Tag Archives: Dunkirk

A BIG Factor In The Evacuation Of ‘Afghanistan’ vs. ‘Vietnam’ — The Lack Of A Coastline & Boats.

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by Anura Guruge
on September 3, 2021

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Click to ENLARGE & read here. Wikipedia link.

Vietnam had a large coastline & lots of boats. In marked contrast, Afghanistan is totally landlocked.

Click to image to access Amazon listing for this book.
Click to ENLARGE. From Wikipedia (originally OoD as stated on picture).
‘Sea Bird’ restaurant in Wolfeboro, NH — my favorite local Chinese. ‘Sea Bird’ was the name of the boat in which the owner, ‘Guy’, escaped Vietnam. Click to ENLARGE.

I will confess that this difference in ‘circumstances’ had not occurred to me. Not that I had given it much thought.

This, i.e., the lack of boats & open water, was pointed out to me by a Vietnam Vet, who actually had been over there during the Vietnam evacuation, last Saturday (at the ‘Folk Festival‘). Wow. A light bulb went on. How true. How germane. I was, of course, very familiar with the ‘Sea Bird’ (above) & knew the story behind the name. But, I had not given the ‘boat people’ much thought in the context of Afghanistan. Definitely is something to think about. How different things would have been if Afghans could have tried to leave the country in boats.

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I Can’t Help Thinking How Different The ‘Afghanistan Evacuation’ Is Compared To What We Pulled Off At ‘Dunkirk’.

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by Anura Guruge
on August 19, 2021

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Click to ENLARGE. From ‘Google News‘.
Click to ENLARGE & read here. Here is the Wikipedia link.
The line of troops on the beach waiting for ships to arrive to rescue them.

Yes, of course, I appreciate that they are not exactly the same. Different circumstances, different dynamics, different capabilities (especially in terms of technology) & most of all, different eras. But, in the end, push-comes-to-shove they are both evacuations — efforts to get the folks home. So, it is not so much a case of them being as different as cheese is to chalk, but more like: cottage cheese to yogurt.

I just feel that the whole tenure was different 81-years ago. Yes, it was a ‘popular’ war — meaning that all the folks back home were solidly behind the war effort. Everybody cared. Plus, of course, there is a huge difference in leadership. We lucked out. We had a King as well as Churchill (& his cabinet). Joe Biden is a very nice guy. But, now in his late 70s he is NO Churchill. I think that is a significant factor.

An order of magnitude different when it comes to scale. 339,000 vs maybe 60,000 & we didn’t have an operational airfield & tons of airplanes capable of carrying tons of people. It is worth thinking about.

How attitudes, expectations, planning & EXECUTION have changed — then vs. now.

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