Echoes of the American war in Vietnam — Part 2
I previously wrote about the lessons learned from the US war against Vietnam in relation to the current horror of Israeli attacks against Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank. That was in November and, incredibly, the genocidal assaults continue to grind on.
And, while the crises are quite different, I can’t help but note more and more parallels that demand attention.
One of the first and most disgusting is the proliferation of videos showing the invading Israeli soldiers gleefully looting, setting fires, killing families, and desecrating sacred sites. We well remember newsreels of the American soldiers walking through villages, setting fire to houses. They also fired into tunnels that the people had built as protection from the bombs. Oh, those tunnels, certain evidence of nefarious intent!
This brings me to a second, and most crucial parallel — the moral bankruptcy of the invaders and the loss of moral authority around the world. From the beginning, the Vietnamese openly laid out a resistance plan, though the Americans in their arrogance could not understand it. Võ Nguyên Giáp pointed out that a conflict is waged on four levels: violent, moral, psychological, and political. The Americans (and the Israelis) had a total monopoly on colonial violence, which they wielded in ever greater degree. But they were losing the war on the moral, psychological, and political fronts. How can this be, bemoaned the generals. We keep thrashing them soundly and yet we are being forced to withdraw! The Americans “won” all the military battles but lost the war.
Third, on the political front, a crucial change is occurring. During the Vietnam War, the establishment constantly attacked the anti-war movement by invoking the “heroic GIs” and the shame that disrespectful American youth would criticize these brave young men. That slander was exposed as active-duty GIs and veterans became outspoken against the war and by 1968 they were marching in the front of all the anti-war marches. (By the way, the ongoing myth about GIs being spat upon by hippies when they returned was thoroughly debunked in a research project by Jerry Lembcke.)
The same dynamic is occurring during the Gaza war. Protesters were lambasted as being antisemitic, for betraying animus against the Jews. But, lo and behold, the protests in the US, which are led by Palestinians, include strong participation by Jewish activists, from Jewish Voice for Peace as well as progressive rabbis and synagogues. And opinion in the Jewish community, especially among the young, is leaning more and more against the bombings and invasions. Many who had been liberal Zionists were coming to question the whole Zionist project and its embrace of right-wing imperialism. Zionism, after all, has not been a leading trend in Jewish communities for most of history and Israel’s grip on their main base of support, the US, has been slipping. While AIPAC and the ADL continue to equate criticism of Israel with antisemitism, they are increasingly isolated and ridiculed. On the political front, Israel is under fierce criticism around the world and even the majority of Americans oppose their aggression.
Another important parallel is the exposure of institutions for their complicity in imperialist aggression and genocide. We were shocked when we came to understand during the Vietnam war the deep involvement of the universities such as Stanford, Michigan State, Harvard, and the University of Wisconsin in crafting war strategy, inventing hellish weapons, and training torturers. Today we see how deeply implicated our educational institutions are in Zionist aggression as they seek to silence protest and forbid even academic discussions about the Middle East. We are shocked to see professors and teachers suspended, fired, and sued if they support Palestine. But the same things were happening during the Vietnam War. Resistance was never easy but then, as now, a critical mass of organizing was reached that could not be squashed.
A final, and truly ominous parallel, to the Vietnam era is the collapse of the Democratic Party administration through its commitment to an unpopular war. Lyndon Johnson in 1968, like Biden, had created some popular domestic programs, like the Great Society investments. But he was driven out of office because of his adherence to the Vietnam disaster. His follower, Hubert Humphrey, was too identified with the war and ended up losing to the execrable Richard Nixon. And the Democrats may be handing the election to Trump this time around.
This is a time of great anguish and heartbreak as we feel helpless in the face of this terrible aggression. But, as before, there is reason to hope, to believe that a more just and humane outcome is ahead of us. May it be so.
