Biden’s policy must prep for a fall in Afghanistan
Much will be said about the withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan later this year, and much should be.
Blinded by rage after the attack on Sept. 11, 2001, the United States invaded the host country of our terrorist enemy. It then forgot the dangers of nation-building and stayed. And stayed.
So American’s longest war dragged on, costing lives and treasure and goodwill and moral clarity. Some of the troops serving there now weren’t born when the planet’s greatest war machine landed on a rural, dysfunctional state.
Inevitably, there will be comparisons to Vietnam and the fall of Saigon. If President Joe Biden succeeds where three other presidents failed, and the wobbly government of Ashraf Ghani falls to the ascendant Taliban, the end of that earlier war will send many to history books.
As the possible consequences of a U.S. withdrawal become clear, there is one tale from that long-ago moment in Southeast Asia that should never be forgotten.
Retired Rear Adm. Larry Chambers was the second Black man to graduate from the Naval Academy, following Wesley Brown to earn his commission in 1952.
One historian familiar the racism Chambers confronted in those four years described it more as surviving the academy than graduating from it. Chambers famously didn’t return to the academy for two decades because of his experiences.
He became a naval aviator, flying combat missions over Vietnam before being given command of a supply ship. Then in January 1975, Capt. Chambers became the first African American to command an aircraft carrier, the USS Midway.
It was there that Chambers became part of the American evacuation of Saigon as triumphant North Vietnamese forces closed in on the capital of what was then South Vietnam.
In April 1975, Chambers gave the controversial order to push overboard millions of dollars worth of helicopters so Republic of Vietnam Air Force Major Buang-Ly could land on the carrier in a small plane with his wife and five children, saving their lives.
After rescuing Buang-Ly, he defied orders to aid only South Vietnamese soldiers who fled to sea if their vessels were in danger of sinking. He ordered his men to inspect South Vietnamese ships, punch through their hulls and take the men off the now sinking vessels.
He later became the first Black man promoted to admiral in the Navy.
This story is worth sharing not because it says something about Biden’s decision to bring home troops and refocus the nation’s resources on greater threats. That’s the right decision and has been for many years.
Instead, it is the kind of moral choice this nation will face if Ghani’s government falls.
In the post-U.S. Afghanistan, there may be a price to pay for those who helped this nation’s efforts to create a stable democracy where the philosophy of human rights is that they apply equally to all, even if in practice a nation falls short of that ideal. Women activists, in particular, may face intense pressure to flee.
The Biden administration last week announced that it would keep the U.S. cap on refugees at the 15,000 low set by the inhumane policies of President Donald Trump. The president said the nation must rebuild the ability to absorb refugees destroyed by Trump.
By Friday, it was already wavering under criticism from groups arguing that the real reason was political pressure from the flood of immigration at the border with Mexico.
Whatever changes this year, the Biden administration must be ready to do as Chambers at the end of another long and frustrating war. It must prepare for the possibility that it will have to open its arms to accept those who believed in our offer to help.