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Old guns link Iraq, Vietnam
By
MARIE SZANISZLO
By failing to use overwhelming
force from the outset, the United States made the same
mistake in Iraq that it did in Vietnam, former Nixon adviser
and retired Gen. Alexander Haig said yesterday.
"Every asset of the nation
must be applied to the conflict to bring about a quick and
successful outcome,'' said Haig, also secretary of state
under President Ronald Reagan. "We're in the midst of
another struggle where it appears to me we haven't learned
very much.''
His remarks came at a John F.
Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum conference that
brought together advisers from the Nixon, Johnson and
Kennedy administrations to mull the Vietnam legacy.
The war was guided in part by
Ivy League "whiz kids'' who advocated a policy of "incrementalism,''
Haig said, referring to the gradual tit-for-tat escalation
that in time led to a protracted, bloody conflict not unlike
the war in Iraq.
"Trying to impress democracy
on countries'' that have never had one is "damned hard,''
said Jack Valenti, special assistant to President Johnson.
"I think America ought to stay out of . . . foreign
countries unless our security is directly threatened.''
Former Nixon adviser Henry A.
Kissinger, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1973 for
negotiating a cease-fire between North and South Vietnam
despite his role in escalating the war into Cambodia, said
the presidents who began and continued the war "did so for
noble motives,'' but failed to understand the nature of
guerrilla war.
Outside the conference, about
three dozen people demonstrated against Kissinger's roles in
Vietnam and Chile, chanting, "Kissinger, you can't hide! We
charge you with genocide!''
In a videotaped interview,
former President Jimmy Carter said it was a mistake to
invade Iraq on the "false premise'' it harbored weapons of
mass destruction.
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