Vietnam and Iraq: The Timing of the End of Our Involvement
By Jeralyn, Section War In Iraq
Posted on Thu Aug 23, 2007 at 12:28:00 PM EST
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Posted on Thu Aug 23, 2007 at 12:28:00 PM EST
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As long as President Bush is comparing Iraq to Vietnam, I thought I'd take a look at how we got out of Vietnam. Maybe there are some lessons there for getting us out of Iraq:
- June 22, 1971, the United States Senate passed a non-binding resolution urging the withdrawal of all American troops from Vietnam by the end of the year.
- December 31, 1971, there were 156,800 American soldiers in Vietnam. In January, 1972, Nixon announced "... the United States would continue to withdraw from Vietnam in coming months, removing another 70,000 troops over the next three months, but stated that 25,000 to 35,000 American troops would remain until the North Vietnamese released all the American prisoners of war."
- April and May, 1972: "On 4 April, 1972, Nixon authorized massive bombing of the North Vietnamese troops invading South Vietnam. On 15 April, Hanoi and Haiphong Harbour were bombed by the United States....On 8 May 72, President Nixon ordered the mining of all North Vietnamese ports."
- August 23, 1972, the last US ground combat troops left Vietnam
More...
- January 9, 1773, a treaty is signed.
The treaty specified that South Vietnam was to be considered one country with two governments, one led by Thieu and one led by the NLF/PALF, until such time as a single government was formed. President Thieu accepted the treaty only under threat of having all American aid to the South Vietnamese government discontinued if he rejected it.
- March 27, 1973, the last U.S. soldiers leaves Vietnam
- June 19, 1973, Congress passes the Case-Church Amendment which "specifically forbade any further US military activity if Southeast Asia, beginning August 15, 1973." The U.S. stopped bombing Cambodia on August 14, 1973.
- November 7, 2003, "Congress passed the War Powers Resolution, which required that the President obtain the support of Congress within 90 days of sending American troops abroad."
Also, since President Bush wants to talk about the human cost of our withdrawal from Vietnam, let's take a look at the human and economic cost of that war (same source, scroll down).
- An estimated total of 2,122,244 people were killed during the war in Vietnam. Of these, 58,169 were Americans. Of those Americans, 11,465 were teenagers. An estimated 3,650,946 additional people were wounded, of whom 304,000 were Americans. 153,329 Americans were categorized as 'seriously' wounded. That total includes 10,000 amputees.
- An estimated 444,000 North Vietnamese and 220,557 South Vietnamese military personnel and 587,000 civilians were killed.
- 6,727,084 tons of bombs were dropped. This is about two-and-a-half times the total tonnage dropped on Germany during World War II.
- 3,750 fixed wing aircraft and 4,865 helicopters were lost.
- 18 million gallons of poisonous chemicals were poured on Vietnam.
- The dollar cost of the United States involvement in the war in Vietnam is estimated at $140 billion.
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