Thomas P.M. Barnett :: Weblog

Hate to keep beating the "History" drum, but this sounds very similar to 1961 through 1965 where we had "Green Berets" (and SEALS) in Vietnam, Thialand, Laos, and a couple of other countries that they still don't talk about . .

Is this more history we're ignoring? If we are, perhaps we'd better skip the middle and regard the ending . . The politically guided war and it's bad ending shouldn't be repeated . .

Do we need to be a little cautious of the lessons we take from history? After WWI and WWII we got the big stick theory down pretty well. That worked for the cold war and it sorta worked in Korea, but not so well since. Thinking of yourself as savior of the world, or being perceived as a big bully is not how you win hearts and minds. We may have infected Vietnam with a dose of some good things even while losing in a less than perfect effort. I knew a former Vietnamese pilot and engineer who quit his engineering job here in the U.S. because his export/import hobby with Vietnam became so lucrative. That culture became dramatically exposed to the outside world and seems to be making great strides becoming a part of it. I have heard that the international entrepreneurial spirit is more pronounced in the south than in the north but all of Vietnam is benefiting. If we can help this process along in other places much less painfully for us and others.... Well, there is much to learn and some of the lessons of history are subtle.

Here again I offer the following guide for our involvement in these matters from Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethic_of_reciprocity

In Vietnam for the honeymoon, and we just got back from the Highlands. Spent a few nights staying overnight with the locals. Got to talking about eh war with some guys, they can remember their fathers and uncles signing up and taking both the Agencies and the SF shillings.

They seemed very savvy about what was happening in AFPAK, kept asking me if we were making all the same bad mistakes. But they spoke so fondly of their handlers back in the day, the idea that these men would come and live with them, learn their language, immerse themselves in their lives and fight side by side.

The mentoring role that SF has is paramount to the success of not just AFPAK but the global focus as well.

And of course its going to take time.The best things do.

The US errors in Vietnam started long ago. The 51st TFW, one of the Flying Tiger units, ended its WW II mission as air support for China and French IndoChina rebels fighting against Japan occupation forces. The 'native' IndoChinese did not want the Chinese or French to replace the Japanese occupiers. They would have welcomed Americans whose fighter aircraft helped them in fight after fight. However, as WW II ended, US military just wanted the Americans to get into Japanese territory to 'reform' them. Then China began a covert effort to keep France from regaining IndoChina control. It worked in Northern Vietnam. Ike then sent US military advisors to replace the French in South Vietnam so the French government could concentrate on its North Africa colonial problems, and so it would be more friendly about letting Germany join NATO. Then JFK made it his mission model for use of more conventional military tactics after Laos folded. LBJ made final error in overkill rather than negotiation. We 'lost' but Vietnamese then showed China it could not occupy all the old French colony with a brief effective border conflict victory. Now many decades after the 'native' IndoChinese wanted US assistance, there is some American SysAdmin type outreach.

My interpretation is that these situations need a bottoms up perspective with the local people and culture rather than putting them in a box based on regional or global power angles.