in Vietnam the U.S. faced a `` broad-based popular insurgency '' whereas today , according to most polls , a large number of Afghans support foreign assistance . Last , Obama added , is that today Americans are responding to a very real threat that began with the vicious attack on 9/11 . Clearly , Obama feels defensive about this analogy and hopes to undercut liberal critics who are frustrated and disappointed with his decision . In trying to separate himself from the experience of Johnson , however , Obama did not give an accurate account of what many commentators have been saying recently , and he downplayed crucial aspects of the 1960s that do in fact offer warnings for today . Mark Twain once said that history does not repeat itself , but it rhymes . Most of those who have compared Afghanistan to Vietnam do not say that the situations were exactly the same politically or strategically . Nor is it inevitable that the surge in Afghanistan will be unsuccessful . The point of the comparison is that it is impossible to ignore the fact that Obama faces similar challenges , as did Johnson when the `` Americanization
-LRB- CNN -RRB- -- On June 17 , 1964 , President Lyndon Johnson explained to The New York Times reporter James `` Scotty '' Reston why he had to stay the course in Vietnam by stabilizing the South Vietnamese government so that it could fight communism . Johnson rejected calls for withdrawal that were being made by liberal Democrats as well as the proposal for neutralization promoted by France 's Charles de Gaulle . `` So the only thing you 've got left , '' Johnson said , `` is try to make this thing more efficient and more effective and hold as strong as you can and keep this government as stable as you can and try to improve it as you can and that we 're doing day and night . '' During his recent speech at West Point , President Obama rejected the lessons that these kinds of stories tell us about Afghanistan . The president , saying that the comparison with Vietnam relies on a `` false reading of history , '' pointed to three differences . The first is that the U.S. is now part of a broad international coalition . The second is that