If John F Kennedy's ghost is wandering around the White House, he must be smiling at the ongoing debate about a possible troop surge in Afghanistan.History has a weird way of repeating itself.
In 1961, Kennedy was involved in a debate about South Vietnam. The United States was determined to prevent a Communist takeover of its client regime. The President,Ngo Dinh Diem was an American puppet who relied on Washington's support.His regime lacked popular ,especially in the countryside, and corruption was rife. He was also at war with the Viet Cong, which was a guerilla army formed in South Vietnam to overthrow him.
Kennedy had a problem,as he recognised Diem's faults, but he also had to support him. More troops(advisers) were sent from the United States, which meant that the Americans' role increased in an undeclared war. The more troops you send, the more you look like a colonial power or an army of occupation. The more troops you send, the more chance that they will get shot at or worse.You then end up with more casualties.You invest so much politically and militarily, that you cannot abandon your client.You are trapped.
Does any of this sound familiar?The statements made in the early 1960s could easily have been made today.If you replace Communism with the word terrorism, then all the speeches sound just the same as the ones we hear about Afghanistan.Just replace the Viet Cong with the word the Taleban/ Al Qaeda.Hamid Karzai is a dead ringer, historically, for Diem.
Kennedy's Administration was divided over South Vietnam in the same way that Barack Obama's is. Do you send more troops or do you walk away?You have a national leader who is surrounded by corruption and who lacks popular support.The paralells are scary.
By 1963, Kennedy gave the nod to the South Vietnamese generals to overthrow Diem.The rest as we say,is history.
Let's hope that Afghanistan does not prove to be Obama's Vietnam.
