Word: vietnames
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Hart charges Reagan with leading this country into another unwinnable war in that region, and charges Mondale with supporting Reagan's views. Hart has even prepared a campaign ad that pictures a burning fuse and that accuses Mondale of failing to learn "the lessons of Vietnam" in Central America Hart argues that arms might not solve problems which stem from poverty, hunger, and disease. The Senator wants the U.S. immediately to "withdraw military forces introduced into Costa Rica. El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, or Nicaragua for training exercises or any other purpose...
...problem with Hart's approach is that it misinterprets the past and provides no program for the future El Salvador is not Vietnam, and to withdraw our troops precipitously, or even at all, would make a mockery of American policy and power in a region that is of vital importance...
...differences in scale between El Salvador and Vietnam are obvious. Vietnam was a huge nation with a population of over 40 million: El Salvador is a tiny country that boasts less than 5 million inhabitants. Vietnam was thousands upon thousands of miles away: San Salvador is closer to Washington than San Fransisco...
...nature of the conflict is also dissimilar. In Vietnam, we unwittingly fought not against communism, but rather Vietnamese nationalism. Ho Chi Minh succeeded not as an exponent of class struggle, but of national struggle: Vietnamese saw him as the leader who would free them from the colonial subjugation that had started with the Chinese, continued with the French, and would end with the Americans...
...stake in El Salvador is not just moral: it is also strategic. Vietnam may have been on the other side of the world: Central America is in our backyard. A communist El Salvador would threaten vital American increase the pressure on democratic Honduras and Costa Rica. The growing strength of revolutionary ideology on the isthmus would make the Panama Canal even more vulnerable to attack by terrorists or governments. And a Marxist-dominated Central America would have much adverse effect on Mexico, which faces increasing demographic and political pressures in the years to come...