The Americans who placed Diem and Karzai in power deluded themselves into believing they had found submissive clients who would rule prudently and honestly, thereby winning the love of their people. When their clients did not turn out that way, a key element of U.S. strategy collapsed.
“In both countries we were unable to produce a force or leader who would do what we think should be done,” Butterfield said. “Afghan society has no model for anything close to what we’re talking about. We keep thinking we should be producing a democratic president, who rules for all the people, but that’s not Afghanistan.”
Frances Fitzgerald, author of one of the most acclaimed books to emerge from the Vietnam trauma, Fire in the Lake, said Karzai’s prickliness reminds her of a line spoken decades ago by Foreign Minister Pham Van Dong of North Vietnam. He was asked why he denounced Diem’s regime as a puppet when it was actually resisting American pressures. “It’s a puppet,” Pham Van Dong replied. “It’s just a bad puppet.”
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