Posted on 07/24/2017 4:13:14 PM PDT by BenLurkin
South Vietnam had a history of having a country (three regions) with a history going back over a 1,000 years, as well as historical administrative structures.
Also, So. Vietnam didn’t have towns separated by deserts and mountains. S. VN had good roads, an air transportation system (I flew in some of their planes), a central government (Saigon) and an administrative city of Hue, while No. Vietnam had Hanoi and Haiphong.
Communications in SVN were much more advanced than anything in Afghanistan as were government services to the boondocks, plus they had the Mekong Delta as the rice bowl of SE Asia. Afghanistan didn’t have anything like this.
Also, drugs ravaged Afghanistan for centuries while SVN didn’t (most drugs in SVN came from Laos, northern No. Vietnam and Red China (Yenan Province), esp. during the war.
Afghanistan is a land ruled by religious factions and tribes. SVN had an administrative government run by various groups with the French actually uniting the country through road/railroads/airplanes and a national administrative network (no matter how bad or good, or mixed - it was there).
In other words, Afghanistan is actually a series of patchwork locations (towns, small cities, villages) that are often separated from others by many miles of desert-like land and mountains). SVN had it better, esp. in the flatter Delta (travelled all over it), with good river travel too, ports, and airports.
I don’t know if Afghanistan will ever be an actual, unified country or not. The Taliban could do it by force, but it would entail a mini-Khmer Rouge type dictatorship that tortures and kills anyone who wants to be left alone.
There is a human cost to be paid if we abandon another country to evil.
Thanks!
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