The Vietnam War - Essay Example

The Vietnam War The Vietnam War has been documented as the longest in the American history. Although there was noformal declaration of the war, it is considered to have officially begun in 1961 when President John F. Kennedy sent more than 2000 military consultants to South Vietnam. This decision marked the start of twelve years of American armed struggle. The war was an extended struggle between nations in their attempt to unify Vietnam under a collectivist government, as the United States tried to thwart the extension of communalism. This was the war, that in many people’s view, America did not have a chance to win. It was due to this reason that America lost the public’s support for the war. This paper shall reflect on the military choices and strategies throughout the war and the impact this had on the Cold War. Before analyzing the strategies, it is important to reflect on how the war started (Loeb 2). Even before the start of the Vietnam War, there had been fighting in Vietnam for a reasonably long time. Vietnamese had been under French colonial rule suffering a great deal for a period of almost six decades before the invasion of Vietnam portions by Japan in 1940. During this time in history, Vietnam had two foreign authorities occupying the country. At that time this Vietnam’s leader, Ho Chi Minh, arrived in Vietnam after travelling the world for thirty years. In his attempt to get rid of French and Japan occupiers from Vietnam, he established a headquarters in Northern Vietnam. He gained support from northern Vietnam and on September 2nd, 1945 announced an independent Vietnam under a new government known as the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. The French, who were not willing to give up their colony, decided to fight back. Ho sought the support of United States in chasing away the French, and supplied the US with military intelligence information. However, the United States was so dedicated to its foreign policy in the Cold War that they could not help Vietnam. The US domino theory has been known to have heightened the fear of spread of Communism (Lawrence 100). This theory stated that if a single country within Southeast fell to Communism, the surrounding countries would soon fall as well. In their attempt to prevent Vietnam from being a Communist country, the United States opted to help France in defeating Vietnam and its revolutionaries. US, therefore, sent military aid to the French in 1950. US troop’s quantity continued increasing over time until April 1969, when they reached a climax of 5434000. There were a total of 2.7 million Americans serving in South Vietnam. 58000 of them died or went missing, while 300000 others were wounded. It has been documented that the American government spent over 140 billion dollars on this war. Despite this gigantic military effort by the US, its objectives were not achieved by the end of the war. That failure has led, to date, searching answers to why the war was actually fought, and whether better military and diplomatic outcome was possible for America (Lawrence 129). After suffering a significant defeat at Dien Bien Phu in 1954, French decided to leave Vietnam. A number of countries met at the 1954 Geneva Conference in their effort to determine how French would have withdrawn from Vietnam peacefully. From the conference, came an agreement that has been referred to as the Geneva Accords. It stipulated a composed extraction of French forces and a momentary splitting up of Vietnam across the 17th parallel (Wiest 23). This 17th parallel ended up splitting Vietnam into non-communist South Vietnam and communist North Vietnam. In addition to this, the conference agreed that a general independent election would be held in 1956 in order to bring back together the nation under a single government. Fearing that the communists would win during the election, the United States was against the election. South Vietnam, with the help of America, carried out the election within South Vietnam, rather than the entire country. Ngo Dinh Diem, after eliminating most of his rivals, won the elections. He was, however, killed later in the 1963 coup, which was sustained by the United States, after his leadership proved to be terrible (Loeb, 7). It was after the death of Diem that the National Liberation Front (NLF) was formed. This was because he had estranged a huge number of South Vietnamese during his term. NLF, which was also known as the Viet Cong, was formed by communist partisans within South Vietnam. By 1961, the military strategies employed in South Vietnam were majorly guerrilla warfare (Wiest 67). Troops of South Vietnam of the NLF that were majorly Communist-led were initiating small units and several terrorist attacks monthly. As the war between the South Vietnamese and the Viet Cong progressed, the United States, on the other hand, sent more guides to South Vietnam. On August 2nd, 1964 the North Vietnamese fired straight on two American vessels in global waters. This firing has been known as the Gulf of Tonkin Incident (Wiest 12). The Congress acted in response with what has been referred to as the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution. US president, President Johnson’s intention for the US taking part in the Vietnam War was not for America to prevail in the war, but for the US to reinforce South Vietnam’s defenses so that South Vietnam would take over leadership. Critics have argued that by getting involved in the Vietnam War without a goal to come first, President Johnson set a weak foundation for later open and military troop disappointments for America. This is one of the greatest impacts that the Vietnam War had on the Cold War, as far as American’s success was concerned. The Vietnam War was a turning point for the Cold War, as Americans realized that their military troops were not comparable to others in strength and not able to win in any war. They needed better modus operandi and organization (Hall 79). Between 1965 and 1969, the Americans were majorly involved in a restricted war in Vietnam. Even though aerial bombing were still present at the North, President Johnson intended the fighting to be limited only to the South. This limitation ensured that the United States troops would not perform severe ground physical attacks at the North to directly attack the communists. Moreover, it ensured that there would not be strong attempts to interrupt the Ho Chi Minh (Hall 64). This was the supply course for the Viet Cong’s that ran through Cambodia and Laos. The US troops mainly fought a jungle war against the Viet Cong. The later would attack in surprise attacks, lay down ambushes, and flee through a multifarious system of underground subways. It was, therefore, difficult for the US troops to trace their enemy. They had difficulties, especially in villages, establishing which, if any, of the villagers were the opponents since everyone, including women and children could built traps, or at least feed the Viet Cong (Milne 81). As a result, most US soldiers became frustrated and lost morale. On January 30th, 1968, North Vietnamese surprised both the South Vietnamese and the US military, when they coordinated an attack with the Viet Cong against several cities and towns within South Vietnam. Although they reacted by carrying out an attack that has been known as the Tet Offensive, the attack was a proof to the Americans that the enemy was better organized and stronger than them. This was, therefore, the turning point in the war since the American president was faced by angry US public, as well as bad news from his military commanders in Vietnam (Milne 111). Richard Nixon was elected the next American president in 1969 and initiated plans to put an end to American involvement in the war (Milne 190). He has, therefore, been credited for putting an end to the war. He came up with an arrangement known as Vietnamization, which was the initial step of removing the US forces from Vietnam. It was not until July 1969 that American’s departure from the war began. The most significant impact that this war had was that it made people doubt American ability to win the cold war (Milne 123). The Vietnam War was the most detested and the longest of the 20th century American Wars. It resulted in an estimated 60000 deaths among Americans and about 2 million deaths among Vietnamese. Work cited Hall, Mitchell. The Vietnam War. London: Pearson Longman, 2008. Print. Loeb, Jeff. Childhood's End: Self Recovery in the Autobiography of the Vietnam War. Web 31 Jan. 2012. Lawrence, Mark. The Vietnam War: A Concise International History. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010. 1-200. Print. Milne, David. America's Rasputin: Walt Rostow and the Vietnam War. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2009. 1-200. Print. Wiest, Andrew. The Vietnam War. New York: The Rosen Publishing Group, 2008. 1-96. Print. Read More