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Thursday, December 01, 2005

Off topic: The "Vietnamization" phase

Posted by R. Neal

Judging from Bush's speech yesterday, it appears we are now entering the "Vietnamization" phase of the Iraq war. It's deja vu all over again:
"My fellow Americans, I am sure you can recognize from what I have said that we really only have two choices open to us if we want to end this war.

I can order an immediate, precipitate withdrawal of all Americans from Vietnam without regard to the effects of that action.

Or we can persist in our search for a just peace through a negotiated settlement if possible, or through continued implementation of our plan for Vietnamization if necessary, a plan in which we will withdraw all our forces from Vietnam on a schedule in accordance with our program, as the South Vietnamese become strong enough to defend their own freedom.

I have chosen this second course. It is not the easy way. It is the right way.

It is a plan which will end the war and serve the cause of peace not just in Vietnam but in the Pacific and in the world.

In speaking of the consequences of a precipitate withdrawal, I mentioned that our allies would lose confidence in America. Far more dangerous, we would lose confidence in ourselves. Oh, the immediate reaction would be a sense of relief that our men were coming home. But as we saw the consequences of what we had done, inevitable remorse and divisive recrimination would scar our spirit as a people."

President Richard M. Nixon, November 3, 1969
(Ed. note: in the three years following this speech, nearly 10,000 more American soldiers died in Vietnam.)

UPDATE: Apparently, I'm not the only one who noticed the similarity.
posted by R. Neal at 6:44 AM | Email this post | Post a Comment
1 Comments:
Blogger mpower1952 said...

Why is this not on the front page of every newspaper in the country? The NYT which would have the greatest readership only alludes to the speech. The actual works are so powerful. The similarities so obvious. How do we wake up America?

12/03/2005 1:39 PM  

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