by Dean Hartwell
Recently, President George W. Bush has tried to persuade the public that the United States must use force against Iraq. Before sending the troops, the Bush Administration should read the history of the Lyndon B. Johnson Administration.
Bush claims that Iraq either has now or soon will have nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction. He says that it is only a matter of time before Saddam Hussein, Iraq's president, uses them. In Bush's logic, taking a pre-emptive strike will allow the U.S. to act defensively.
Rewind to 1965.
President Johnson wanted to pursue war against North Vietnam but also wanted to ensure public approval. So, after a bombing campaign, he sent the first ground troops to defend United States military bases in South Vietnam. The public backed Johnson overwhelmingly.
However, when North Vietnam began to advance on the troops, President Johnson found he needed to send additional troops to attack the North Vietnamese. When LBJ's defense became an offense, support for the war in Vietnam declined.
The Bush Administration warns that the rest of the world may wait too long to oust Hussein. They suggest he could use his weapons if action is not taken against him soon.
Again, the Vietnam War provides a lesson for current policymakers. The Johnson Administration warned that the U.S. had to intervene militarily or the "domino" effect, a collapse of all U.S.-supported governments to communists, would occur. Yet, it wasn't communism that defeated our troops; it was a group of Vietnamese fiercely committed to the independence and self-determination of Vietnam. Likewise, the Bush Administration could hinder its own objectives by mislabeling the threat.
Finally, the Vietnamese from the North and the Viet Cong in the South gave the war effort everything they had once the U.S. troops began to arrive. If Iraq indeed has the weapons Bush accuses them of having, they, too, could find attack all-out when it would be most opportune: right after an attack on them.
Once a president dispatches
troops, he does not get a second chance to evaluate his goals, the enemy's
intentions or how anyone will respond. President Bush should review our
loss in Vietnam before embarking upon one of his own.