When did the US lose Vietnam?

I suppose this is about history. Of course, history is meant to help us with thinking…so maybe this isn’t about a long time ago. History is sometimes current events, too. Nothing repeats, yet everything repeats–variations on a theme.

Go look at photos of the American embassy evacuation in Kabul, 2021. Now go look at the pictures from Saigon, 1975. I’ll wait….back? So if we put both images in black and white, would you be able to tell which was which? Nope.

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Long ago, a grad school class I was in (I don’t even remember the professor’s name or what the class was actually about…tells you the quality, huh?), the first day, the professor gave a writing assignment. The question was “When did the United States lose Vietnam?”

250-500 words, something any college student should be able to punch out in 15 minutes.

The next class, people had to give their answers. You can guess the answers if you know a little about the Vietnam War: *Tet Offensive / Cronkite going on TV *1972 when the last US ground forces left the country *The Geneva Accords *1975 and the Fall of Saigon to the advancing North Vietnamese Army.

You’re reading and if you brushed up on your history, you’re thinking “Hey, good arguments for all of those.”

30 years later, I still say they were wrong. My answer then remains valid. I can still make the argument–but I’ve got a second assertion that I’d offer, too. (I’ll give that in a bit)

You see, I was the only person who actually gave a specific date.

The United States lost the Vietnam War on March 8, 1965.

But Jim, that’s when the war started. The fighting goes on into the 1970s.

Yup. But we lost it the minute the instant those 3,500 Marines landed just outside Da Nang. See, that’s the point that American policy lost flexibility–that’s the point negotiations and diplomacy went out the door. At that point, it became about proving a point, about showing American military doctrine was superior, that our technology was superior. And it was…which is completely irrelevant in Vietnam.

Why? Because the US was never going to stay permanently. Before us, the French had been there for decades. Before them, China had occupied Vietnam twice for periods of centuries. When you have been fighting for your independence for 2,000 years, what’s a couple American presidential administrations among friends?

Hmmm…curious. Doesn’t that sound a lot like someplace more recent? The Graveyard of Empires? Occupied by the Soviets, before them the British. Go back far enough and Alexander the Great was struggling how to figure out how to exert control over the Afghans. So if you’re an Afghan and hate foreigners, what’s twenty years of dealing with Americans when you’ve seen off Persians and Brits and Soviets and Greeks and everyone else?

So when the Bush administration decided military force was the only option and put ground troops into Afghanistan…we lost on that day. That was October 19, 2001. Just like Vietnam, there was no real exit plan…but we did show our guerilla and light, agile fighting ability…for twenty years.

So…what about that second assertion, Jim? (I’m glad you remembered…)

In answer to the question “When did we lose Vietnam?”

Now, I’d answer: “We didn’t, Vietnam was a victory.”

It’s all about time and perspective. In 2021, US ships make port-of-call at Cam Ranh Bay. Vietnam does booming international trade with the US and its allies. Just as important, it works with the United States to contain Chinese expansion and aggression in and around the South China Sea. So–did we really lose?

The one catch–I won’t dare make that comparison to Afghanistan. Afghanistan will not evolve into a victory in twenty or fifty years.