The American Debacle in Vietnam - Essay Example

The American Debacle in Vietnam The war between Vietnam and the US lasted for twenty years. The Vietnamese fought to defend themselves and not in opposition to the US. The US had planned, organized and fought the war, only to further its interests. The reason for the war was the meddling of the US in the internal affairs of Vietnam. The US wanted to prevent communist expansion and demonstrate its superiority over the USSR, subsequent to the Cold War. The war in Vietnam established the imperialistic approach of the US in its foreign policy (R. D. Schulzinger). The United States attempted to stop the unification of North and South Vietnam as this would make Vietnam a communist regime. Subsequent to the First Indochina War, Vietnam was divided into two separate provinces. Free elections were expected to be held in the year 1956. North Vietnam, was led by the popular party was Viet Minh, whose leader was Ho Chi Minh and South Vietnam was led by the Ngo Dinh Diem. There were clashes between these two parties and the northern combatants of the Viet Cong waged a guerilla war against the South Vietnamese forces, which were supported by the US (Vietnam War. In Britannica Concise Encyclopedia). The US deployed more than half a million military personnel into Vietnam. In the year 1968, the forces of the Viet Cong and North Vietnam perpetrated attacks on thirty – six cities in South Vietnam. This was the well known Tet Offensive. As opposition to the war increased, President Lyndon Johnson decided to launch the de – escalation policy. The leaders of South and North Vietnam were called on for peace talks in Paris. During the period 1969 to 1973, the US withdrew its troops from Vietnam. The war, instead of stopping, spread to Cambodia and Laos by 1970. There was a stalemate in the peace talks, which ended abruptly in 1971. The talks were resumed in 1973 and a truce was established. However the fighting did not end. Violations of the truce were reported on several occasions. The North Vietnamese invaded the south in 1975 and the south surrendered. By 1976, the Socialist Republic of Vietnam emerged, with the unification of North and South Vietnam. More than two million people lost their life in the war (Vietnam War. In Britannica Concise Encyclopedia). Vietnam had been under the rule of France from the mid 1880s to the early 1940s during World War II, and France had made it a colony named, French Indochina. In 1940, Japan invaded French Indochina and occupied it. On the 2nd of September 1945, Japan surrendered to the Allies and withdrew its forces from French Indochina. Ho Chi Minh who led the League for the Independence of Vietnam availed himself of this opportunity, and declared the independence of Vietnam. However, the French government did not ratify this declaration of independence. Despite resistance from the French government, Ho Chi Minh maintained this independence to Vietnam and urged the then US President, Harry Truman, to recognize it as an independent state. He also requested the US President to recognize his government. He had written a number of letters to the US President in this context (Schulzinger). Subsequent to World War II, covert hostilities existed between the US and the USSR, which was termed the Cold War. The implications of the Cold War were felt all over the world. Most of the nations of the world either joined forces with the communists or adopted pro American policies. However, it was perceived that communism was making its presence felt to a greater extent than the democratic policies of the United States. Due to fear of the further spread of Communism, the United States adopted an anti – communism foreign policy. In 1949 Communists came to power in China, which caused considerable anxiety to the US, as it did not want to lose any more nations in the Southeast Asia to the Communist rule. Consequently, it refused to recognize the government of Ho Chi Minh and provoked the French to reestablish its colonial rule in that place (Brigham and Atwood). After the passing of the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, opposition to the Vietnam War emerged in the US. The anti – war sentiment was intensified by the campaigns of peace lovers and advocates of pacifism. The morality of the US military action in Vietnam was questioned and every aspect of the war, such as the Tet Offensive and the invasion of Cambodia, were severely criticized. All these developments resulted in the growth of the antiwar sentiment among the Americans. The My Lai Massacre of 1969 added fuel to the anti – war agitation, which adversely influenced national polls (Brigham and Atwood). The antiwar campaign intensified in early 1965, and people from different walks of life joined in the movement against the war. The movement gained new forms of protests as students and professors of universities organized teach – ins on the war at several universities, such as the University of Michigan, the University of Wisconsin and the University of California at Berkeley. The pros and cons of the war were discussed at large in the fora of teach – ins. Every academic institution witnessed the student movement, which was organized by the Students for a Democratic Society or SDS. In April 1965 the first ever student rally protesting against the war was organized by the SDS. Nearly twenty thousand students participated in that rally. The Resistance was another major student organization, which asked students to abstain from registering the draft and to refuse to serve the draft if it had been already drafted. In the year 1967, the Vietnam Veterans Against the War was established. The members of the Vietnam Veterans successfully influenced the people to protest against the war (Zernike). There was nationwide participation in The Moratorium, which had been organized against the war on the 15th of October 1969. A vast number of employees and workmen took mass leave on that day, in order to demonstrate their disagreement with the war. Millions of college and school students organized processions in their university or high school premises. Moreover, a judge in Baltimore suspended court activities, temporarily, in response to The Moratorium ( BBC NEWS). Business men and other conservatives displayed their opposition to the war but their opposition was based on economic reasons. The war proved to be very expensive and the US government had incurred a monthly expenditure of $2 billion, as of 1967. The war proved to be initially beneficial to business giants, manufacturers and distributors in almost every trade (Brigham and Atwood). The New York Times published the Pentagon Papers on the 13th of June 1971. This publication further intensified the apathy of the people towards the war. It was considered to be a major factor for turning public opinion against the war. The Pentagon Papers described the clandestine manner in which the US Department of Defense had involved various governmental agencies into the Vietnam War. As such, these papers provided a clear picture of the deception adopted by the US government towards its citizens (Brigham and Atwood). The Pentagon Papers detailed the history of administrative strategies from the regime of President Harry Truman from 1945 to 1953. The US Supreme Court had suspended the freedom of press by the publication of the Pentagon Papers. This increased the mounting opposition to the Vietnam War and President Nixon ordered an investigation into the leakage of the Papers to the press (Pentagon Papers). The direct cost of the Vietnam War was estimated at $130 billion. The indirect costs were also on the same scale and comprised of medical care to war veterans, benefits to the widows of those who were killed in the war and the cost of searching for American soldiers missing in action, who might have been held prisoner by the Vietnamese. The by-product of the war was serious inflation in the US. The cost of living skyrocketed in the US in the period 1965 to 1975. Approximately, fifty eight thousand Americans lost their lives in Vietnam. Moreover, three hundred thousand American soldiers were seriously injured. Furthermore, the number of US civilians killed in the war, like secret agents, missionaries and Red Cross personnel, was unascertained (Brigham and Atwood). Most of the Vietnam veterans suffered from post – traumatic Stress Disorder and lacked emotional balance. They suffered from anxiety disorders and depression. Nearly twenty thousand veterans committed suicide, faced unemployment or had been incarcerated (Brigham and Atwood). The United Nations helped to change the perception of world nations with regard to the US foreign policies. It acted in favor of the US invasion of Vietnam. The war clearly revealed the intentions of the US toward other countries. However, homeland politics, elections for a new president and the public changed the course of the war; and the manner in which the US fought in the war (R. D. Schulzinger). More than fifty – eight thousand Americans lost their lives in the war with Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. This was the greatest human loss in the history of the United States. More than three hundred thousand American civilians and soldiers were grievously injured. The Vietnam War was fought from 1959 to 1975, in which the US military forces fought with the army of South Vietnam. The North Vietnamese and the National Liberation Front fought with the US troops. Prior to this war with the US forces, the Vietnamese had fought with France for their independence from 1946 to 1954. Soon after the end of that war, Vietnam was divided into two warring groups, the North Vietnam and the South Vietnam. Communists took control of North Vietnam and opposed France in several issues. They wanted to take control of the entire Vietnam and establish communist rule in the unified Vietnam. However, South Vietnam was ruled by those who favored France. The US deployed its troops in South Vietnam to support the government in that place; and to prevent Vietnam from falling under communist rule, however, it failed to this goal. In 1975 North and South Vietnam were unified and communist rule was established. By the year 1976, this country became the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. The war resulted in heavy human loss for Vietnam as it lost nearly four million Vietnamese from the North and the South (Welcome to Vietnam War.com ). The media played an indispensable role in promoting an antiwar sentiment among the public during the wartime. There was extensive media coverage and the videos and photographs taken by the media, depicted images of American soldiers firing at virtually unseen enemies in forests and paddy fields. Paramedical teams attended upon the wounded and bleeding civilians and soldiers. The photographs showed muddy soldiers who were aiming at helicopters and exploding helicopters in the air above the tree level. There were a number of pictures, depicting the burning of entire villages to evacuate enemies along with innocent people, which was against the commonly held tenets of humanity. A much publicized and thought provoking photograph depicted a naked child running on the streets, while her skin was burning due to napalm bombs dropped by the South Vietnamese aircrafts. Another picture showed a South Vietnamese army officer executing a prisoner with a pistol aimed at his head. The extensive media coverage of the Vietnam War turned the public against this unjust war (Christensen). The US efforts to defeat the Vietnamese proved futile, principally due to the indomitable spirit of the latter. The Vietnamese tellingly demonstrated that in courage and fighting spirit they were second to none in the world. Despite losing two million people in wars against the Japanese, French and the US in the period from 1945 to 1975, the people of Vietnam did not lose heart. The US ended up in a protracted battle that depleted its reserves tremendously. Even the US soldiers expressed disenchantment with this war, which could not be won. At every level in the US armed forces, there was deep resentment and apathy towards this unjust war. At the same time, the civil rights movement had gained considerable momentum in the US. Consequently, the African American soldier deemed it to be an unnecessary risk to his life to fight in a racist war for a government of racists. The political and social processes undermined the might of the US Army and what was held to be the most powerful army, lost the war. The US Army is susceptible to major social upheavals, because it is comprised, principally of individuals from the working class. Therefore, the military is inadequate as a tool for oppression in the hands of the ruling class. The US is the chief enforcer of corporate interests in an increasingly globalized world. Thus, it makes serious efforts to crush any movement that poses a challenge to the interests of the multinational corporations (Wilsdon and Locker). In Vietnam, the US government was terribly wrong on several counts, it had fought unjustly against the popular will of the people of Vietnam; it had unnecessarily interfered with the internal affairs of Vietnam; it had underestimated the opposition that was to be envisaged by it and perhaps, what was truly unpardonable, it had deceived the nation to continue the war. This war made thousands of young US lives cannon fodder; this is perhaps one of the greatest evils done by the US government towards its citizens. Works Cited BBC NEWS. 1969: Millions march in US Vietnam Moratorium. 13 March 2008 . Brigham, Robert K and Paul. Atwood. "Vietnam War." Microsoft® Student 2008 [DVD]. Redmond, WA: Microsoft Corporation, 2007. Christensen, John. "The war that won't go away." 2001. CNN.com. 15 March 2008 . "Pentagon Papers." Microsoft® Student 2008 [DVD]. Redmond, WA: Microsoft Corporation, 2007. Schulzinger, Robert D. A Time for War: The United States and Vietnam, 1941-1975. Oxford University Press. ISBN: 0195125010., 1997. Pp. 15 – 24. Schulzinger, Robert D. A Time for War: The United States and Vietnam, 1941-1975. Oxford University Press. ISBN: 0195125010., 1997. Pp. 328 – 329. Vietnam War. In Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. 2006. 11 March 2008 . Welcome to Vietnam War.com . 15 March 2008 . Wilsdon, Tony and Philip Locker. "The power of protest Lessons from the anti-Vietnam war movement." 8 September 2002. socialistworld.net. 15 March 2008 . Zernike, Kate. A NATION AT WAR: CAMPUSES; With Current War, Professors Protest, As Students Debate. The New York Times. 5 April 2003. 13 March 2008 . Read More