Role of domestic concerns in us withdrawal from vietnam - Essay Example

ROLE OF DOMESTIC CONCERNS IN US WITHDRAWAL FROM VIETNAM PLAN OF THE INVESTIGATION: This investigation evaluates the extent to which the domestic factors played their role in shaping the US foreign policy. This target will be achieved through finding answers to the following questions. Why did the United States of America tried to involve in the Vietnam What approach for the involvement was there in the mind of the military and political leadership of the United States of America What really went wrong in the battle field What was its impact on US citizens and how did they react After analyzing these questions, we can finally land on our ultimate target that was to investigate the extent to which the domestic concerns played their part in the withdrawal of the United States of America. SUMMARY OF EVIDENCE: "A state of war is not a blank check for the president when it comes to the rights of the nation's citizens." (Jose Padilla)1 As rightly quoted by Jose Padilla, war is not really something at the sole discretion of the president, rather it is the public power that should ultimately shape the foreign policy of a nation, or more precisely, the fate and destiny of the nation. This thought truly reflects in the US Vietnam war. This war proved that it's the public, the common man of the nation, who will decide the foreign policy of the nation. The history recorded that the people protesting on the roads of New York or the colleges of Ohio forced the think tanks at Pentagon and Whitehouse to change their policy and finally withdraw from the tiresome and simply lost battle of Vietnam, that proved to be the graveyard for the human and the monetary resources of American nation. Almost all the historians do agree to the fact that domestic concerns forced the US Think Tank to finally decide to withdraw from the battle at Vietnam. However, the perception of the extent to which the internal factors played their role in that historical decision is different for different historians. Furthermore, the recorded evidences also tell that the ratio of favour for the war also differed from time to time, even during the war period and age group to age group as well. 2 The Vietnam War, which lasted in 1975 is also known as Indochina war, the American war in Vietnam and the Vietnam Conflict. Why did the United States of America tried to involve in the Vietnam If looked from a narrow perspective, it seems that this was just a conflict between the communist and the non-communist factions of the Vietnamese nation. However, when we take into account the entire global scenario at that time, especially that of post-world war and cold war, we tend to realize that it was not an ordinary civil war, rather a contest between the two opposing super powers of the time, both the powers claiming to be the super power but propagating entirely different ideologies of economics, religion and state governance. Thus it was a war between the communism and the socialism, the United States of America, along with its capitalist allies and the South Vietnam on one side and the Soviet Union, its allies, the People's Republic of China, and North Vietnam on the other. Thus, withdrawing from war does not only mean the inability to handle some civil war, had it been the case, United States of America would have left the battle far earlier than it did, but this withdrawal would probably have been seen by the United States of America's policy makers as the surrender to the communist alliance. This may well be attributed to the reluctance of the United States' think tank to withdraw at an earlier stage. What approach for the involvement was there in the mind of the military and political leadership of the United States of America Since this was not too long that the Second World War had ended, those American and other nations, who had witnessed the disastrous effects of war were still alive. Any war in any part of the world is thus supposed to get a furious reaction of the public. Specially when it comes to the war in United States of America is involved, sending American 'volunteers', using the precious wealth of the Americans to fund this source of disaster, the then Presidents had expected a full fledge protest, if they open a complete battle field against the Vietnam. Probably due to this reason, United States' think tank would have decided for a limited war that would not place much impact on the everyday life of the American citizens. This approach is often referred as, a 'Limited War' or 'Cold War'.3 What really went wrong in the battle field These goals were never met, since Vietnamese and their Allies proved more disastrous and severe combatants than the United States of America expected them to be. The ultimate result was more and more deployment of forces, in order to recover the position and get an upper hand in the war, however, all this finally ended in smoke, since the battle fields of Vietnam proved to be the graveyard of US army. What was its impact on US citizens and how did they react This war created a significant impact on the everyday life of a common man. The history witnessed one of the largest protests in United States' history till then. The protests, though started from the colleges and universities, but in no time (by 1969), it had affected the entire nation. For example, one of the most famous incidents in the anti-war movement was the police riot in Chicago during the 1968 Democratic National Convention. Hundreds of thousands of people came to Chicago in August 1968 to protest American intervention in Vietnam and the leaders of the Democratic Party who continued to prosecute the war. Radicals even waved VC flags. Nixon rightly claimed their numbers were a minority, but their numbers were growing' . Another example of protests was on the 5th May 1970 in which 4 students at Kent State University, Ohio were shot dead by National Guard Sanders claims it is agreed anti-war sentiments in the public and press were probably the main reason to why Johnson finally decided upon retreat. Mueller's data repeatedly asked the question form 1965 to 1971; 'Do you think the US made a mistake sending troops to fight in Vietnam' The data showed that in 1965, 600f the public approved of troops in Vietnam, this figure had halved to 30 0n 3 years . This downhill trend demonstrates how public support for Vietnam fell from 1965 to 1971. Mueller's sources on public opinion are regarded as very trustworthy, most of it coming from Roper Public Opinion Research Centre at Williams College, Massachusetts.4 Sanders claims black people resented the apparent disproportionate number of blacks on the front line and the high number of casualties. Sources on Government spending are often unreliable to minimize hostility, however tax increases of 10 0n 1967 made the economic factor easily recognizable EVALUATION OF SOURCES: Many sources have been used for this historical thinking and investigation. However the two of them are being evaluated here. 1) John E. Mueller (1985) War, Presidents and Public Opinion. University press of America John Mueller holds the Woody Hayes Chair of National Security Studies, Mershon Center, and is professor of Political Science, at Ohio State University where he teaches courses in international relations. When we talk about the domestic concerns, the most important one is the public opinion. The very word public opinion may lead us to suspicion that whether the basis which we use to infer about domestic conscerns truly reflects the public opinion or not. Since it is quite obvious and clear that the public opinion of the same person or sample for the same issue may vary due to the change of the structure of the question, thus if we want to see the trend of public opinion for any particular scenario, we must be consistent in our question. Mueller's data repeatedly asked the question form 1965 to 1971; 'Do you think the US made a mistake sending troops to fight in Vietnam'. Mueller's sources on public opinion are regarded as very reliable, most of it coming from Roper Public Opinion Research Centre at Williams College, Massachusetts. This book provides a very fine collection for statistics of the public opinion shaped in United States regarding the Vietnam War. American Political Science review has recognized this book as a 'classic'.5 2) Stanley Karnow's book, Vietnam, a History' Karnow, a Pulitzer Prize winning author has reported for renowned newspapers during his long career of journalism like, Saturday Evening Post, the London Observer, the Washington Post, and NBC News etc, gives us a hint about the in-sight that this man would have in the world affairs, while writing about the subject. This fact further adds to his credibility that he had been covered Asia from 1959 as chief correspondent for Time and Life magazines. He studs his account with sprightly details that may or may not contain significance, since he wants to be interesting above all. His first hand information of the events, the interviews of the people involved on both the sides, makes his material more reliable. On reading, this book looks chunky, but yet it provides a lot of information, specially the first hand information. He has started the book in a slower tone and gradually moves to the present day. He paints a clear picture of French colonialism, the effects it had on the common man, specially the lower class of the Vietnamese society and its impact on the overall social structure. He asserts that failing to understand the history of the Vietnamese was the main reason for inability of the United States' think tanks to achieve what they wanted to. Although he has not directly discussed the anti-war sentiments of the Americans, but the disasters of the war that he witnessed, mentioned and reported then gives us quite a clear idea that what shaped the public opinion against the United States of Americas' think tank. Moreover, the way he gradually describes the events and shows his insight in them, it gives us an adequate idea of the fact that how had the public power pressurized the White House and the Pentagon. ANALYSIS: Unlike what the then president of US Johnson thought of a limited war with very little impact on the common man of the United States of America, this war created a great impact on the national life of the American citizen. This hue and cry and protest can be attributed to several reasons. First and foremost may be on humanistic grounds, since the declassified documents of this war, released by the Vietnamese government in 1995, revealed that revealed that 5.1 million people, died during the Hanoi's conflict with the United States. Four million civilians died in both the North and South. Total military casualties were put at 1.1 million and 600,000 wounded.6 Agence France Press, 3 April, 1995 The second reason may be referred to as the not-so-distant memories of Second World War, which the adults Americans had witnessed in their youth and the youth had done so in their childhood. Another reason and that seems most suitable in terms of its appeal is that the war was though fought by the soldiers, all the Americans had to bear its burden in terms of heavy taxes and other obligations. Not only material resources were being wasted to gain nothing, but the human resources were also being employed there as well, which includes the sending of American 'volunteers' as well. The total number of US army deployed in the Vietnam was at one time 500 only, supposed to perform advisory services only, it then reached to 16000 during the war. The statistics quoted above clearly indicates that the US citizens' favour for the war saw a significant decline, as the war elongated. As Stanley Karnow noted, Americans "turned against the war long before America's political leaders did." 7 The major question is that to what extent did the public opinion made it forced the White House to change their foreign policy. Summing up the entire ground that we created while summarizing evidences answers this question very well. Thinking form thr perspectives of American government, like any government, they also never wanted defeat. However, this was not just the matter of a defeat in an ordinary battle, rather it would have been perceived by them that the defeat of United States in the war would mean the defeat of the capitalists against the communist. This fact tends us to reject any idea that United Stats withdrew as a part of its pre-planned military strategy or to plaese some other nation or for the sake of humanity. This also tends us to reject that the government was definitely not happy with the decision but they had to. Another fact showing the extent to which public opinion forced the decision makers to take this decision is the decline in the popularity of the president Johnson, that could not let him become the president for the second time. This also shows that the Vietnam war and public's rage against it caused the withdrawal to happen. Otherwise, the military of the United States had yet the capacity to fight further, though no positive results seened to be achieved. CONCLUSION: So we can conclude that the war in Vietnam was solely the decision of the political leaders and did not represent the voice of the public, the voice of a common man. Furthermore, the repercussions were very severs for the political leaders to withdraw from the war, thus it would be baseless to say that United States of America withdrew due to external factors or non-domestic reasons. Furthermore, the views of intellectuals and the available statistics and the records of the enormous public protests, tends us to assert that if not whole, yet almost whole or a major and significant factor for the decision of withdrawing from the war was the domestic one. Bibliography: Karnow, S., (1997). Vietnam, a History. New York: Penguin Books John E. Mueller (1985) War, Presidents and Public Opinion. University press of America(2007, April 23). Agence France Press, 3 April, 1995 Dodge, Vietam Essay Public Opinion. Retrieved July 4, 2007, from All Free Essay Web site: http://www.allfreeessays.com/student/Vietnam_Essay_Public_Opinion_the_US_withdrawal.html Mueller. Retrieved July 4, 2007, Web site: http://psweb.sbs.ohio-state.edu/faculty/jmueller/MUELLER.BIO.htm Padilla, Jose Think Exist. Retrieved July 4, 2007, from Think Exist Web site: http://en.thinkexist.com The Wars for Veit Nam. Retrieved July 4, 2007, from Vassar College Web site: http://vietnam.vassar.edu/index.html Read More