Opinion: Author needs to remember Vietnam

Edward Luttwak is an American author, generally considered one of the premier military theorists in the West. He is known for his works on grand strategy, military strategy, geoeconomics, military history, and international relations.

Luttwak recently published two articles in Britain that at first glance are 180 degrees out.

The first of these was published in The Telegraph on March 15 under the headline, “Europe is a continent of pacifists – no amount of money can fix NATO, The region is neither militarily or politically prepared to uphold her treaty commitments.”

In this essay, Luttwak lists the shortages of military budgets, equipment and manpower of several European countries. The bottom line of the article for me was Luttwak’s question to government ministers: “If supplying weapons, munitions and money to the Ukraine is no longer enough, and NATO troops must be sent to stop the Russian army, how many could your country supply?”

The answer he received was, “uniformly zero.”

One minister flatly explained that, “if my government sends even one soldier to Ukraine, it falls from power.”

Luttwak’s second article was published by the British news and opinion website UnHerd on April 4. It was titled “It’s time to send NATO troops to Ukraine.”

In this commentary he notes that, “NATO countries will soon have to send soldiers to Ukraine, or else accept catastrophic defeat.”

He goes on to write that several NATO countries including the British and French as well as some Nordic countries are preparing to send troops. These forces would be small elite units, in addition to logistics and support personnel. All of these soldiers would remain “far from the front,” and “might never see combat.”

Their function would be to relieve Ukrainians currently in support roles, “to help Ukraine make the most of its own scarce manpower.”

Edward Luttwak is my age. If he doesn’t remember Vietnam, all of us who were there do. U.S. troop levels in 1962 were around 11,000 and they were referred to as “advisors.” The U.S. military presence peaked in April 1969, with 543,000 American combat troops stationed in Vietnam. How did that possibly happen?

As to Luttwak’s “far from the front lines,” Russian rockets, drones and missiles make that line the Polish border. And his “might never see combat” is correct only in the fact that soldiers rarely see the missile or rocket that ends their life.

Rube Render is a former Clovis city commissioner and former chair of the Curry County Republican Party. Contact him:

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