Why were the Americans unable to prevail in Vietnam whilst the British succeeded in Malaya - Essay Example

Download file to see previous pages The war was viewed by the American people as redundant as they were not convinced of any potential danger from the rising communism in the Asian regions. This resulted in the U.S. presidents of the Cold war era losing the votes of the common people in support of the war. Moreover, the war proved to be expensive and the economic repercussions were felt for more than a decade. After the end of the war which happened more because of the agitation among the American people, the final consequences became a learning experience of the U.S. leaders for what strategies to adopt in any future conflicts. The Malayan emergency was a guerrilla war between the Malayan National Liberation Army (MNLA) and the British and Commonwealth forces. The MNLA communists were mainly comprised of the poor Chinese population who were based in jungles. The MNLA and its allies termed the combat as Anti-British National Liberation War. The guerrillas focused on rescuing Malaya from the controlling power of the British colonial administration. The conflict which started on 18 June 1948 was termed as Emergency after three European plantation managers were killed by the guerrillas in the northern state of Perak (“The Malayan Emergency: Background”). . ...
For instance, the Battles of Lexington and Concord in 1775, the capture of Fort Sumter in 1861, the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, and the North Korean invasion of South Korea in June 1950. Unlike these events, the American war in Vietnam had no concrete reasons nor was there any fixed beginning point. The American participation in the Vietnam War was a result of series of events that occurred during the period between 1950 and 1965. In the month of May 1950, the then American President Harry S. Truman sanctioned to initiate a modest program for helping the French. Truman sanctioned economic and military assistance to the French who were engaged in battles to retain their controlling power of their Indochina colony, including Laos, Cambodia as well as Vietnam. When the Vietminh army which was originally formed to protect Vietnam from the French colonial power defeated the French armed forces at Dienbienphu in 1954, the French were left with no other choice but to create a Communist Vietnam north of the 17th parallel. Then the south of that line remained as a non-Communist region. The United States however did not agree with this kind of arrangement. When Dwight D. Eisenhower became the U.S. president, his administration attempted to take over and build a nation in South Vietnam which was by then holding a fake political entity. The U.S. concocted a government in South Vietnam, subjugated the French army and also sent military advisers to prepare a South Vietnamese army. U.S. also unleashed the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in order to conduct a psychological warfare against North Vietnam. In early 1961, President John F. Kennedy designed another strategy that contributed towards ...Download file to see next pagesRead More