A little over 60 years ago, then-President Lyndon B. Johnson made the fateful decision to send American combat troops into Vietnam. Three years later, any chance of a real victory in Vietnam was shattered and America was hoping for “peace with honor.” The crushing futility that the Vietnam War offered was supposed to be a lesson for the future of America: A poorly thought-out conflict and constantly shifting objectives, no matter a country’s technological prowess over its opponent, will likely result in disaster.
Today, America is making the same mistakes with the Iran war. The war started in February and has survived several proclamations from Trump that it’s actually over — on September 9th, both Iran and the U.S. conducted strikes against oil tankers in the Strait of Hormuz. In these seven months, as justifications and objectives for the war have changed again and again, it has become deeply unpopular. Trump and his government have demonstrated that they learned nothing from the Vietnam example; they have created an unwinnable war in record time. Throughout the conflict, Vietnam has loomed as a warning. Will anyone take heed?
The most important truth the Vietnam War offers us is the quagmire of shifting objectives. In Vietnam, the U.S. at least had one overarching objective: to keep South Vietnam from falling to its northern counterpart and stopping the spread of Communism at any cost. President John F. Kennedy expressed this sentiment in his inaugural address, four years before troops were sent to Vietnam: “Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty.”
The problem with this goal was its rigidity. If America could not budge from supporting South Vietnam, the objectives within constantly had to shift to keep up with the changing realities of war. Eventually, America’s commitment to South Vietnam led to military intervention in Laos and Cambodia, as well as attempts to cripple North Vietnam with air power — all different actions than the defensive war that the U.S. was planning to fight. This phenomenon, often known as “mission creep,” meant that America found it harder to extricate itself from the conflict.
The Iran war has turned out much the same, except for the fact that the U.S. government doesn’t even have an overall objective. From February until now, Trump and his cabinet have run through a dizzying array of goals: restoring democracy to Iran and overthrowing the theocratic government, destroying Iran’s nuclear capabilities, eliminating their missile arsenal and stopping Iran from supporting terrorist organizations. The latest objective involves trying to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, a major oil route which Iran closed when the U.S. attacked. It’s unclear whether any of these objectives have been completed, not least because the administration keeps saying the war has been won with unbridled confidence.
Projecting confidence while ignoring the facts is a time-honored tradition in war, but one of the most prominent examples remains Vietnam. Throughout the conflict, American leaders constantly assured the people that the war was going in their favor. They claimed that attrition was wearing the North Vietnamese down and that victory would be at hand. Even when the American objective shifted towards winding down involvement, there was still a chasm between public comments and what was happening on the ground. This discrepancy was eventually exposed in the Pentagon Papers, leading the nation toward an increasingly skeptical view of the war.
With the Iran war, this exposing is happening in real time. We know that the Trump administration is telling deliberate falsehoods about Iran and how the war is going. The question remains: How will the war turn out? The possibility of such a large and extended involvement as there was in Vietnam is likely very remote, but the costs already involved will affect America just as Vietnam did.
The nation now knows once again that our technological advantage is not all-powerful in modern conflict. So do our adversaries. Our massive bombing effort against Iran, which recalls Operation Rolling Thunder in Vietnam, has caused much hardship and death. There have been nearly 3,700 deaths in Iran and 18 American service members have died. At least $37.5 billion has already been spent by the U.S. and the costs of higher energy prices are staggering both for America and the world. As with Vietnam, we must ask ourselves what exactly the point is.
Vietnam was a watershed moment for American foreign policy, but it seems that we have not learned its lessons. The Trump administration’s vanity and pride have them convinced that they can win the war in Iran while lying to the American public. The Vietnam War tells us it cannot be done and that such an undertaking will be attempted at a terrible price.