A Lesson from John Paul Vann

Tuesday, August 26, 2003

By Sid Smith

Commentary

It is his love of the United States that gives him the courage to go into uncharted territory and, if necessary, sacrifice his life for the flag. But he may start defending the locals and opposing U.S. policy if he thinks American leaders misunderstand or ignore the needs of the people he is defending. In such cases, to be successful the counterinsurgent must come up with a creative and unique strategy that will first defend the United States its interests while also leading to ultimate victory in the field. But surviving such a danger is like walking a razor's edge.

OPINION
Iraq is no Vietnam, but there is a lesson from Vietnam that our commanders in Iraq will ignore at their peril: To win, we must think and act differently than our training and military education prepare us to do.

During the Vietnam War, some of the fiercest fighters the war ever saw were soldiers who were known as combat bums and as troops who had gone native.

What they had in common was an obsession with winning, even at the cost of career advancement within the U.S. military. These soldiers even chose to stay in Vietnam rather than return to stateside to attend schools and further training that would ensure their promotion.

Once free of the pressures of "ticket punching," they began to adopt the lifestyle of the locals in Saigon and elsewhere, and they began to think "out of the box." Ultimately what emerged was an extremely unique style of counterinsurgency warfare - one that may save us both in Iraq and in our current war against terrorism.

Not every military person is cut out for counterinsurgency, nor is that approach the only element in U.S. military strategy toward the emerging terrorist-guerilla conflict in Iraq.

It is worth our while today to learn from the Vietnam-era "combat bums" who went native to fight their war. Of all the combat bums, few left us a more worthwhile legacy than John Paul Vann, who fought in Vietnam first in uniform and then later returned to Vietnam as a civilian advisor.
(More: Military.com)
2003 © Military.com.

Dan