Blinken Dismisses Afghanistan-Vietnam Comparisons: ‘This Is Manifestly Not Saigon’

Ken MeyerAug 15th, 2021, 3:10 pm
 

As Secretary of State Antony Blinken attempted to defend the Biden administration’s handling of Afghanistan, many political observers are watching the Taliban’s march through Kabul and comparing it to the Fall of Saigon.

Jon Karl hosted ABC’s This Week on Sunday, and he led the show by airing a photo of a Chinook helicopter flying around the U.S. Embassy in Kabul while the situation in Afghanistan’s capital is falling apart. Karl described it as “eerily reminiscent” to the U.S.’s frantic effort in 1975 to evacuate people in the final days of the Vietnam War.

Karl proceeded to interview Blinken, who spoke about the US’ attempts to safely evacuate staff from the American Embassy to Afghanistan. As Blinken claimed that the embassy evacuation was happening under “standard operating procedure” for the situation, Karl countered that “not much about what we’re seeing seems too orderly or standard operating procedure.”

From there, Karl noted that it was just last month when President Joe Biden claimed that “there’s going to be no circumstances where you’re going to see people being lifted off the roof of an embassy in the United States from Afghanistan.”

“Isn’t that exactly what we’re seeing now?” Karl asked, to which Blinken claimed “this is manifestly not Saigon.” The secretary of state continued to insist that the U.S. accomplished the goals from when it went into Afghanistan 20 years ago, and he echoed Biden’s statement by saying they were working “with a deadline established by the previous administration to get them out by May 1st.”

While Blinken may beg to differ, the Fall of Saigon has already become a major point of comparison among media outlets covering the Taliban’s Kabul takeover. This was also very prominent on Twitter, where plenty of people were comparing photos from Kabul and Saigon.

Watch above, via ABC.

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