Trump Says He Could Have Won the Vietnam War in a Week at Iowa Rally
Trump said at a Dubuque rally he could have won the Vietnam War in a week while defending the length of the Iran war. The Ho Chi Minh City he named was Saigon, capital of U.S.-allied South Vietnam, until 1975.
Choose Clash Report as a preferred source and see our reporting first in Top Stories.
President Donald Trump told a campaign rally in Iowa on Sunday that he “could have won the Vietnam War in a week.” He said the U.S. lost years by dropping Agent Orange on forests instead of “going after Ho Chi Minh City.”
In the video, he said the U.S. dropped Agent Orange on forests “for years and years and years, instead of going after Ho Chi Minh City in the different places.”
“I would have won that war in one week,” he added.
The remarks came as Trump defended the length of the Iran war against criticism from both parties.
The Rally
Trump spoke for about two hours at the Five Flags Event Center in Dubuque, AP reported. The rally backed Republican Rep. Ashley Hinson in her Senate race against Democrat Josh Turek.
It was one of two stops that day, with a second in Salina, Kansas. Clash Report earlier covered the rally plans.
According to USA Today, Trump argued the Iran war has not lasted as long as the wars in Vietnam or Afghanistan. He cited the fast seizure of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro and said he could end the Iran war quickly too.
“I want to be nice,” Trump said of Iran. “At some point we’re going to have to give them the hammer.”
He made a similar claim about Afghanistan, saying he would have won that war quickly.
The war with Iran began in late February. Clash Report has tracked Trump’s frustration with its length. Hours after the rally, commentator Tucker Carlson claimed on X that Trump may be days from a nuclear strike on Iran.
Saigon and Hanoi
Ho Chi Minh City was called Saigon during the war. According to Britannica, it was the capital of South Vietnam from 1954 to 1975 and the headquarters of U.S. military operations.
North Vietnamese troops captured Saigon on April 30, 1975, and the city was later renamed. The capital of North Vietnam was Hanoi.
The U.S. bombed North Vietnam, including Hanoi and Haiphong. Operation Rolling Thunder ran from 1965 to 1968, and the Linebacker campaigns followed in 1972.
U.S. forces sprayed Agent Orange, a defoliant, over forests in South Vietnam to strip cover from enemy fighters.
Not the First Time
Trump made a similar claim on April 21 in a phone interview with CNBC’s Squawk Box. He compared war lengths, citing Vietnam at 19 years and Iran at five months, according to the CNBC transcript.
“I would have won Vietnam very quickly,” he said. “I would have, if I were president.”
Reaction
Critics online pointed out that Ho Chi Minh City was the capital of a U.S. ally during the war, India Today reported.
Gregory Brew, an analyst at the Eurasia Group, called the boast “curious” on X. He said Trump’s administration negotiated the Taliban deal that made the 2021 events “essentially unavoidable,” DNYUZ reported.
Jonah Goldberg of The Dispatch wrote: “He could have ‘won’ Afghanistan during his first term. But he spent most of it trying to get out.”
Trump avoided military service in Vietnam despite the draft, The Independent noted in April.
Choose Clash Report as a preferred source and see our reporting first in Top Stories.