Recently, the head of Russia's foreign intelligence service, Naryshkin, mentioned in an article for Scout magazine that due to the Russian-European conflict, the Ukrainian issue is increasingly becoming a toxic issue in the eyes of the global community. He warned that this would lead to a rapid erosion of Western authority and that Ukraine would become a black hole that would suck up material and human resources. At the same time, he also said that the United States could create a second Vietnam War for itself.
So, will the United States get into a second Vietnam War, and is the Russian-Ukrainian war comparable to the Vietnam War?
It is necessary to recall the Vietnam War in the sixties and seventies of the last century;The Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam) and the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam) were essentially divided into two camps in 1954 by one country, and the main reason for the war was the disagreement between the North and the South over national unity and social systems caused by the Cold War.
Therefore, this war involves the contest between the two camps during the Cold War. That is, South Vietnam, which was supported by the United States and other Western countries, and North Vietnam, which was supported by socialist countries such as the Soviet Union and China.
In 1961, the North Vietnamese army began a large-scale attack on South Vietnam, and the war entered a white heat, and the United States and other Western countries intervened in the war to support South Vietnam, and the war further escalated.
During the Vietnam War, both sides used a variety of **, resulting in a large number of people**. On the battlefield, the U.S. military used a large number of incendiary bombs, poison gas and other contraband**, which brought great suffering to the Vietnamese people and was severely condemned by the international community.
North Vietnam, for its part, relied on the support of countries such as the Soviet Union and China to actively confront the U.S. military. During the war, our country provided a large amount of military and economic assistance to Vietnam, laying the foundation for victory in the Vietnam War.
In 1973, the American people broke out a strong wave of anti-war demonstrations because the United States supported the Vietnam War for many years, resulting in a large number of American soldiers and spending huge amounts of dollars, triggering inflation.
At that time, Nixon was forced to make a resolution that all American troops should be scattered in Vietnam, and an armistice agreement was signed at the Paris peace talks, and the war came to an end.
In 1975, the Democratic Republic of Vietnam unified the country and the Vietnam War officially ended. More than a decade of war has caused great trauma to the Vietnamese people, and at the same time, it has also had a profound negative impact on the United States, leading to domestic inflation, social unrest and other problems.
Behind the Vietnam War was the consequence of the United States' succession to France in order to contain communism in Southeast Asia.
The outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine conflict is a complex geopolitical issue between two sovereign states. Although Ukraine was once part of the Soviet Union, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Ukraine became an independent sovereign state, with its own choice between east and west.
In its treatment of Ukraine, on the one hand, the United States is trying to contain Russia's expansion by supporting Ukraine, but on the other hand, the United States has fully learned the lessons of the Vietnam War and does not want to fall into a direct conflict with Russia. In this case, it is alarmist to compare the Ukrainian issue with the Vietnam War, to think that the United States will be drawn into a second Vietnam War, and that there is a qualitative difference between the Russian-Ukrainian war and the Vietnam war;
The Vietnam War was a war in which a country was divided into two parts for the right to reunify, and the Russo-Ukrainian War was a war between two sovereign states over land.
The Vietnam War was a major defeat in U.S. history, and as a lesson, the U.S. strategy on Ukraine was to support Ukraine against Russia through military aid, and not to intervene directly in the conflict. Despite Russia's warnings and red lines drawn again and again, the military aid from the United States and the West seems to have never stopped, from the initial Hippocampus, to the Jackal 2 tank, the British Storm Shadow cruise missile, the Bradley infantry fighting vehicle, the Patriot missile interception system, the US Army tactical missile system, a steady stream of Ukrainian military aid, and the upcoming F16 fighter jet.
The Russian side has repeatedly warned the West not to supply Ukraine with **, believing that this is only prolonging the conflict and will not change the final result. And in fact, so far, Ukraine has not gained dominance of the battlefield because of the acquisition of these **.
Or as Nareshmi said: Ukraine will become a black hole that sucks material and human resources, and in the end the United States will create a second Vietnam War for itself, and every subsequent American ** will have to work on this problem.
The Vietnam War caused about 5 U.S. troops80,000 to 8More than 30,000 soldiers died (different statistics) and more than 150,000 soldiers were injured.
For the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, the United States did not take direct military action against Russia, only money, and the appropriations approved by Congress to aid Ukraine were first withdrawn from the arms inventory at an equal price through the Department of Defense, and then placed orders with arms dealers if they were insufficient, and their funds and interests were fundamentally transferred to the United States, and there were no sequelae of personnel. Of course, in the short term, it will affect the finances of the United States, but with the total population of the United States in 2022 33.3 billion, with a per capita GDP of 7640,000 US dollars, even if the funds to support Ukraine reach 333 billion, the impact is still very small, and there is no problem of having to pay for it every time.
Nareshmi's worries are not superfluous, it is better to care about whether there are similar problems in his own country.
After the outbreak of the Russian-Ukrainian war, Ukraine invested and consumed a large amount of first-class equipment and domestic soldiers aided by the West for this purpose, and it has indeed become a black hole that absorbs material and human resources. But does it also take manpower and resources to create and maintain this black hole?
In this case, Nareshmi's assertion that "the United States will create a second Vietnam War for itself" is untenable, and the United States may continue to pay attention to and assist Ukraine, but will not easily fall into a large-scale war.
On the Ukraine issue, the game between the United States, Europe and Russia will continue. As for the Russian side, it also said: NATO is essentially waging war against Russia by supporting Ukraine, which is a matter of opinion.
Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service is an organization that specializes in understanding and investigating the politics, military, science and technology, and economy of other countries. It is not necessarily clear whether the article written for Scout magazine, or just a personal opinion, deliberately ridicules the United States, but it is only that Nareshmi's "Ukrainian problem is becoming more and more a toxic problem in the eyes of the global community", and whether this toxic problem can be solved through peaceful means?