As his war against Ukraine has soured for Russia in recent weeks, there is growing concern that Vladimir Putin may resort to nuclear weapons.
With some 2,000 small, or tactical, nukes in his arsenal, the temptation is surely there for him. The US was not immune to that temptation in its own ill-considered war 54 years ago. US documents de-classified in the past decade reveal that American military command in Vietnam considered using tactical nukes as the war turned badly in early 1968. Bedeviled as the war degraded, President Lyndon Johnson nonetheless strongly nixed the idea.
Both the US and Russia, among world powers, have chosen to pursue ill-advised wars over time. Each has subsequently paid dearly in blood and treasure; indeed, the Soviet war in Afghanistan, 1980-89, likely hastened the fall of the USSR.
Think of Russian leadership, past and present, and its want of public accountability. Journalist David Halberstam once tweaked “the best and the brightest” among US leadership for the situation in Vietnam. We should be relieved if only Russia’s “middling and adequate” emerge to dissuade Putin from a worst-case scenario.
Importantly, though, a strong, self-confident democracy with its free exchange of ideas and public debate, along with electoral accountability, tends to put its mistakes into better perspective than do other systems. Despite history’s caricatures of him, President Johnson proved tethered to the nation’s electorate in early 1968 and peacefully acquiesced to relinquishing power.
Accounts of young Russian men fleeing their country to avoid Ukraine service evoke memories of those times, especially among older US generations, and how long the fallout can linger.
I’ve written before of a young Californian with a Richmond County family connection – Jack Deaver – struck down on a Vietnamese battlefield shortly before his 21st birthday.
Interestingly, Deaver, an Army medic killed while rushing to aid a wounded comrade, rests in the same Fort Rosecrans military cemetery near Admiral Grant Sharp., Sharp, a descendant of President Ulysses S. Grant, was commander-in-chief of all military personnel in the Pacific region, 1964-68, and a key senior officer in both the consideration and refusal of plans to employ nukes in Vietnam.
Just this week I met another Vietnam vet near Jack’s age. That gentleman was fortunate to survive combat service, but still carries unpleasant memories of mistreatment by war protesters upon his return, even after a half-century, in addition to his past experiences obtaining assistance from the VA for war-related ailments.
Elections are what produce and empower our leaders at all levels, and have traditionally been held in reverence by Americans. Amid rumblings and belly-aching about ‘stolen’ elections and charges of voting irregularities, we would do well to remember that. Just take a quick glance at Vladimir Putin, Kim Jong-un, and the rest of their ilk.
Douglas Smith, Rockingham