We were learning to do nation-building in Vietnam...

OP-ED: The Vietnam War We Ignore, By LEWIS SORLEY, New York Times, October 17, 2009

Sorley making a point that anybody familiar with the CORDS (Civil Operations and Revolutionary Development Support) program's history knows well: We were figuring out quite nicely how to do nation-building at the end in Vietnam. The learning just came too slowly, because the military and the political leadership fought the logic too hard for too long. Bush-Cheney did the same in Iraq, until the 2006 election loss cleared their thinking.

So how Obama decides on Afghanistan is important: some bathwater to toss, perhaps, but careful with that baby--cause we spent plenty to grow it.

Comments

[Louis Heberlein]

During the 1st 1968 TET crisis at Nha Trang the civilian COIN facility was completely destroyed by 'terrorist' action. On the building across the corner of the intersection only minor blast damage from the other blast happened. That building was a bar/restaurant run by wives of senior South Vietnamese officers.

There were rumors that the husbands paid bribes for protection of bar facility. Another thought, neither NVA/VC nor the South Vietnamese brass had favorable views of the bothersome COIN folks.