Afghanistan Was Not Vietnam 2.0 and It Requires Its Own Lessons

A few differences between Vietnam and Afghanistan

1. Reason for entry: Vietnam had Gulf of Tonkin incident which was questionable. Afghanistan was September 11th which was confirmed

2. Governments in AO: South Vietnam government already existed based on its status as puppet government of French. Afghanistan national government did not exist and US developed it after Taliban initially retreated

3. Military: US forces in Vietnam included a significant number of draftees while Afghanistan was an all-volunteer force

4. Civilian populace: South Vietnamese populace was relatively uniform with a few ethnic minority groups. Afghanistan populace was tribal with hodgepodge of different warring ethnicities

5. Neighboring nations in AO: Thailand previously was a rival to Vietnam and allowed western forces based on "enemy of my enemy" relations. Pakistan was an ally to Afghanistan before September 11th and its ISS intelligence agency allegedly hid Osama Bin Laden

We failed because we thought building institutions, good governance, military, and infrastructure Would lead to winning the hearts and minds of Afghans, and that meant the people would become the force multipliers for the allied forces. I am positive many Afghans appreciated the nation building, but I did not see the Afghans become passionate enough to make a difference in the war.

The challenge we faced is whoever had boots on the ground meant they owned the territory. In the rural provinces, the Taliban had boots on the ground. We tried to win the hearts and minds of Afghans who were under Taliban rule.