Nobody Likes to Lose, Especially Generals
John Kennedy was shot and killed 51 years ago this week.
He had served in WWII in the South Pacific and been seriously injured when his torpedo patrol boat, 109, was sliced in half by the Amagiri, a Japanese destroyer while on night patrol.
His combat duty and military experience got him nowhere with his joint chiefs when he assumed the presidency.
To them he was “little boy blue.”
The contempt was shared: he didn’t trust them and with good reason.
This was most evident in The Bays of Pigs affair but Kennedy was also bedeviled by the challenge of finding a way forward in Vietnam where communist ascendancy was hotly disputed.
Bay of Pigs
Then Army Chief of Staff General Earl Wheeler depicted a rosy scenario where the South Vietnamese would defeat the communists. That view was shared by General Maxwell Taylor and the rest of the military brass.
To the generals it was their war. They had come to own it and losing it was not to be seriously discussed.
Kennedy was caught in the middle of the debate with the US State Department often on the other side, unconvinced that the war was winnable by either the military or Diem’s corrupt civilian leadership.
Wheeler was certain that the US was winning and only needed to “stay the course.”
Battle of Ap Bac
Kennedy kicked the can down the road to the catastrophe that awaited.
The Longest War
This week President Obama announced that after lobbying by his generals he would extend the active combat mission in Afghanistan, a country whose civilian leadership has openly derided our efforts, resources and commitment.
After 14 years the Taliban controls areas of the country to the point that it is government forces who are both unable and unwilling to leave their fortified zones. Luckily for them, the Taliban allows them one hour to go to the market if they leave their weapons behind.
And they do.
This sadly sounds like a version of the Vietnam war’s “hamlet program” where the South Vietnamese were forced to withdraw from the countryside into fortified villages to be protected from the surging Vietcong.
The conclusion in Vietnam was that you cannot win a war that the citizens either do not support or believe in.
In Afghanistan we reached that point some time ago.
They find our version of democracy to be repellent alongside their rigidly religious, tribal, poppy-based culture where the concept of individual rights and the rule of law are alien concepts.
When Ego Trumps Character
Kennedy was a first term president dragging around the “who lost China” cross afraid that as a democrat he would be blamed for being soft on Communism.
He was also trying to convince the Soviets that he was tough enough for them.
Still, he was smart and he sensed that in Vietnam there was no sure way forward.
Obama has the Kennedy experience to learn from.
He also has the George W. Bush Iraq implosion as another example of a tribal/religious based culture where we have unleashed a massive tit-for-tat killing machine that has no end in sight.
Suicide Bombing: Iraq
Would ISIS be rafting down the Tigris and Euphrates if Saddam was still in power?
These Commanders-in Chief surround themselves with military and civilian experts who sing a chorus of “this time it’s different” when it never is.
They are blinded by their concern over the verdict of history long after commonsense has left the compound.
We have decimated our volunteer army in the field and failed to care for them on their return.
The extreme difficulty of the exportation of democracy is a lesson we have learned many times.
We have a tough enough time perfecting it here.
I Like Ike
After Eisenhower was elected he immediately traveled to Korea to assess for himself that see-saw war where both sides had repeatedly lost momentum and where a clear path was not evident.
Marines at Chosin
After a good look around, Ike said, “we could not stand forever on a static front and continue to accept casualties without any visible results. Small attacks on small hills would not end this war.”
He ended active combat as quickly as possible.
He’s talking about Afghanistan in 2014 and it’s way past time that we followed suit and let the verdict of history take care of itself.