Relearning The Lessons Of History
As a Vietnam veteran, I have been especially troubled by recent events in Afghanistan. We don’t seem to learn from the lessons of history. We thought, relative to Vietnam, that military might along with American know-how could turn around a civil war between North and South Vietnam. We discounted the long history of Vietnam, including the fact that before French colonization, the country had been an independent nation. No amount of American intervention was going to overcome the drive to reunify that country. In Afghanistan, almost the reverse has happened—no amount of ...