11.20.06: Just Another Football Game?

It was eerie watching George W. Bush in Vietnam this weekend. Wounded by an unpopular war, Bush has lost his swagger. This is not so unusual for a two term president, but not in Vietnam . . . again.

Thirty years ago we collectively lost our swagger in Vietnam. In the spring of 1975 the last Americans, primarily embassy staff, were airlifted out of South Vietnam. Defeated, we still held out for a democratic outcome, we bet on a political solution. Chapter Four, Article Nine of the Paris Peace Accords stated, “The South Vietnamese people shall decide themselves the political future of South Vietnam through genuinely free and democratic general elections under international supervision.” The Communist leaders of North Vietnam did not keep their end of the bargain.

Soon after our departure the killings began in earnest. All civil liberties were terminated in South Vietnam. Worse, re-education camps were established, tens of thousands were executed and many more became refugees. An estimated 600,000 “boat people” fleeing Vietnam drowned. Neighboring Cambodia did not have it as good.

With American troops and Congressional support gone from Indochina, Communist rogues in Cambodia, the Khmer Rouge, literally turned this country into a killing field. Estimated dead in the millions. In the wake of our departure from an unfortunate war the people of the region paid a heavy price.

Arkansas Senator, J. William Fulbright, weighed in on the debacle. Remember he more than any other in Congress spewed antiwar venom. As Chairman of the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Senator Fulbright had been pushing for a withdrawal from Vietnam since the beginning. His Senate hearings helped to turn public opinion against the war. When the chaos and killings began in Vietnam and Cambodia after our departure Senator Fulbright announced:

“[He was] no more depressed than [he] would be about Arkansas losing a football game to Texas.”

Fulbright considered the killing fields of Cambodia just another football game?

Let’s hope the leadership in the new Congress, hell bent on a quick solution in Iraq, understand that what is at stake is a whole lot more important than a football game. Political solutions are not always the best solutions.

Eerily this came to mind while watching Bush in Vietnam. Let’s hope Pelosi, Murtha and Biden were watching the news this weekend and not the football games.