The ignorant and unserious might say GWB was comparing Iraq & VN, but those who listened to the speech think otherwise. Precisely, that the effects of surrender will be similar in scope, gravity, and duration.
A little from Bennett this morning on the presidents speech yesterday I'm indenting the bulk of the monologue but I caution that I paraphrase here and there ... didnt get every word down:
Quoting the president: Here at home, some can argue our withdrawal from Vietnam carried no price to American credibility but the terrorists see it differently.
To Bennett (who was dipping into his Last Best Hope):
heres the important, the philosophical and moral, launching point for our discussion today folks, based on President Bushs speech yesterday, and as we do this just remember the Democrats main mantra: the Presidents policies have isolated us in the world and made America less popular...
a) I think President Bushs Vietnam analogy lily needed more gilding....
First, do not put your most important point in the mouth of the terrorists, the enemy.
Second, dont make this an arugment, there is no argument.
There is NO argument that our withdrawal from Vietnam carried no price, it carried almost all the price in the world. In December 1974, the Democratic Congress ended military aid to South Vietnam. In April 1975, Saigon fell. Hanois communist regime imprisoned a million Vietnamese without charge in re-education camps, where an estimated 165,000 died.
Laos and Cambodia also fell to communists in 1975. Over 40,000 Laotians had been imprisoned in re-education camps.
Then, Cambodia: 2 million people killed.
Now, b) or our credibility and our enemies:
Sirik Matak, our ally in Cambodia, was offered transport out of cambodia in 1975 by our State Department. Heres what he wrote, one month before he was killed:
Dear Excellency and Friend, I thank you very sincerely for your letter and your offer to transport me towards freedom. I cannot, alas, leave in such a cowardly fashion. As for you, and in particular for your great country, I never believed for a moment that you would have this sentiment of abandoning a people, which has chosen liberty. You have refused us your protection, and we can do nothing about it. You leave, and my wish is that you and your country will find happiness under this sky. But, mark it well, that if I shall die here on the spot and in my country that I love, it is too bad, because we are all born and must die one day. I have committed this mistake of believing in you, the Americans. Please accept, Excellency, my dear friend, my faithful and friendly sentiments.
Heres what the South Vietnam envoy in DC said: it is safer to be an ally of the Communists, and it looks like it is fatal to be an ally of the United States.
Thats what happened to our allies. Now, c) Heres how our enemies saw our withdrawal:
Hafez Assad of Syria told Henry Kissinger in 1975: Youve betrayed Vietnam, someday you will sell out Taiwan and well be around when you get tired Israel. A month later, he invaded Lebanon. Dont tell me we still arent paying that price!
And finally, d) What was the aftermath of U.S. weakness, lack of resolve, and placing of doubt in our allies and conviction in our enemies? I give you Jeane Kirkpatrick: a dramatic Soviet military buildup, matched by the stagnation of American armed forces, and a dramatic extension of Soviet influence in the Horn of Africa, Afghanistan, Southern Africa, and the Caribbean, matched by a declining American position in all these areas. The U.S. has never tried so hard and failed so utterly to make and keep friends.