Time to take Aiken's advice (Declare victory in Afghanistan and get the hell out)

With the war in Afghanistan in its eighth year, with deaths and casualties mounting and with no so-called victory in sight, perhaps it is time to recall the words of the late Sen. George Aiken (R-Vt).


Back in 1966, with the country tangled in the war in Vietnam, Aiken suggested that we declare victory and bring our troops home. It was a surprising move by a Republican, though Aiken was considered a moderate.


Naturally, Aiken caught the wrath of President Lyndon B. Johnson and other “hawks,” who portrayed him as defeatist willing to let South Vietnam fall into hands of the Communist regime in Hanoi. Of course, that is just what happened eight years later, after 55,000 American deaths, tens of thousands of casualties and billions of dollars in expenditures.


Vietnam remains a sad episode for a failed foreign policy and a lingering stain on Johnson’s presidency.


Aiken, a quiet Vermont gentleman, ate breakfast almost every day in the Senate dining room with his close friend, Sen. Mike Mansfield (D-Mt.), the Senate majority leader. Like Aiken, Mansfield was a taciturn but a principled man highly respected on both sides of the aisle.

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