Ukraine – Vietnam Again

Vietnam was not meant to last 10 years, Gulf of Tonkin resolution in 1964 to Paris Peace Accords in 1973. Vietnam was not expected to cost U.S. lives, then not many, then not 58,000. The cause? Mission creep, no clear objectives, no endgame. U.S. involvement in Ukraine is shaping up…to be Vietnam, times ten.

Ukraine is not a NATO country, and never was. The two Vietnams were not SEATO countries, nor Laos or Cambodia. Americans died in all of them. EU and U.S. pressure to make Ukraine a NATO member is part of what escalated tensions with Russia, particularly over their historic access to a warm water port via Crimea.

The war in Ukraine is, objectively, not going well. While Russia has sustained major losses, Putin’s Russia is unified, prepared to fight on. Ukraine is devastated, objectively corrupt, and while determined – as South Vietnam was – losing. We are propping them up, with no end in sight.

In an ironic reversal, Vietnam was aided by Communist China, backed by Russian advisors, anti-aircraft, and artillery support. Today, Russia is at war with the U.S. in Ukraine, backed by Chinese advisors, artillery, and endless ammunition supplies.

As Lyndon Johnson saw South Vietnam’s victory slipping away, he threw the kitchen sink at it and ramped up engagement with U.S. weapons, and more men. His military and diplomats pushed a desperate, more-more approach, bad after bad.

Johnson started a new public relations campaign, minimizing losses, then explaining they meant victory, then saying a “body count” showed us winning. Americans, who should have said “no more” far earlier, gradually woke up.

While a large commitment early on could have altered the military and diplomatic outcomes, the only thing that created leverage for peace after Johnson’s rolling fiasco were Nixon’s bombings in 1972, hoping to end the war with some dignity.

Whatever peace might have been struck earlier, saving some or all of those 58,000 young Americans, it came too late. Politicians played at war, and young men died.

So, here we are again, gross mission creep in Ukraine, no clear objectives, no end game. This time a powerful China nuclear backing a weaker nuclear Russia, rather than a powerful Soviet Union backing a weaker China. We just stumble forward.

Ukraine is not a NATO nation, and should not become one any time soon, yet Biden and his feckless Secretary of State Blinken aim to fast-track Ukraine into NATO in July. Triggering Article 5 of NATO’s Treaty, putting American troops in a hot war with Russia, backed by Communist China, in Ukraine. Pure, dangerous folly.

Even if that war ended tomorrow, the EU would claim poverty and Biden’s U.S. Treasury – filled with our money and $35 trillion in debt – would be asked to pony up trillions we do not have to rebuild Ukraine, what Russia broke. More folly.

Now we learn the U.S. – Biden – has just greenlighted Ukraine “to do limited strikes inside Russia with American weapons.” Worse than folly, worse than covering Biden’s errors in Ukraine since 2014, worse than placating Europe, this is insanity.

This is exactly what caused the U.S. to stumble into a ten-year war in Vietnam, political arrogance, a mission creep no one dared stop. No one dared say it was bad money, bad policy, and likely to cost American lives for no reason, so…it continued.

Here is what no one wants to hear: Ukraine is not winning. This is a war of utter devastation on Ukrainian soil, backed by limitless support from China because China wants to weaken the U.S., and is using Russia’s craven ambition to do it.

This is a war that will suck dry the U.S. inventory of high-end missiles, artillery, tank, and airframe production – when we need to be stocking up inventory.  It will distract us, as China continues to line up on Taiwan, and Iran lines up on Israel.

It is already afoot, and no one will shout “timeout,” or stop to think, look back at history, and understand this is not the Soviet Union with a powerful Army angling for Eastern and Western Europe. This is China using Russia to game and defeat us.

We are stumbling into a Vietnam-style trap set by China, aided by Russia, applauded by Iran, and permitted by Biden. We do not need ten years in Ukraine, countless dead Americans for a corrupt, non-NATO state, just another Vietnam. 

We do not need to give up our strategic advantage to China and Iran, lose our vital military inventory, waste money we do not have on a strategic sinkhole, or induct Ukraine into NATO, triggering Article 5, U.S. boots in combat to die in Ukraine.

This is one giant error – stunningly similar to the Vietnam blueprint, advisors already in motion, a slippery slope just like U.S. engagement in Vietnam. We do not need to do this. To do this now – especially for political gain – is a blunder.

Robert Charles is a former Assistant Secretary of State under Colin Powell, former Reagan and Bush 41 White House staffer, attorney, and naval intelligence officer (USNR). He wrote “Narcotics and Terrorism” (2003), “Eagles and Evergreens” (2018), and is National Spokesman for AMAC.