Welcoming War Refugees to America

The headlines tell the story: A decades-long military effort is ending. Americans and their allies are desperately hustling to secure safe passage out of the fallen country. Where exactly these tens of thousands of allies will end up or how they will be received is anybody’s guess. They are a living reminder of America’s humiliating exit from a war in which all the money and firepower in the world were no match for a more determined—and far more unscrupulous—foe. If America couldn’t keep the entire country safe, then at least the most vulnerable of the allies can be spared the most horrible of outcomes under the new regime.

This summary could well be describing the current evacuation of American allies from Afghanistan, where a twenty-year occupation has come to an end, with perhaps some successes but also at great cost—estimated by some at an average of $300 million per day. However, the description applies also to the end of the Vietnam War back in 1975. These wars took place at different times under different circumstances, but there are enough parallels that we can draw from the past to help us make better informed decisions in the present—especially as relates to the plight of refugees.