StudentShare
Contact Us
Sign In / Sign Up for FREE
Search
Go to advanced search...
Free

American Atrocities in Vietnam - Research Paper Example

Cite this document
Summary
This resarch paper "American Atrocities in Vietnam" discusses American atrocities in Vietnam are real and that they happened on a much grander scale than have been reported. It is up to the United States government to recognize and acknowledge these atrocities and not only do so…
Download full paper File format: .doc, available for editing
GRAB THE BEST PAPER96.6% of users find it useful
American Atrocities in Vietnam
Read Text Preview

Extract of sample "American Atrocities in Vietnam"

?American Atrocities in Vietnam The United s throughout its history has gone to war starting with its war of independence until most recently, the war in Iraq and Afghanistan. In most of the wars that it has been involved in, there have been claims that the United States military has committed atrocities against the civilian populations of the countries it has invaded. The reports of such atrocities have been reported during the following instances: the Philippine-American war; the Second World War; the Korean War; the Vietnam War; in Yugoslavia in 1999; and finally, during the War on Terror. In this paper, we shall discuss some American atrocities committed during the Vietnam War with specific emphasis on the crimes committed against the noncombat civilian population within Vietnam. According to Anderson, D (2002), atrocities such as the killing of noncombat civilians or the torture of prisoners occur in all wars but that it became a particular issue in the Vietnam War. Violence against the civilians of Vietnam by the American military was an intentional act of war and they acted with indifference to the destruction of noncombatants and to that of their property. Most of the military commanders of the United States were aware of the laws governing ground warfare that had been established by various international agreements but atrocities were still committed by some American soldiers and officers. Throughout the entire war, only two hundred and seventy eight soldiers and marines were convicted of murder, rape, and other violent crimes by the military justice system but many more incidents went unpunished or were not even reported. The policy of heavy bombing by in South Vietnam with high explosives and napalm by American forces to support ground operations in and around villages and the widespread use of artillery for the same purpose generated many accidental civilian casualties. Martin, M F (2011) states that the United States military used herbicides and defoliants as part of its herbicidal warfare in Vietnam, and one of these, known as Agent Orange, was used extensively from 1961 to 1971 in South Vietnam and in portions of North Vietnam. At the time the herbicides were being used, there was little consideration within the American military about the potential long term effects of the widespread use of Agent Orange towards the Vietnamese population. It is further unclear exactly where in Vietnam the Agent Orange herbicides were sprayed and the amount sprayed at each location and this has ensured that virtually every aspect of the effects of this herbicide in Vietnam is infused with uncertainty. These herbicides were used on the crops of the Vietnamese civilians so that the crops could die causing mass starvation. The American army commanders mistakenly believed that starvation would force the Vietnamese population to support the American backed South Vietnamese regime but this turned out to be counterproductive because instead the people lost all confidence in the southern government and secretly supported the North. Another major result of the use of these herbicides was the mass starvation that occurred after their use and a lot of the civilian population, which had nothing to do with the war, died in the resulting famine. Anderson, D L(2011) declares that it was the fear, anger, and incentive for promotion or commendation for a high body count (which was a requirement by the military at the time) that led the American soldiers to an over application of their weaponry which constituted atrocities against the civilian population. Individual Vietnamese and sometimes even entire villages could be killed because they were suspected of being the enemy or in certain incidents; they were simply killed just because they got in the way. Leahey, C R (2007) states that the Vietnam war, with its tactical use of high altitude bombing and artillery fire, and the search and destroy missions resulted in mass killings. These weapons were used indiscriminately by the American military and in the process many civilians were killed accidentally. The number of these accidental killings may border in the tens of thousands because there were no statistics, whether private or official, at the time to show their extent. Furthermore, while platoons were on missions, their leaders rarely restrained them from committing such acts as would be deemed atrocities in normal human societies. One of the major and most notable of these incidents, due to the high media attention it gained, was the My Lai massacre of 1968. Robbins, M S (2007) explains that the My Lai massacre in Vietnam was the mass murder of between three hundred and five hundred Vietnamese civilians in the village of Son My by American soldiers during the Vietnam War. Most of the victims of this massacre were women, children and the elderly and when investigations were carried out, some of the bodies were found to have been mutilated and many of the women had been raped preceding the killings. When news of this massacre first came to light, the army tried to deflect any concern about it by blaming it on the South Vietnamese military. This incident prompted global outrage when it became public and it increase the domestic opposition for the United State’s involvement in Vietnam. Anderson (2011) argues that the My Lai massacre had numerous complex causes which included psychological stress on the soldiers, poor unit leadership, bad intelligence, and an overall American strategy that put more emphasis on killing than on protecting the people. The American strategy of having body counts to show their progress in their progress in the war was very detrimental to the lives of the Vietnamese civilians because they could not be differentiated from the North Vietnamese soldiers who also wore peasant clothing. This led to the American soldiers’ killing of random Vietnamese civilians on suspicion that they were enemy forces. Some soldiers, bent on having a higher body count in order to establish their reputations within the military ranks, wantonly killed Vietnamese civilians in order to raise their counts. Tran, J (2010) states that by its nature, atrocity defies rationality, marking the limits of understanding and he uses this to explain what happened in Vietnam. The order to kill anything that moves caused many American soldiers to commit vast and unthinkable atrocities in Vietnam. American platoons had a tendency of waylaying civilians, raping the women among them, and at times murdered them in cold blood. In certain instances, if the American soldiers did not find anybody to fight in the various villages across the countryside of Vietnam, they would instead indulge themselves by raping, torturing, and murdering the hundreds of civilians living within such villages. Most of these cases went unreported because the people of Vietnam at the time did not have did not have any legal authority they could turn to for justice because they were in the middle of a war and furthermore, the government which claimed to represent them (South Vietnam) had allied itself with a foreign power in order to maintain its authority. In fact, the South Vietnamese government actively supported the American involvement in Vietnam despite the fact that atrocities were being committed against its civilian population. Sevy, G (1991) has argued that America committed genocide in Vietnam and admits that individual atrocities and war crimes did occur in that country. One would agree with Sevy’s opinion because of the statistics showing the American military casualties of the war. It is said that about fifty eight thousand United States soldiers died in the Vietnamese war and this was despite their having a weapons technology that was far superior to that of their opponents. Now that it has been determined that the Americans had superior weapons, we should now the casualties in the Vietnamese side. If the American lost nearly sixty thousand soldiers despite their superior weapons, it is only logical to assume that the Vietnamese lost many times more that number in armed forces and that would be without counting the civilian casualties of this war. Wiest, A (2008) states that the random killings that were committed by all the armed forces involved in this conflict may put the number of civilian casualties in the millions. It is my suggestion that if the Americans had not involved themselves in the war in the first place, then it would have come to a swift end much sooner than it did. In conclusion, it can be said that the American atrocities in Vietnam are real and that they happened on a much grander scale than have been reported. It is up to the United States government to recognize and acknowledge these atrocities and not only do so, but also apologize to the people of Vietnam for committing them. If the American government would do this, then there would definitely be an improvement in the relations between America and Vietnam which would bring them even closer than they are today. Furthermore, America would earn global respect for owning up to its failures and because of this new found respect; America would be able to retain its hegemony over the world with the good will of all the nations of the world. This would be to its advantage especially considering that new world powers, such as China, Russia, and Brazil, are rising to challenge America’s authority as the only world superpower. References Anderson, D L. (2011). The Columbia History of the Vietnam War. New York: University of Columbia Press. Anderson, D. L. (2002). The Columbia Guide to the Vietnam War. New York: University of Columbia Press. Leahey, C. R. (2007). Hegemony and History: A Critical Analysis of How High School History Textbooks Depict Key Events in the Vietnam War. Cambridge, United Kingdom: ProQuest. Levvy, G. (1980). America in Vietnam. Oxford, United Kingdom: Oxford University Press. Martin, M. F. (2011). Vietnamese Victims of Agent Orange and U.S.- Vietnam Relations. Darby, Pennsylvania: Diane Publishing. Robbins, M. S. (2007). Against the Vietnam War: Writings by Activists. Lanham: Rowman and Littlefield. Sevy, G. (1991). The American Experience in Vietnam: A Reader. Norman, Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press. Tran, J. (2010). The Vietnam War and Theologies of Memory: Time and Eternity in the Far Country. Lanham: Wiley and Sons. Wiest, A. (2008). The Vietnam War. New York: Rosen Publishing. Read More
Cite this document
  • APA
  • MLA
  • CHICAGO
(“American Atrocities in Vietnam Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words”, n.d.)
Retrieved from https://studentshare.org/history/1455069-the-history-of-a-war-faught-by-the-us-with
(American Atrocities in Vietnam Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 Words)
https://studentshare.org/history/1455069-the-history-of-a-war-faught-by-the-us-with.
“American Atrocities in Vietnam Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 Words”, n.d. https://studentshare.org/history/1455069-the-history-of-a-war-faught-by-the-us-with.
  • Cited: 0 times

CHECK THESE SAMPLES OF American Atrocities in Vietnam

Perception of The Vietnam War

However, America's involvement in vietnam began long before the decision to send troops into the region.... Near the beginning of 1950, the Ho Chi Minh regime in vietnam had been recognized as the governing body by Communist China, and the Soviet Union3.... In Platoon, Stone does not address the morality of the presence of Americans in vietnam.... This is indicated by the fact that the author opens the introduction with the question “Why are we in vietnam?...
6 Pages (1500 words) Essay

Consider the impact of the Vietnam War on American culture

in vietnam, the increasing intensity of the war created psychological problems among the American troops which resulted in drug consumption among them.... Running Head: IMPACT OF vietnam WAR ON AMERICAN CULTURE Impact of vietnam War on American Culture Outline I.... vietnam War was an anti-communist war fought between the Americans with South vietnam as their ally and the nationalist forces.... Music industry developed vastly during the vietnam era with hundreds of songs getting recorded in single years....
4 Pages (1000 words) Essay

Cultural Texts on the Vietnam War

In the paper “vietnam and Other American Fantasies by Bruce Franklin” the author analyzes the book of Bruce Franklin.... In his book he elaborates on various myths about the vietnam War, including the existence of American POW/MIA in Vietnamese prisons decades after the war ended.... hellip; The researcher states that Franklin's book is an apt description of the hypocritical American culture industry that has distorted the history of the vietnam War, which was the first televised war in the world, in the sense that images of atrocities were telecast by television journalists as much as print journalists reported....
5 Pages (1250 words) Book Report/Review

History of the Vietnam Wars

The tropical climes of vietnam did not offer any chance for conventional war.... “The French defeat at the Dien Bien Phu was followed by a peace conference in eneva, in which Laos, Cambodia, and vietnam received their independence and vietnam was temporarily divided between an anti-Communist South and a Communist North.... In 1956, South vietnam, with American backing, refused to hold the unification elections” (Learn about the vietnam War, 2010)....
6 Pages (1500 words) Essay

Vietnam War: Important Events 1962-1969 (1)

The “fragging” that marked the discontent among American soldiers in vietnam war manifested itself in violent ways- “soldiers not only disobeyed their superiors but in numbers of cases actually murdered them with fragmentation grenades” (Karnow, 1997, p.... The weaknesses of this ruler were what gave US an easy entry into vietnam.... The most important thing that has to be vietnam War: Important Events 1962-1969 It was with the direct support of US that General Lon Nol took over the reins of the Cambodia (Karnow, 1997, p....
1 Pages (250 words) Essay

Difficulty recognizing the enemy during Vietnam

The United States, in a bid to stop the spread of communism in vietnam, had attempted to prop… While this may have been the case, there quickly developed a situation where the American military was hardly ever capable of identifying the enemy.... It should be noted that most of the American commanders in vietnam were aware of the laws governing ground warfare that had been established by various international agreements but atrocities were still committed by some American soldiers and officers....
5 Pages (1250 words) Essay

Vietnams Declaration of Independence

3 While the French committed major atrocities in vietnam, some were very severe and, therefore, warranted Vietnam's independence.... pilot who had been gunned down in vietnam.... pilot who had been gunned down in vietnam.... This essay describes that during the last year of the WW II, the movement of vietnam, Viet Minh, led by Ho Chi Minh was seeking freedom and independence not only from the French but also from the Japanese....
2 Pages (500 words) Case Study

An Analysis of the US Counterinsurgency Plan

This paper explores published articles on the strategies of the US to repel counterinsurgencies in the war between the US and the Philippines in 1898 to 1902 and that of the United States and vietnam 1950 to 1975.... –vietnam War is the longest war that the United States ever got involved with.... In the Digital History records, the long conflict of vietnam and France is the root cause of the vietnam war.... France was forced to leave vietnam after 100 years of colonial rule....
10 Pages (2500 words) Research Paper
sponsored ads
We use cookies to create the best experience for you. Keep on browsing if you are OK with that, or find out how to manage cookies.
Contact Us