By Michael Desch
An iconic photograph from the waning days of the Vietnam war now seems likely to be recreated in Kabul. In it, an Air America helicopter lands on the roof of a U.S. Central Intelligence Agency building across town from the U.S. Embassy. A CIA officer guides a long line of Vietnamese up a ladder and into the chopper, their last hope of escape from the North Vietnamese and their Viet Cong allies as they tighten their grip on what will soon be rechristened Ho Chi Minh City.
For many, this image epitomizes the United States’ ignominious defeat after almost a decade of deep political and military engagement in Southeast Asia. Not only did Americans and a few of their local allies escape at the eleventh hour, literally hanging from the skids of Hueys, but our precipitous exit supposedly undermined our credibility with our other allies and emboldened our Communist adversaries to turn up the heat on the Cold War around the world.
Rather than marking the eclipse of American power, withdrawal from Vietnam in fact coincided with its spectacular increase. Within another decade of the fall of Saigon the United States was on the verge of winning the Cold War without firing a shot and would go on to assume such a preponderant position in global politics that comparisons to the Pax Britannica of the 19th century or even the Roman Empire at its height seemed reasonable. Defeat in Vietnam did not end the American Century but further extended it into the new millennium.
This piece was originally published in Defense One on August 20, 2021. Read more HERE.