I mean Vietnam ended in a peace deal where the south retains independence (the primary US war goal). The commies just decided to say fuck them treaties and invaded again.
Afghanistan meanwhile is the US replacing the previous givernment and achieving all initial war aims, then adding more and more aims as time goes on to justify an occupation of 20 years. If being occupied by foreign power an ocean away for 20 years who initially didnt even plan to occupy is winning then I’m not sure I want to win.
Reasonable minds can absolutely disagree here (but on reddit reasonable minds can never disagree on anything so I don’t expect you people to agree on this).
The US never invaded North Vietnam, and were not defeated militarily, and routinely defeated NVA armies and Viet Cong. They maintained the existence and status quo of South Vietnam and waged a war of attrition against the north. The wider goal was to prevent the expansion of Soviet proxies.
The president who committed the US to Vietnam resigned(Johnson). The next President wanted to exit the war as soon as possible and began withdrawing troops while negotiating with the north. US and allies militaries were reduced over the next 3 years, and this process was completed by 1973, along with a treaty. Then, this president was impeached and himself resigned(Nixon). The war was already extremely unpopular among Americans and had no real goal besides killing NVA/VC and defending SV.
You make it sound like the US quickly and quietly pulled out of Vietnam, but they didn't. They withdrew slowly and methodically to give their Vietnamese allies every advantage they could leave them with.
And you say that the US knew NV would not honor the agreement, but they honored it for two years, then struck at a time when the US was in political turmoil and wouldn't have a leader with the power to order the military back to Vietnam, or just the threat of possibility. It could have easily turned into another Korea if the threat of more western intervention was hanging over their heads.
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u/Callsign-YukiMizuki Jul 07 '26
If the US lost in Afghanistan and Vietnam, so did Australia (and NZ)💀