massive areas of jungle so U.S. pilots would have a better overhead view of the enemy and their resources, it also had devastating effects on the individuals living in the surrounding Vietnamese villages. Exposure to Agent Orange has since been linked to long-term negative health conditions like Parkinson’s Disease, prostate cancer, and Type II Diabetes. The children of these victims often have significant disabilities and are not able to easily become integrated into society. One victim was asked through a translator if there were any lessons he wished my fellow students and I would take away from our interactions with him and his fellow victims. He said, “I just hope after talking with you, as the future leaders of America you work to prevent something like this from happening again.” He knew that there was nothing the young American citizens standing with him in this room could do to change the past, but he did recognize the ability we will have to change the future. Although his life had been so negatively affected by a chemical dropped from planes that had an American flag painted on the side, and he could have used his time to criticize any aspect of the history between the United States and Vietnam, he instead wanted to ensure nobody else had to go through a similar personal experience.
It is often said that insanity is defined as repeating the same action over and over again and expecting a different result. By that definition, the decision to engage in military conflicts with multiple countries in many different regions of the world with the intent to set up a democratic form of government similar to the United States is insane. And still, it has happened repeatedly. I recognize that it is easy for me, a twenty-one-year-old college student to look back on history and criticize decisions that were made. After all, hindsight is 20/20 and it’s hard to find any silver lining from the American experience in Vietnam. While some aspects that led to the United States' defeat in Vietnam were unique to the area, the principles that led to becoming involved in the first place are not and still exist today. In our nation’s future, there will inevitably be new challenges and threats that will have to be handled. While there is never a silver bullet to solve these problems, at the very least the American public and government should be educated enough to be able to notice when historical patterns show up again. While we cannot change the past, not learning from it will have a catastrophic impact across the globe.
“A Chronology of U.S Military Interventions | Give War a Chance | FRONTLINE | PBS.” Pbs.org, 2014, www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/military/etc/cron.html.
“History of Vietnam | Pritzker Military Museum & Library | Chicago.” Www.pritzkermilitary.org, www.pritzkermilitary.org/explore/vietnam-war/history-vietnam.