Reasons for the Korean and Vietnam Wars - Essay Example

Korean War and Vietnam War Introduction The Vietnam War was a long running combat between the nationalist forces and the United s with the alliance of South Vietnam. The war was a consequence of several U.S. presidents who maintained their commitment to the people of South Vietnam to prevent the Communists from capturing the country. The entire war was a miscalculation on the part of American leaders which was reflected in the fact that the war was a huge failure with more than 60,000 American soldiers losing their lives along with long term negative economic repercussions. It is assumed that a significant reason behind the failure was absence of public support. The Korean War was essentially a conflict between North Korea and South Korea that lasted for three years with brutal consequences. From 1910 to 1945 when Korea was entirely under the rule of Japan, the latter divided the Korean peninsula which caused ideological differences between the two regions. The communist groups marched towards the north as a force against the Japanese while conservatives became active in the south. After WWII when Japan was defeated by the U.S., Korea became liberated only to be occupied again by the two major forces – U.S. taking over the south and Soviet Union the north. The leaders of the two governments made individual efforts to unite the regions. While the south aimed for a democratic government, the north strived for a communist government. As a result of these conflicting interests, war broke out in 1950 when on June 25 the north invaded the south (Julia Jang). This paper compares the two wars. Vietnam war and Korean war were mainly similar because they were caused by the similar reason which was the conflict between communism and capitalism. Vietnam War For historians, it is not easy to detect the causes of U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War because of the multiple starting dates. However, there are a few reasons that have been considered for U.S. involvement. For every American President, the government of North Vietnam was an enemy as it was led by agents of global communism. For the general Americans, communism represented everything that went against the American democracy like violation of human rights, promotion of military warfare and prohibitions to trade with capitalist countries. America’s apprehension increased when Communist party took control of China in 1949, and from the fear that Vietnam would follow Truman decided to assist the French in fighting the Vietminh (Rotter). In the entire history of America, the Vietnam War was the only event which although proved successful in military perspective did not fulfill any of America’s political objectives. Although there was intense commitment from the American combat troops resulting in death of 50,000 American soldiers, the larger picture was that the military success did not culminate into success in the larger war. On the contrary, within the American society there were numerous major anti-war demonstrations and occasional violence. The general Americans lost trust in their military power and political leaders. In addition, the negative economic effect that occurred as result of the war had its repercussions for over a decade (Drew & Snow, xvi-xvii). Although hundreds of reasons have been pointed by the American politicians and the historians behind the failure of America in Vietnam, there are some major reasons that are given in brief here. First, the prime cause has been identified as the inconsistencies in the foreign policies towards Vietnam and the weak strategies of the American presidents in the entire era between 1954 and 1975 due to their own philosophical outlooks. Second, the United States did not want a military victory over Vietnam as a result of which the White House and the Pentagon did not actively participate in formulating strategies to capture North Vietnam, which otherwise could have been an easy task for America. Third, there was a paucity of open and frank discussions between the political, diplomatic and military leaders of the United States and its ally South Vietnam. Fourth, the U.S. Army Lt. General Phillip B. Davidson pointed several reasons behind America’s failure in Vietnam like the Superior Grand Strategy of North Vietnam that remained consistent in the entire war tenure (Duong, 226). Fifth, behind America’s failure in Vietnam was the lack of trust between the U.S. civilian leaders and U.S. commanders. According to the estimates made by the politicians, China would interfere which in turn would turn the regional war into a global war. Because of these estimates, many of which proved to be false later on, the American presidents did not allow the ground forces to attack the communists in North Vietnam. Finally, because of all these combined reasons the war had to be prolonged till the time when the American people became frustrated and withdrew their support from the continuous conflict. Eventually, the civilian leaders had to bow down to the decisions of the American people to end the war (Duong, 225-226). The lack of public support was because of the fact that the American people remained unconvinced of the potential threat from the rising communism as the American author Herbert Schandler observed “to the American people, the danger to the national interests of the United States posed by the Communist threat to South Vietnam had not been made evident, and the cost of meeting that threat had become too high” (Ivie, 121). The Korean War The Korean War has its history grounded in 1910 when a Japanese official in Korea was assassinated by a Korean nationalist, after which Japan conquered Korea. In the following 35 years, the Japanese ruled the country with a tyrannical approach. Although the Koreans could take the advantage of the infrastructure provided by the Japanese, the latter garnered raw materials and cheap labor from Korea. Events like independent movements initiated by students were brutally suppressed by the Japanese causing thousands to die. As a result of such atrocities, many Koreans allied with the Japanese army. In fact, some of these Korean members inflicted as much torture on the civilians like the Japanese (Isserman, 17-18). The Korean War officially began in 1950 when the Northern and Southern Korea saw each other as enemies ruled by two super powers of the world. Although in the beginning the conflict was in the form of civil war, it very soon took the shape of Cold War conflict of arms. When North Korea invaded the South the United States assumed that the communists were forming a colossal power governed by a single authority. The U.S. perceived the invasion as the communist strategy of expanding communism by absorbing the Republic of Korea. To prevent proliferation of the communist power, the U.S. provided military support to South Korea (Blumenson, 21). However, it was then that the Americans made a few miscalculations. For majority of Americans, the exact location of Korea was unknown. Therefore, it was a strategic risk to recruit troops in an unknown land which was also against the American policy of WWII. Moreover, the U.S. government showed little interest in the events since according to the government’s rule American troops were not dispatched in regions east of Italy. Although in 1950 Japan was included in the circle of America’s military territory, Korea was excluded. Considering this lapse of America’s interest, North Korea felt encouraged to invade the South. Six months later, U.S. exhibited its strong motivation of curbing the communist power in the global context and decided to move its troop anywhere in the world to stop the communists. However, America was faced with paucity of military strength post-WWII. In addition, South Korean soldiers were already facing defeat along with chaotic situation among the civilians. Then, MacArthur made some grave errors. He misinterpreted the Communists’ potential response to the attacks made against North Korea and so he divided his troops in Korea. His advisors failed to foresee the involvement of China as a major communist power. In order to confine the violence within the boundaries and in fear of turning it into another World War, Truman began to exercise limited power to prevent an all-out war. There were few extraordinary steps adopted by America in this war like Truman abolished racial segregation in the army to hold a unified fort against the communists (Blumenson, 21-24). Comparisons The major similarity between the two wars is that both were armed forces used to prevent proliferation of the Communists. Both the wars were reflection of Truman Doctrine and Domino Theory. In addition, in both the wars the countries were divided into North ruled by the communists and the South receiving alliance from the United States against the Communists. In both the wars, the U.S. allied with the South with the desire to halt the progress of the communists in the north. According to Truman Doctrine, “the policy of the United States (is) to support free peoples who are resisting subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressure” (Harrell et al., 998). Here, the outside pressure was indicated towards the communist pressure. This doctrine caused an alteration in the relationship between the U.S. and the Soviet Union from previous disquiet to the idea of containment which means prohibiting the expansion of communism by any means. Also, in both the wars the effect of Domino Theory can be seen which is that “if the communists ever managed to take one country, then that country’s neighbors would fall one by one until none was left in the free world” (McColl, 255). This theory was used by the U.S. as logical explanation to their actions in the Cold War, and the same was designated as the reason behind their involvement in Korean War and Vietnam War. Both the wars ended under forced environments. In the case of Vietnam War, both sides decided to withdraw by way of ceasefire under pressure from the American people. The Korean War ended when an armistice was signed by both the countries which indicated that all kinds of armed violence would be ceased till a peaceful settlement was achieved, which till date has not been achieved. One major difference between the two wars was the style of fighting. While the Vietnam War continued for a long time resulting in thousands of casualties causing the common Americans to protest against the war, the Korean War was characterized by guerilla wars which mean irregular military attacks made by small group of combatants. Moreover, at the end of Vietnam War the country’s north and south became united while in the case of Korean War animosity is still continuing between North and South Korea. Conclusion Both the wars were basically armed violence to inhibit the expansion of the Communist power. The involvement of United States is a common factor in both wars due to the country’s goal of abolishing communism from the face of the earth. However, error of judgement can be seen in both wars from America’s side as a result of which economic and political repercussions were consequences in both the wars. References Blumenson, Martin. “Lessons Learned: Reviewing the Korean War”, Army, 53.7 (2003) 19-24 Drew, Dennis M. & Snow, Donald M. The eagle’s talons : the American experience at war, Alabama: Air University Press, 1988 Duong, Van Nguyen. The Tragedy of the Vietnam War: A South Vietnamese Officer’s Analysis, North Carolina: McFarland & Co. Inc., 2008 Harrell, David Edwin, et al. Unto a Good Land: History of the American People, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 2005 Isserman, Maurice. Korean War: Updated Edition, NY: Infobase Publications, 2009 Ivie, Robert L. “Metaphor and Motive in the Johnson Administration’s Vietnam War Rhetoric.” In Texts in Context: Critical Dialogues on Significant Episodes in American Political Rhetoric, edited by Leff, Michael C. & Fred J. Kauffeld, 121-142. California: Hermagoras Press, 1989 Julia Jang, Hyojung, “Overview of the Korean war and its Legacy”, Stanford, 2010, March 10, 2015 from: http://spice.fsi.stanford.edu/sites/default/files/Korean_War1.pdf McColl, R.W. Encyclopedia of World Geography, Infobase Publishing, 2005 Rotter, Andrew J. “The Causes of the Vietnam War”. Illinois. 1999, March 10, 2015 from: http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/vietnam/causes.htm “The Vietnam War”, ushistory, 2014, March 10, 2015 from: http://www.ushistory.org/us/55.asp Read More