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<img src="https://cdn.kahimyang.com/resources-11/kabul-saigon-sm.webp" alt="Americans being evacuated by helicopters in Vietnam's Saigon in 1975 and Kabul in Afghanistan in 2011" loading="lazy"/>
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(Americans being evacuated by helicopters in Vietnam's Saigon in 1975 (left) and Kabul in Afghanistan)
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Both the Vietnamese and the Taliban were experts in the use of improvised explosive devices (IEDs). In Vietnam an estimated 10 percent of US army deaths and almost 20 percent of injuries were due to booby traps and land mines. In comparison, in Afghanistan nearly half of deaths were due to IEDs. An officer who served in a bomb disposal unit in Afghanistan told me about how the Taliban were as skilled as most conventional armies in handling explosives. According to this person, apparently one of the Taliban's most skilled operatives was a lady whose work was recognizable for the sophistication of the associated electronics.
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Like the Vietnamese, the Taliban also proved to be canny strategists. Their approach during the Doha engagement was very similar to that of the North Vietnamese during the Paris talks - negotiate but give away little; continue to fight on the ground and gain territory; and accompany this by a strong propaganda effort to undermine the morale of the weakest element in the enemy ranks (the South Vietnamese army in the one case; the Afghan National Army in the other).
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Striking similarities
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There are also striking similarities in the images of representative moments of the two wars. US soldiers armed with equipment worth tens of thousands of dollars, patrolling villages and hamlets with small children, wide-eyed and ill-clad, looking on; scruffy looking Viet Cong or Afghan soldiers armed only with light arms and grenade launchers marching through barren hills or torrid jungles; and, during the last days of the war, the helicopters taking off from Kabul and the roof of the US embassy in Saigon.
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Now that the US and its allies have left Afghanistan and the Taliban are taking up the reins of government, it is worth speculating about what kind of regime we are likely to see. Key questions in the coming years will be: how the Taliban would treat their political and military opponents; what systems of administration and justice would they set up; what will be the role of women and how they will be treated; what relations would they have with countries regional players such a Pakistan, Iran, China, Russia and Turkey, as well as with the US; and, above all how will they bring about a prosperous Afghanistan?
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The Taliban appear to have learned from the Vietnamese in the conduct of the war. Maybe they should also learn lessons from Vietnam about the conduct of the post-war peace.
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After the US pulled out of Vietnam, the Communist Party took over a poverty-stricken and ravaged country where much infrastructure was destroyed, basic services were missing, and the large swaths of the countryside were inaccessible due to landmines or the use of Agent Orange - a chemical defoliant that was aerially sprayed to destroy the forests that the Vietcong were allegedly hiding in. Deep social and economic divisions separated the north and the south of the country. There was also a huge flight of capital, both financial and human, soaring inflation rates and severe debt problems. Not much different from Afghanistan today?
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<h3>
Post-war development
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But despite the disastrous starting point, Vietnam's development over the last 45 years has been remarkable. During the first decade after the end of the war, economic progress was slow as priority was given to political consolidation, with the Communist Party tightening its hold on power and laying the foundations for systems administration, security, development and fiscal management. There was also a massive focus on education at all levels, from primary to tertiary, with top students being sent abroad to get master's degrees and doctorates at top universities around the world.
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Another achievement of that period was the establishment of high levels of participation, accountability and competence at commune level - the lowest level of government. I worked in some of the poorest and most remote areas of Vietnam and the dedication and organizational skills of government staff even in these areas was striking. Even more striking was the level of people's involvement - no one had qualms about berating the commune chairman and his team for jobs not done, duties overlooked and problems not given due attention.
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The building on the political and administrative efforts made in the first decade after unification, attention turned to economic stabilization and development. Reforms introduced in the mid to late 1980s liberalized much of the economy and spurred rapid economic growth, transforming what was then one of the world's poorest nations into a lower middle-income country with GDP per capita approaching $3,000.
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A major factor in making the reforms work was the commitment of government staff at all levels and the strong ideology that underpinned the development effort. The Communist Party played a key role in ensuring that resources and processes were not captured by local elites; that development efforts focused on meeting real needs; that economic growth was by and large equitable with the result that poverty rates, which were well over 70 percent at one point, fell to around 5 percent; and that foreign policy and international relations were pragmatic and subservient to the economic needs at the time. A couple of anecdotes would illustrate the commitment and pragmatism of the some of these people.
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Similarities between the war in Afghanistan and the war in Vietnam