The Human Cost Of Conflict: Comparing The Afghanistan And Vietnam Wars

The Vietnam War and the War in Afghanistan are two of the longest wars in American history. Despite some similarities, such as the chaotic nature of the US withdrawal from both conflicts, each war had entirely different impacts on US society, culture, and politics.

The Vietnam War was fought between two rival nationalist visions, whereas the War in Afghanistan was fought against terrorism. The Vietnam War was also a proxy war between two superpowers, whereas the War in Afghanistan was an international counterterrorism operation mixed up in a tribal civil war.

In terms of casualties, the Vietnam War resulted in nearly 60,000 American deaths, while the War in Afghanistan resulted in around 3,000 American deaths. The Vietnam War also involved a much larger deployment of US troops, with half a million troops serving in Vietnam compared to a peak of 100,000 in Afghanistan.

The impact of the Vietnam War on US society was much greater than that of the War in Afghanistan. The Vietnam War spawned a widespread protest movement and left a lasting mark on film, television, and music. In contrast, the War in Afghanistan did not have the same level of cultural influence, and while it did result in significant political and humanitarian fallout, the impact was not as widely felt as that of the Vietnam War.

The US evacuation from Kabul in 2021 was reminiscent of the evacuation from Saigon in 1975

The US evacuation from Kabul in 2021 was indeed reminiscent of the evacuation from Saigon in 1975. Both evacuations involved helicopters rescuing Americans and their allies as thousands of desperate people tried to scale embassy walls. In both cases, American-trained and well-equipped militaries lost the will to fight when US forces departed.

In Saigon, Operation Frequent Wind involved more than 80 helicopters ferrying Americans and Vietnamese to safety aboard US ships in the South China Sea. The evacuation took 19 hours, with a helicopter landing every 10 minutes to pick up another load. The operation rescued over 7,000 people, including 5,500 Vietnamese civilians and about 1,500 Americans.

In Kabul, the evacuation involved 3,000 US troops securing the airport, 1,000 troops in Qatar for technical and logistical support, and 3,500 to 4,000 troops in Kuwait on standby. The evacuation was chaotic, with reports of several dead and US forces suspending air operations at one point.

The Saigon evacuation took place more than two years after peace accords were signed, while the Kabul evacuation occurred as the US was in the process of leaving Afghanistan.

Despite the similarities, there were also significant differences between the two evacuations. The Vietnam War was a proxy war between two superpowers, while the conflict in Afghanistan was an international counterterrorism operation mixed with a tribal civil war. The North Vietnamese fielded a conventional army with tanks, artillery, and air power, while the Taliban insurgency never fielded a conventional force and won through bribery, intimidation, and negotiations. The Vietnam War was also much larger in scale, with over 58,000 US troops killed and more than two million Vietnamese killed, compared to about 2,400 US troops and nearly a quarter of a million Afghans killed in Afghanistan.

The US intervened in both wars to support the weaker protagonist

In the case of Afghanistan, the US supported the Northern Alliance against the Taliban. The Northern Alliance was a coalition of ethnic groups that had been locked in a losing fight with the Taliban during the Afghan Civil War. The Taliban had seized around 85% of Afghanistan's territory, including the capital city of Kabul, effectively confining the Northern Alliance to Badakhshan Province and smaller surrounding areas. The US-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 marked the first phase of what would become the 20-year-long War in Afghanistan.

The stated goal of the US intervention in Afghanistan was to dismantle al-Qaeda, which had executed the 9/11 attacks under the leadership of Osama bin Laden, and to deny Islamist militants a safe base of operations in Afghanistan by toppling the Taliban government. The US invasion of Afghanistan was swift and successful in toppling the Taliban government. However, most members of al-Qaeda and the Taliban were not captured, and during the Battle of Tora Bora, several fighters, including Osama bin Laden, escaped into neighbouring Pakistan.

The US intervention in Afghanistan was also driven by a desire to support the Northern Alliance and prevent the Taliban from regaining power. The US provided military and financial support to the Northern Alliance, and the invasion was carried out by US, UK, Canadian, and Australian forces, with other countries providing logistical support. The US intervention in Afghanistan, therefore, aimed to support the weaker protagonist, the Northern Alliance, in its fight against the Taliban.

Both wars involved nation-building

Both the Vietnam War and the Afghanistan War involved nation-building. In Vietnam, the United States aimed to build a viable, independent, non-communist state in South Vietnam. In Afghanistan, the US-led coalition's nation-building efforts were more ambitious, aiming to create a cohesive nation-state with effective state institutions and a unified national identity.

In South Vietnam, the US established the Civil Operations and Revolutionary Development Support (CORDS) agency to lead its nation-building efforts. CORDS was a hybrid political-military agency that aimed to help the Republic of Vietnam develop its domestic institutions and gain popular support among the rural population. It focused on raising local security forces, fostering economic development, reforming village politics, and eliminating the communist insurgency’s political infrastructure.

The CORDS agency implemented the "village system", a localized approach to nation-building that put power in the hands of the rural population through self-government, self-defence, and self-development. The overall goal was to mobilise the rural population in the fight against communist insurgency by creating village militias, reforming village governments, and implementing local socioeconomic programs.

However, the South Vietnamese government refused to initiate true reform or relinquish centralized power because it did not trust the rural peasantry and did not understand their needs and desires. The US effort was also hindered by a lack of knowledge about Vietnam's people, language, and culture, as well as a reluctance to push the South Vietnamese government to reform.

In Afghanistan, nation-building efforts were led by the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Provincial Reconstruction Teams (PRTs). These teams provided security for humanitarian activities, facilitated communication between the central government and the Afghan Army, and helped the central government extend its reach beyond Kabul.

Nation-building efforts in Afghanistan focused on small-scale building projects such as bridges and schools, as well as larger-scale projects like the construction of a highway joining major cities. There were also efforts to empower women, who had been excluded from public life under the Taliban regime.

Despite these efforts, nation-building in Afghanistan faced significant challenges. The country lacked a recent tradition of national government, had few natural resources, and its largely illiterate population had endured decades of civil strife. Additionally, the central government's influence did not extend much beyond Kabul, with regional militias holding sway over many parts of the country.

Moreover, nation-building efforts were hampered by waste, inefficiency, and half-baked ideas. For example, the US spent millions on a giant diesel generator to provide electricity to Kandahar, even though it was inefficient and costly, and the Afghans lacked the technical expertise to maintain it.

In both Vietnam and Afghanistan, nation-building efforts ultimately failed. The South Vietnamese government collapsed under the weight of Hanoi's conventional military coup in 1975, just two years after American forces had departed. Similarly, the Afghan government collapsed soon after the US withdrawal in 2021, with the Taliban retaking control of the country.

The US negotiated peace settlements directly with their battlefield adversaries

The US-Taliban Agreement, signed in February 2020, was a peace agreement between the US and the Taliban, with the goal of achieving peace in Afghanistan. The agreement was signed by US Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation Zalmay Khalilzad and the Taliban's Political Deputy and Head of the Political Office, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, in Doha, Qatar.

The agreement outlined four goals:

• Armed groups will be prevented (by the Taliban and Afghan security forces) from using Afghanistan as a base for acts against the US and its allies.
• Foreign forces, including US troops, contractors, and coalition forces, will withdraw from Afghanistan.
• Intra-Afghan negotiations were scheduled to begin on March 10, 2020.
• The agenda for intra-Afghan negotiations will include a discussion of how to implement a permanent and comprehensive ceasefire and a political roadmap for the future of Afghanistan.

The agreement also included a prisoner swap, with the Taliban releasing 1,000 Afghan government captives in exchange for 5,000 Taliban prisoners. This was done as a "confidence-building measure" despite questions over the legality of the Afghan government's decision.

The US-Afghan Government Joint Declaration was signed on the same day as the US-Taliban Agreement, by US Secretary of Defense Mark Esper, NATO Secretary Jens Stoltenberg, and Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, in Kabul, Afghanistan. This declaration mirrored the US-Taliban Agreement, with the addition of specific references to terrorist groups al-Qaeda and the Islamic State in Khorasan.

The intra-Afghan negotiations were supposed to begin on March 10, 2020, following the initial prisoner swap. However, the Afghan government had not been consulted on the exchange and, thus, talks were delayed. The intra-Afghan talks officially commenced on September 12, 2020, in Doha, Qatar.

The US-Taliban Agreement and the intra-Afghan peace negotiations were important steps towards achieving peace in Afghanistan and ending the US's longest war. However, challenges and concerns remained, including the uncertainty around the US's timeline for troop withdrawal, the Taliban's connections to terrorist groups, and the internal cohesion of both the Afghan government and the Taliban.

The US promised continued support to both Afghanistan and Vietnam as they moved offshore

The US withdrawal from Afghanistan and Vietnam left both countries in a state of political and social turmoil. In both cases, the US had promised to continue its support for the respective governments, but the speed and manner of the US withdrawal left the Afghan and South Vietnamese governments unable to defend themselves against the Taliban and North Vietnamese offensives.

In Afghanistan, the US had spent billions of dollars to train and equip the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) and had promised to continue providing support. However, the US withdrawal left the ANSF ill-prepared and unable to counter the Taliban offensive, leading to the swift collapse of the Afghan government. The US had also promised to evacuate Afghans who had worked with US forces, but the chaotic evacuation left many stranded and at risk of retribution from the Taliban.

Similarly, in Vietnam, the US had promised to support South Vietnam and prevent the spread of communism in Southeast Asia. However, the US withdrawal and the Paris Peace Accords, which ended US military involvement, left South Vietnam vulnerable. The US had committed to taking swift and severe retaliatory action if North Vietnam violated the peace agreement, but domestic pressures and the Watergate scandal prevented the US from fulfilling this promise. As a result, South Vietnam fell to North Vietnam, leading to a communist government in all three countries: Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia.

The US withdrawals from Afghanistan and Vietnam had far-reaching consequences, with critics arguing that the US failed to adequately plan and execute its exit strategy in both cases. The US had invested significant resources and made long-term commitments in both countries but ultimately had to withdraw, leaving behind a power vacuum that was filled by the Taliban and North Vietnam, respectively.

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