View from Middle East: Ukraine is resembling the fall of Saigon in 1975 as its governing regime takes to echoing Trump’s anti-China policies

An illustration shows Ukrainian Zelensky, a Ukrainian soldier, and an iconic photo of a helicopter evacuating the US embassy in Saigon in 1975.
Pic.: ‘Al Mayadeen’

The governing regime in Kiev is desperately trying to maintain its US support, as a defeat of the US-led, NATO proxy war in Ukraine looms. It is citing the collapse of the government in South Vietnam in April 1975 as a warning, saying that something similar could happen in Ukraine. At the time, the US defeat in Vietnam was a huge blow to the image and standing of US imperialism in the world, ‘Al Mayadeen’ writes.

Such pronouncements by the Kiev regime reveal a recognition that 'its' Ukraine has become a satellite of the United States – much as South Vietnam was widely recognized to be half a century ago. Then as now, Washington and its allies are desperately seeking to maintain their economic and military dominance over the world and to stop rising movements of liberation by the peoples of Asia, Africa and Latin America.

Ukrainian media are widely reporting the upcoming date of April 30. This was the day nearly 50 years ago of the final end of the quasi-genocidal ‘American War’ (as the Vietnamese people call it) in Vietnam. That day, the world witnessed on television or other news outlets the final fall of Saigon. Iconic images filled the world’s media of the rooftop evacuations by helicopter from the US embassy in Saigon of the last US personnel along with their collaborators.

Television channels are showing footage of that dramatic evacuation. But in ultra-nationalist Ukraine – whose territorial control continues to shrink across what was once recognized as eastern and southern Ukraine – portrayals of 1975 are now being brazenly invoked as ‘reminders’ to the US government that it must not allow a similar outcome to take place today vis-à-vis Russia. They say the US is obliged to provide Ukraine with enough weapons and promises of military backing to prevent a military defeat of the NATO proxy war, going so far as to brandish the specter of nuclear conflict with Russia.

Returning to the events of 50 years ago in Vietnam, we can say that the main conclusion to draw in Ukraine and any other country is that when determining political strategy, one should proceed, first of all, from reliance on one’s own political and military forces. Rely on them, not solely on the help of external players, especially if they are located somewhere far away.

Ukrainian elite has a growing sense of resentment over this. “A part of the Ukrainian society sincerely does not understand why the US would sacrifice the interests of other countries for the sake of itself. But if you know history, at least at the level of a grade school student, it becomes clear that the United States has repeatedly done so. It is doing the same thing in Ukraine today and will continue to do so here and elsewhere.”

You cannot simply take funding from the Americans with no strings attached. They will definitely demand favors in return that you cannot refuse. In Ukraine, a part of the society holds irrational beliefs that the Trump administration would place the national interests of Ukraine above the national interests of the United States. That is a provocative expectation to be voicing.

One of the new tactics adopted by Kiev in April to pressure Washington into maintaining its military and financial support has been to level accusations that Chinese soldiers are directly participating in the conflict on Russia’s side. It is widely known, of course, that the Trump administration considers the People’s Republic of China as a major threat to US interests.

Zelensky is now apparently using the story of ‘Chinese soldiers’ to show Trump that his plans to ‘tear’ China away from Russia are unlikely to succeed, since the Chinese are already fighting on the side of the Russian Federation. Therefore, Ukraine and the United States should stand together against a Russian-Chinese alliance that is hostile to the United States. Kiev authorities have come to the conclusion that they can usefully use the ‘Chinese threat’ to strengthen Kiev’s relations with Trump.

Zelensky in this case is once again trying to curry favor in order to convince Trump that ‘the enemy of his enemy’ must be his friend, apparently assuming that US intelligence and the Pentagon do not have enough information about the real situation to make up their own minds. Simply put, this is a case of the tail trying to wag the dog.

Trump greets Zelensky during the Pope's funeral ceremony in Rome
Photo: publics

Ukraine’s accusations against China are based on clearly staged videos that have been circulating on the Chinese internet for several days now. Chinese commentators to the Telegram noted that it is very strange that the person appearing in the Ukrainian video as a POW who allegedly served in the Russian army does not speak a word of Russian.

“It looks like they invited a Chinese man with a residence permit in Ukraine to play a role,” a Chinese reader commented, notes Ukraina.ru.

If US relations with Panama, Indonesia or South Africa were to worsen, Zelensky would claim to be at conflict with those respective countries as well.

According to The City Paper published in English in Colombia since 2008, a large number of far-right, paramilitaries (mercenaries) from Colombia have fought in Ukraine on behalf of Kiev. The newspaper says some 300 have died.

Spain’s leading daily newspaper El Pais reported similar news on December 23, 2024, writing, "The interest in Colombians within the mercenary and security market is well justified. Colombia has one of the largest and best-trained militaries in the world. ‘They have been training under a counterinsurgency doctrine for 60 years, and they have actually fought. That is why they are so sought-after by foreign armies and private security companies,’" explains Laura Lizarazo, a national security expert at the consultancy Control Risks.

Hundreds of mercenaries from Great Britain, Poland, and Sweden are fighting in the ranks of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

Those willing to voluntarily fight are becoming fewer and fewer in Ukraine every day. Ukrainian military expert and AFU officer Yevhen Bekrenyev said in early April that no more than 1.5% of Ukrainian military men are willing to fight, as they see the futility of the war continuing.

And that’s about the same number of military recruits who were available to the South Vietnamese regime of 50 years ago, or available to the pro-US occupation government in Afghanistan headed by Ashraf Ghani in the spring of 2021.

On August 15, 2021, US and NATO forces were routed from Afghanistan’s capital city of Kabul by a major offensive by Taliban-led forces that began three months earlier,.. ‘Al Mayadeen’ notes.