As another American-led "forever war" approaches an ending in Afghanistan, it is sobering to ponder what all the blood and treasure was for if, as seems likely, the Taliban returns to power. After the fall of Saigon in April 1975, Americans had 58,000 reasons to ask why their sons had died fighting a losing war against communist North Vietnam (although with three million deaths, Vietnam as a whole suffered far more).
But it is striking to contrast how the US treated its former allies in South Vietnam with what the US and Nato are so far offering to do for those it will be leaving behind in Afghanistan.
In the year after Saigon, capital of the former state of South Vietnam, was captured, 125,000 refugees were admitted to the US. It wasn’t popular – 49 per cent of Americans were opposed to their coming, as opposed to 37 per cent who welcomed them. But by the end of May 1975, then president Gerald Ford had signed the Indochina Migration and Refugee Act, which allocated more than $400 million to help resettle the refugees from Vietnam, who were given special permission to come to America. This initial group was made up largely of South Vietnamese elite groups, those associated with the government, with American personnel, and the wealthy who knew their riches would be expropriated by the incoming communists.
Former US presidents Jimmy Carter, standing, and Gerald Ford, seated behind Carter, welcomed thousands of Vietnamese refugees. Getty Images
A second wave started arriving later in the 70s and early 80s – the so-called "boat people" who risked everything to escape misery, persecution and "re-education camps". In 1979, then president Jimmy Carter doubled the quota of refugees from Vietnam and Cambodia allowed to come to the US every month from 7,000 to 14,000. As Thu-Huong Ha, an American journalist whose parents were Vietnamese refugees, put it: "A poll from CBS and The New York Times showed that 62 per cent of Americans disapproved. He did it anyway."
Later agreements saw more people coming to the US, including “Amerasians”, children US citizens had had with Vietnamese women. By 1996, 700,000 refugees from Vietnam called the US home, and today there are more than two million people of Vietnamese descent in the country.
The US decision to back France in its attempts to regain control of its colonial possessions in Indochina – which terminated in the French defeat at Dien Bien Phu by Ho Chi Minh’s People’s Army in 1954 – was quixotic enough, given American opposition to the continuation of European imperial rule after the Second World War. Washington’s subsequent financial and military support of a corrupt and dictatorial regime in South Vietnam ended, as we know, disastrously; although it may have been a folly all along, as the degree to which Ho was first and foremost a nationalist and only secondly a communist was persistently ignored.
Either way, in its acceptance of so many people from Vietnam, a country into whose affairs the US had intruded for so long, America lived up to its highest ideals. Even in a population of 270 million – as the US was in 1996 – 700,000 refugees was a very considerable number.
By the 1990s, 700,000 refugees from Vietnam called the US home, and today there are more than two million people of Vietnamese descent in the country. Getty Images
Members of the Nguyen Van Toan family, which arrived in Denver in 1975, pose behind a photo taken of the same group 10 years earlier. Getty Images
Compare that with Afghanistan today, and plenty of the rhetoric is reassuring. "We recognise that there are a significant amount of Afghans that supported the United States and supported the coalition, and that they could be at risk," said General Mark Milley, chair of the US joint chiefs of staff, in a statement last Thursday. "A very important task is to ensure that we remain faithful to them, and that we do what is necessary to ensure their protection and, if necessary, get them out of the country if that is what they want to do." The UK government has also announced plans to accelerate applications from Afghans who wish to relocate to Britain because they might be "at risk of reprisals" from the Taliban, as Defence Secretary Ben Wallace put it.
Although other Afghans have emigrated to Europe and North America over the years, the numbers currently being talked about are of a different order from Vietnam entirely. The BBC reports that 18,000 Afghan nationals have applied for US visas under the scheme, but that some have been waiting for years. In the case of the UK, 3,000 more people are expected to be allowed to arrive, on top of 1,300 so far – and in both countries the emphasis has mainly been on interpreters. Even then, bureaucratic obstacles have unjustly denied individuals permission to relocate.
One Afghan interpreter who was praised for his “hard work and dedication” by his commanding officer was later refused because he had been dismissed for minor reasons including “smoking in your accommodation”. A father of three, this man told the BBC that he had received three letters with death threats from the Taliban. "I know that they know who I am," he said. "And it's making me sick."
Afghan security officials present arrested members of the Taliban in Ghazni last week. The Taliban has been in rebuilding mode across the country. EPA
Intervening has consequences, no matter how good the intentions
This is disgraceful. Taliban rule was barbaric and medieval, and I certainly didn't mourn its departure when it was forced out in 2001 by the US-led coalition and the Northern Alliance. But the fact of the matter is that it was in power then, and it may soon be in power again. The difference is that in the years between, the western intervention has made thousands, if not tens of thousands, of Afghans "compromised" by their association with the US, Nato, foreign NGOs and a government the Taliban always viewed as an American puppet. This extends way, way beyond interpreters.
Intervening has consequences, no matter how good the intentions. And those consequences include a huge number of Afghans fearing shortly for their security, their freedoms, and in many cases their lives.
I believe that the western interventions in Vietnam and Afghanistan were both wrong. In the first instance, however, America did much to make good the obligations that came with its war. In the case of Afghanistan, the West’s preparations to help its erstwhile allies look so paltry that ordinary Afghans may justly curse the day their “friends” turned up to remake a country, only to leave after yet another failed exercise in nation-building.
Sholto Byrnes is an East Asian affairs columnist for The National
1. Domestic VAT refund amendments: request your refund within five years
If a business does not apply for the refund on time, they lose their credit.
2. E-invoicing in the UAE
Businesses should continue preparing for the implementation of e-invoicing in the UAE, with 2026 a preparation and transition period ahead of phased mandatory adoption.
3. More tax audits
Tax authorities are increasingly using data already available across multiple filings to identify audit risks.
4. More beneficial VAT and excise tax penalty regime
Tax disputes are expected to become more frequent and more structured, with clearer administrative objection and appeal processes. The UAE has adopted a new penalty regime for VAT and excise disputes, which now mirrors the penalty regime for corporate tax.
5. Greater emphasis on statutory audit
There is a greater need for the accuracy of financial statements. The International Financial Reporting Standards standards need to be strictly adhered to and, as a result, the quality of the audits will need to increase.
6. Further transfer pricing enforcement
Transfer pricing enforcement, which refers to the practice of establishing prices for internal transactions between related entities, is expected to broaden in scope. The UAE will shortly open the possibility to negotiate advance pricing agreements, or essentially rulings for transfer pricing purposes.
7. Limited time periods for audits
Recent amendments also introduce a default five-year limitation period for tax audits and assessments, subject to specific statutory exceptions. While the standard audit and assessment period is five years, this may be extended to up to 15 years in cases involving fraud or tax evasion.
8. Pillar 2 implementation
Many multinational groups will begin to feel the practical effect of the Domestic Minimum Top-Up Tax (DMTT), the UAE's implementation of the OECD’s global minimum tax under Pillar 2. While the rules apply for financial years starting on or after January 1, 2025, it is 2026 that marks the transition to an operational phase.
9. Reduced compliance obligations for imported goods and services
Businesses that apply the reverse-charge mechanism for VAT purposes in the UAE may benefit from reduced compliance obligations.
10. Substance and CbC reporting focus
Tax authorities are expected to continue strengthening the enforcement of economic substance and Country-by-Country (CbC) reporting frameworks. In the UAE, these regimes are increasingly being used as risk-assessment tools, providing tax authorities with a comprehensive view of multinational groups’ global footprints and enabling them to assess whether profits are aligned with real economic activity.
Contributed by Thomas Vanhee and Hend Rashwan, Aurifer
23-man shortlist for next six Hall of Fame inductees
Tony Adams, David Beckham, Dennis Bergkamp, Sol Campbell, Eric Cantona, Andrew Cole, Ashley Cole, Didier Drogba, Les Ferdinand, Rio Ferdinand, Robbie Fowler, Steven Gerrard, Roy Keane, Frank Lampard, Matt Le Tissier, Michael Owen, Peter Schmeichel, Paul Scholes, John Terry, Robin van Persie, Nemanja Vidic, Patrick Viera, Ian Wright.
Fraudsters send an unsolicited email that appears to be from a financial institution or online retailer. The hoax email requests that you provide sensitive information, often by clicking on to a link leading to a fake website.
2) Smishing
The SMS equivalent of phishing. Fraudsters falsify the telephone number through “text spoofing,” so that it appears to be a genuine text from the bank.
3) Vishing
The telephone equivalent of phishing and smishing. Fraudsters may pose as bank staff, police or government officials. They may persuade the consumer to transfer money or divulge personal information.
4) SIM swap
Fraudsters duplicate the SIM of your mobile number without your knowledge or authorisation, allowing them to conduct financial transactions with your bank.
5) Identity theft
Someone illegally obtains your confidential information, through various ways, such as theft of your wallet, bank and utility bill statements, computer intrusion and social networks.
6) Prize scams
Fraudsters claiming to be authorised representatives from well-known organisations (such as Etisalat, du, Dubai Shopping Festival, Expo2020, Lulu Hypermarket etc) contact victims to tell them they have won a cash prize and request them to share confidential banking details to transfer the prize money.
5pm: Maiden (PA) Dh80,000 1,600m
Winner: Omania, Saif Al Balushi (jockey), Ibrahim Al Hadhrami (trainer) 5.30pm: Conditions (PA) Dh85,000 1,600m
Winner: Brehaan, Richard Mullen, Ana Mendez 6pm: Handicap (TB) Dh100,000 1,600m
Winner: Craving, Connor Beasley, Simon Crisford 6.30pm: The President’s Cup Prep (PA) Dh100,000 2,200m
Winner: Rmmas, Tadhg O’Shea, Jean de Roualle 7pm: Wathba Stallions Cup (PA) Dh70,000 1,200m
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Winner: Fertile De Croate, Sam Hitchcott, Ibrahim Aseel
The internal combustion engine is facing a watershed moment – major manufacturer Volvo is to stop producing petroleum-powered vehicles by 2021 and countries in Europe, including the UK, have vowed to ban their sale before 2040. The National takes a look at the story of one of the most successful technologies of the last 100 years and how it has impacted life in the UAE.
No one has ended a Premier League season quite like Sunderland. They lost each of their final 15 games, taking no points after January. They ended up with 19 in total, sacking managers Peter Reid and Howard Wilkinson and losing 3-1 to Charlton when they scored three own goals in eight minutes.
SUNDERLAND 2005-06
Until Derby came along, Sunderland’s total of 15 points was the Premier League’s record low. They made it until May and their final home game before winning at the Stadium of Light while they lost a joint record 29 of their 38 league games.
HUDDERSFIELD 2018-19
Joined Derby as the only team to be relegated in March. No striker scored until January, while only two players got more assists than goalkeeper Jonas Lossl. The mid-season appointment Jan Siewert was to end his time as Huddersfield manager with a 5.3 per cent win rate.
ASTON VILLA 2015-16
Perhaps the most inexplicably bad season, considering they signed Idrissa Gueye and Adama Traore and still only got 17 points. Villa won their first league game, but none of the next 19. They ended an abominable campaign by taking one point from the last 39 available.
FULHAM 2018-19
Terrible in different ways. Fulham’s total of 26 points is not among the lowest ever but they contrived to get relegated after spending over £100 million (Dh457m) in the transfer market. Much of it went on defenders but they only kept two clean sheets in their first 33 games.
