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HEADLINE: Haig says nation repeating a mistake it made in
Vietnam
DATELINE: BOSTON
Former Nixon adviser Alexander Haig said military leaders in
Iraq are repeating a mistake made in Vietnam by not applying
the full force of the military to win the war.
"Every asset of the nation must be applied to the conflict
to bring about a quick and successful outcome, or don't do
it," Haig said. "We're in the midst of another struggle
where it appears to me we haven't learned very much."
The comments by Haig, also a Secretary of State under
President Reagan, came Saturday at a conference at the John
F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum examining the
Vietnam War and the American Presidency.
The conference brought together advisers from the Nixon,
Johnson and Kennedy administrations, and talk turned to Iraq
where the panelists saw parallels with Vietnam.
Former Nixon Secretary of State Henry Kissinger made a rare
appearance at the conference. He said he agreed to come out
of admiration for the Kennedy family.
Kissinger was
greeted outside by about 25 protesters who chanted
"Kissinger should go to jail, no bail." He refused to
directly respond to a question, submitted by the audience
and read by a moderator, that asked if he wanted to
apologize for policies that led to so many deaths in
Vietnam.
"This is not the occasion," Kissinger said. "We have to
start from the assumption that serious people were making
serious decisions. So that's the sort of question that's
highly inappropriate."
In another audience
question, Kissinger was asked if he agreed that the U.S.
bombing of Cambodia led to the rise of the Khmer Rouge, and,
if so, was he responsible for the two million people the
Khmer Rouge killed?
"The premise that the bombing of a 5-mile strip led to the
rise of Khmer Rouge and the murder of two million people is
an example of masochism that is really inexcusable," he
said.
Kissinger said that the Vietnam War "has fundamentally
affected my life in the sense that the Nixon debate doesn't
ever seem to end and for many I am the surviving symbol of
the Nixon administration."
Kissinger also spoke about the war in Iraq, saying he
supported the invasion.
"We have a jihadist radical situation," he said. "If the
U.S. fails in Iraq, then the consequences will be that it
motivates more to move toward the radical side. This is the
challenge."
Former Johnson adviser Jack Valenti said that the lessons of
Vietnam have been "forgotten or ignored" in Iraq.
"No president can win a war when public support for that war
begins to decline and evaporate," he said.
Valenti, former head of the Motion Picture Association,
added there was no such thing as a good war, saying "all
wars are inhumane, brutal, callous and full of depravity."
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