Word: vietnamize
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This Chechenization strategy--intended to remove the war as an issue in Putin's re-election campaign next spring--is reminiscent of the U.S.'s attempts to declare victory and get out of Vietnam three decades ago. It also has echoes in the U.S.'s current predicament in Iraq, as Bush seemed to acknowledge at a news conference with Putin at Camp David two weeks ago when he said, "Terrorists must be opposed wherever they spread chaos and destruction, including Chechnya." In Chechnya guerrillas have fended off a superior military force and used terrorist tactics to take the battle from...
...Putin's predecessor Boris Yeltsin, was supposed to be a brief punitive action against a small, unruly republic. But it ended in August 1996 with at least 80,000 Chechens dead, Russia humiliated and Chechnya independent in all but name. The experience was as scarring for Russia as Vietnam was for the U.S. In late 1999, after a series of apartment-block bombings in Moscow that the Kremlin blamed on Chechen terrorists, Putin, then Prime Minister, ordered the reinvasion of Chechnya, making the conflict a key theme of his presidential election campaign. By February 2000, Russian jets had crushed...
...glory days are fast fading into history, but they’re still inspiring. Students saved thousands of lives in Vietnam by agitating for peace. The blood spilled at Kent State, the thousands of lungs that burned from the murky stench of tear gas, the files the FBI still keeps about our fathers—our parents’ generation we aren’t—but we profane their legacy with worldly concerns. Fretting about the economy at the expense of abortion rights, immigration, war, personal liberties and education is dereliction of duty...
Indeed, Somalia-Vietnam analogies were soon ubiquitous. The United States had gone into the famine-stricken nation ten months earlier to mitigate a dire humanitarian crisis. But after the bloodshed of Oct. 3, a Gallup poll found that nearly seven in ten Americans wanted an immediate or gradual withdrawal of U.S. forces. President Clinton did eventually withdraw, and Somalia became yet another manifestation of the so-called “Vietnam syndrome...
During the post-Saigon years, the Vietnam syndrome was conventional wisdom among our political and cultural elites. It held that Americans wouldn’t support moralistic or strategic military intervention if it proved too costly in American lives. The Vietnam syndrome evolved into its post-Cold War form on the streets of Mogadishu. The domestic outrage that ensued convinced Bill Clinton that public opinion would inevitably revolt against any nation-building effort—or any war at all—at the first sign of casualties. This concern echoed throughout his presidency. It led to his ordering...