President Donald Trump had people scoffing after he boasted to CNBC that the Vietnam war would've been won "very quickly" by the U.S. if he had been in charge.
North Vietnam (the Democratic Republic of Vietnam) and the Viet Cong emerged victorious after a 20-year war in Vietnam; U.S. military forces withdrew in 1973 after escalating their involvement from 1965 onward. More than 58,000 Americans died during the war and today it is widely considered one of the U.S.'s major foreign policy failures.
It sure was odd to hear Trump talk about this at a time when his widely unpopular war with Iran continues to anger Americans amid a nationwide affordability crisis further aggravated by surging gas prices.
He bragged while defending the war effort:
"When it's over, and it will end... they want it to be over immediately and I just looked at a little chart: World War I [lasted] four years and three months. World War II: six years. Korean war: three years. Vietnam: 19 years. Iraq: eight years."
"I'm five months. I would have won Vietnam very quickly if I were president. I would have won Iraq in the same amount of time that we've won, essentially, we've won here. People can play games, the Democrats can say, 'Well, we should have done better.'"
"No matter what. If I did it in one week, they'd say, 'We should have done better.' Look at Venezuela. I took it over in 45 minutes... By the way, a very strong military country and we took it over in a day. Let's be nice, but we basically took it over in 45 minutes." ...
"I'm surprised they haven't said, 'You should have done it in 30 minutes. You took too long.'"
You can hear what he said in the video below.
Trump's remarks are ridiculous considering he infamously dodged the Vietnam War draft by claiming he had bone spurs in his foot (a fact he has periodically downplayed).
“I had a doctor that gave me a letter—a very strong letter on the heels,” he said during an interview with the New York Times in 2016 explaining his deferments, adding that the heel spurs—protrusions caused by calcium built up on the heel bone—were “not a big problem, but it was enough of a problem.”
Trump has often been mocked for his bone spurs story, perhaps most notably by late Arizona Republican Senator John McCain. The relationship between the two men was notoriously contentious and in 2015, Trump, then a presidential candidate, infamously said that McCain, a veteran of the armed forces who was a prisoner-of-war in Vietnam, was “not a war hero.”
“He was a war hero because he was captured. I like people who weren’t captured," Trump said at the time. McCain, in response, mocked Trump's deferments, pointing to wealthy Americans who avoided being drafted into service. McCain was awarded the Silver Star, the Bronze Star, the Legion of Merit, a Purple Heart and the Distinguished Flying Cross for his military service.
Trump was called out for his remarks.
Don't count on Trump for any leadership here—he'll always find a way to deflect.
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