Honoring Hugh Lynch (My Brother-in-Law

1962-1969

 

Introduction

Ho Chi Minh (Founder of Vietnamese Communist Party)

 

 

 

Over the next few days Public Broadcasting will air Ken Burns’ Documentary on the Vietnam War. In recognition of that tragedy, I have been thinking about my brother-in-law, Hugh Lynch who died during that war. Hugh died needlessly. Specifically, the Pentagon sent Hugh and some thirty-five other soldiers in a very slow, very low spy plane over North Korea. The plane was shot down, and everyone died. His death was a lifelong tragedy for his family.

 

I am currently reading Hue 1968: A Turning Point of the American War in Vietnam. The authors, Mark Bowden and Joe Barden, made two points that I agree fully agree with. 1) After the Tet Offensive in 1968, most Americans knew we could not win the Vietnam War 2) After the Tet offensive, America suffered a credibility gap—we no longer explicitly believed in the honesty of our government. This credibility gap has grown in subsequent years. Let me give you one famous example of the “Big Lie.” The Johnson Administration constantly told the American public “we could see the light at the end of the tunnel.” After the Tet offensive, we joked the only light we could see was a train rushing toward us.” I jokingly say we went from my youth when George Washington ‘never told a lie’ to Donald Trump who ‘never tells the truth.’

 

In my former life, I spoke 15 times on cruise lines. As a consequence, I visited Vietnam three times. To cut to the chase, we could never have won the Vietnam War. Why do I say this? The Vietnamese fought their next-door neighbor, China, for 2000 years. Vietnam would have fought us forever and their leader, Ho Chi Minh, knew we did not have staying power! (I wish we had enough self-confidence to realistically assess our policies in Afghanistan)

Lyndon Johnson along with most Americans used slang to describe Vietnam

 

 

The Book’s Overview is America was like a blind Sampson. We had overwhelming strength, but could not see details. Let me try to make this point. America possessed 100% air superiority and had first rate weapons. The Vietnamese had no airforce and tertiary weapons. However, the Vietnamese like the Philistines had the populace on their side. Thus, they could watch every step that the American soldiers made.  On the other hand, we not only did not know the native language but could not trust the locals.

 

America had the following problems: (1) We defended a disliked government that was pro-Catholic in a country that was overwhelmingly Buddhist. (2) Very few Americans knew the Vietnamese language; thus, no meaningful communication. (3) Americans had racist views of Vietnamese. Is this not ironic? Segregated America was claiming that our puppet regime in South Vietnam had the best interests of Asians!   Our soldiers and administrators called them racist names (Gooks) and had little respect for their culture. 

 

American Public Relations highlighted that we were going to modernize Vietnam and bring them democracy. The facts on the ground were totally different. We installed a dictatorship that restricted the religious rights of the Buddhist majority and favored a few wealthy landlords.

  

 

President Johnson said: “we are bringing American culture to Vietnam.” The Vietnamese responded that they were civilized a thousand years before Columbus. (4) Harrison Salisbury, assistant managing editor of the New York Times, wrote in 1965 from Hanoi that American bombing of Hanoi was counter productive (1) we were not causing lasting damage and  (2) we were hardening the resolve of the North Vietnamese against us. Starting with the blitz of London, we know that civilian survivors are more, not less determined to prevail. (5) The Johnson Administration accepted mistakenly the assessment of our senior general William Westmoreland. Westmoreland felt the most important number was kill rates. Thus, it was a victory if more of our enemy died than Americans. This had disastrous results: a) Westmoreland administration exaggerated the number of Vietnamese we killed. b) We failed to pay attention to area we controlled. Thus, our enemies kept on controlling more territory in South Vietnam and we instead focused on their “presumed” deaths. c) Killing Vietnamese turned even neutral Vietnamese against us. Why would anybody think that killing fellow citizens was a positive? d) From the perspective of the Vietnamese we were not liberators, but just a replacement for the hated colonialist French. That said, when I visited Vietnam they hated the Chinese and French more than us!

 

Background

 

America historically has opposed colonialism. As early as President Monroe (1823), we told European nations we would contest further colonial occupation of North and South America. Until President Roosevelt (1945), we repeatedly opposed European nations—Great Britain, France, and Germany—over their attempts to occupy nations in our hemisphere.

 

During the Civil War, France occupied Mexico. Once we finished the Civil War, France abandoned Mexico knowing that we were prepared to take military steps to remove their regime. (By 1865, the union army might have been the strongest in the world).

 

At the end of World War II, President Roosevelt said after a “coup d’ etat’ against the French in Indochina (Indochina composed Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos) that France was not sufficiently competent enough to maintain its colonial possessions. The Vietnamese realized that unlike the past, locals could defeat Western powers such as France. Vietnamese witnessed the Japanese defeat of the French, the Dutch and the English. Roosevelt advocated a ‘trusteeship’ for Indochina that would allow nationalists to unify and govern their nation under the supervision from a collective group of nations. Ho Chi Minh, the founder of Vietnam’s communist party --the communist-nationalist Viet Minh, disagreed. He attempted to control all of Vietnam, but temporarily controlled only North Vietnam While Cambodia and Laos, gained their independence from France, the French retained control over South Vietnam.

 

What Caused a Change in American Policy toward French Control over Vietnam?

 

President Truman changed our foreign policy largely because of the cold war. Truman ,in recognition of the Soviet Union’s worldwide ambition. felt we needed to stop communism. France provided a dilemma. The communist party was very strong in France (25% of the population) and was a colonial power. We softened our negative attitude toward colonial powers in order to shore up France. While Ho Chi Minh was a nationalist and had some pro-American feelings, his communist ties precluded our support. While Ho Chi Minh and his allies retained control over North Vietnam, the French controlled South Vietnam.

 

Starting in 1946 and ending in August 1954 France and the Viet Minh (Vietnam Communist Party) were in a state of War. Ultimately, the French were badly defeated. French forces were humiliated in the Battle of Dien Bien Phu.

 

From 1945-1954, the United States provided substantial support to the French. At times, 90% of the cost of the war was borne by the United States. (We had a dog in this fight)

 

 

Secretary of State John Dulles publicly rebuked Choe En Lai by not shaking his hand. Twenty years later Nixon and Kissinger courted Choe En Lai to open up China—maybe our biggest political victory of the 20th century

Vietnam. Diem was handpicked by Cardinal Spellman. Spellman in addition to being cardinal was named Apostolic Vicar for the U.S. Armed Services. Diem was a terrible ruler—he favored a few landholders, ruled by fiat, and favored Catholics over the majority Buddhists.

 

At an International Geneva Conference in July 1954, a socialist French government made an agreement to give North Vietnam to the communist and South Vietnam to effectively the United States. Within a short time Ngo Dinh Diem created the Republic of Vietnam

 

 

• Notice: Westerners have individual features. Asians are stereotyped

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We need to remember the influence of McCarthyism during the early 1950’s which was helped by the on-going support of the Catholic Church. That is, the Catholic Church led our worldwide opposition to communism in Europe and Latin America. Thus, the Church strongly influenced American foreign policy. In that era, one of the pillars of the Democratic Party was the Catholic Church. Almost all of urban bosses were Irish Catholic.

 

Charles DE Gaulle warned us against Diem claiming he was crazy. We supported Diem because he was a nationalist and anti-communist. Almost all other nationalist leaders in Vietnam were communists.

 

In 1963, in protest, a Buddhist monk burned himself to death.  Several months’ later (November 2, 1963) South Vietnamese military forces overthrew Diem. Our government explicitly supported Diem and his brother being killed in the coup. From 1963-1975 South Vietnam was ruled by a series of ineffective generals.

 

Vietnam War (1955-1975)

 

America opposed Ho Chi Minh and his communist supporters for twenty years. Until John Kennedy, our support was almost exclusively financial. Under JFK we sent a handful of military personnel (ABOUT 3500). Kennedy, a Catholic, was strongly anti-communist. Unfortunately, because of our failure in the Bay of Pigs (Cuba) Kennedy decided to take a strong stand against communism. It is ironic that we reluctantly accepted a communist state 90 miles from our shore, but ultimately devoted enormous resources against a country thousands of miles away—Vietnam. During our Vietnam build up almost no Americans even knew where Vietnam was. Kennedy inaugural speech contained these words: “In the long history of the world, only a few generations have been granted the role of defending freedom in its hour of maximum danger.”

 

President Johnson Vietnam War

 

President Johnson covertly ramped up American military involvement in the Vietnam War. In 1965 Johnson authorized “Operation Rolling Thunder on February 24, 1965. For three years we on a scale beyond World War II bombed North Vietnam. Johnson increased Kennedy’s sending of 3,500 “U.S. ‘advisors.’

 

From 1965- 1975, a total of 2.7 million Americans served in Vietnam. At its zenith we had 500,000 troops in Vietnam. China and the Soviet Union provided their communist allies weapons, supplies and advisors. 

American death toll in Vietnam -57,939.  As many as 2 million Vietnamese civilians died.

 

By 1967, there were widespread protests against the Vietnamese War.  Initially led by college students, overtime millions of Americans turned against the war. (I heard I.F. Stone scathingly denounce our Vietnam policy in 1967. Stone used U.S. government data to undermine the rationale of our Vietnamese Policies. )  In 1968, a virtually unknown Senator Eugene McCarthy entered the presidential primaries against Johnson. Getting many college and other civilian volunteers to support his campaign, McCarthy almost won the New Hampshire primary. A humiliated Johnson decided to not run for reelection in 1968

 

President Richard Nixon Vietnam War

President Nixon was elected in1968 in part because of his promise to end the Vietnam War. In  1969 Nixon said at a news conference “ the Vietnam war is coming to a conclusion as a result of the (Nixon) plan. He termed this “Vietnamization.” In brief, Nixon ordered a gradual withdrawal of American troops and turning over the fighting to the Vietnamese. Nixon also eliminated the draft which appealed to college students. Under the Paris Peace accords signed in January 1973, the United States agreed to completely withdraw our forces and stop the bombing

 

Gerald Ford Vietnam War

 

The absence of American troops and the withdrawal of much American support emasculated our South Vietnam allies. In April 1975, Saigon fell to the communists. Vietnam was the first war that America lost!

 

Conclusion

 

On a personal basis and as an American citizen, I believe the Vietnam War was horrendous. Several days ago, I was speaking to my late wife’s sister, Elizabeth O’Neal. She started crying over the death of her brother when we discussed the upcoming Ken Burns’ documentary on the Vietnam War. I started crying also. Hugh Lynch died at 26 leaving a widow and four children. His survivors’ lives have been seriously challenged since then.

 

Sadly, we have learned very little from our Vietnam debacle. That is, we have been in Afghanistan for 15 years with no end in sight and almost nothing to show for it. In supporting our military involvement in Afghanistan we never see a map of ISIS control of the country. None of us know what percentage of Afghanistan our enemies’ control.  Reputedly, our enemies control much of the countryside. Reportedly, much of our enemies’ arms have American sources. These arms are either sold to our enemies or taken by them. Think about it, the rebels in Afghanistan do not have a defense industry capable of producing tanks, machine guns, etc. 

 

The culture of Afghanistan is totally different than our value system. Even today 90% of worldwide heroin comes from Afghanistan. Women have been relegated to second-class status in Afghanistan. There is no religious freedom in Afghanistan. It is capital punishment to convert to Christianity In brief, why are we committing resources to Afghanistan when our national debt is now above $20 trillion! If our grandchildren ask us why we would support drug lords, religious intolerance, male supremacy, how can we answer them?