The visuals of American helicopters flying to the country's embassy in Afghanistan’s capital, Kabul, has revived the memories of the fall of Saigon to many.
In a little over three months since the United States started withdrawing its troops from Afghanistan ending its longest war, Taliban were able to capture all the parts of Afghanistan including the capital on August 15, 2021.
After the Taliban insurgents entered Kabul, the US evacuated diplomats from its embassy which instigated thousands of Afghans to rush to the Kabul airport desperately trying to flee to safety.
This move of the US has been compared to the withdrawal of the American military from the US-backed South Vietnam in 1975.
Back in June when the Taliban had started advancing to the Afghanistan capital capturing major cities nearby, many US officials along with the US President denied the scene of Saigon, currently known as Ho Chi Minh City, being repeated in Kabul.
“There’s going to be no circumstance where you’ll see people being lifted off the roof of an embassy of the United States from Afghanistan,” US President Joe Biden said to Al Jazeera.
So, what had happened in the Vietnam War?
The Vietnam War started in 1954 when the French colonial troops were defeated by North Vietnam’s General Vo Nguyen Giap at Dien Bien Phu.
The war raged for 21 years, from 1954 to 1975, which left 58,000 Americans and 2,50,000 Vietnamese dead.
It was the first ever televised war which showed the world the horrific scenes, deaths, and sacrifices from the war. People around the globe showed great opposition.
After 21 years, Giap defeated the US troops and the South Vietnamese in Saigon that led to the ‘fall of Saigon’.
Why is the US being criticised for it now?
When Saigon fell, the US evacuated Americans from the US Embassy, similar to what happened in Afghanistan recently.
Visuals of a large number of Americans standing on the rooftop of the US Embassy in Saigon waiting to be rescued by the US helicopters were all over the media. On that very day, after the US evacuated the last bunch of Americans from Saigon, the largest city of South Vietnam was forced to surrender to Giap.
As the photos of US helicopters flying to Kabul surfaced, the internet got a déjà vu of the ‘fall of Saigon’.
Following the criticism from all around the world, Biden released a statement talking about what they have done for Afghanistan in the past 20 years and their plans for the country in the near future.
Biden said, “Over our country’s 20 years at war in Afghanistan, America has sent its finest young men and women, invested nearly $1 trillion dollars, trained over 300,000 Afghan soldiers and police, equipped them with state-of-the-art military equipment, and maintained their air force as part of the longest war in US history.”
“One more year, or five more years, of US military presence would not have made a difference if the Afghan military cannot or will not hold its own country. And an endless American presence in the middle of another country’s civil conflict was not acceptable to me,” he added.
Referring to the fall of Saigon in 1975, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told CNN, “Remember, this is not Saigon,” adding, “We went to Afghanistan 20 years ago with one mission, and that mission was to deal with the folks who attacked us on 9/11 – and we have succeeded in that mission.”
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