It has been argued even further to say it was time well worth spending in Iraq and Vietnam. When analyzing these points one must understand that at that point in time America was deathly scared of communism and instilled an idea in their heads that if not for entering the war at that moment, then communism would make its way around to other countries and finally reach America. However, our government made the fatal mistake of failing to look in the long run and see that America was already a strong nation and by entering a war that would not certainly end communism the government weakened every aspect of the economy. In accordance, Iraq was completely uninvolved in the terrorist attack on 9/11, the accusation of concealing “weapons of mass destruction” was completely false, and having now realized that the only weapons they did have were from a purchase from the United States to them several years
This, along with other factors led to the troop’s morale being dangerously low. Another turning point in the war, the Tet offensive, had lowered the troops’ Morales because it had planted the seed to the US public that the US may not be victorious in their quest to end communism but the events in My Lai only worsened the situation. Now the troops were mistrusted by the US public and were starting to doubt if they could win the war themselves. Although the US public mistrusted the army they mistrusted the Government more. Although the My Lai massacre happened in 1968 it was only released to the public more than a
This was also a big reason why the American citizens were against the Vietnam War. After gathering an abundant amount information from various sources it’s safe to conclude that Vietcong is much more advanced and well prepared to war than Southern Vietnam and America. America didn’t have adequate tactics, and were poorly supported by their people. Alongside, Vietcong was well prepared as they had previous experience from the Guerrilla war and were aided by various other countries, which were close to their homeland. Also, the war occurred on Vietnamese ground, which was familiar to the Vietcong’s because they were able to use this information to their
This centralised objective of assisting the state in the overall pursuit of unification and independence, meant villagers in the North were devoted in every aspect of their lives to the war effort. • America’s many overt war strategies had detrimental effects on both North and South Vietnamese civilians: • The Search and Destroy methods meant many villages were completely obliterated, which created a sizeable rural-urban drift problem. These thousands of refugees were forced into overcrowded city areas in the South. - The operations had huge civilian casualty rates, which General Westmoreland who was the military architect of such missions later denied; “There’s never been a war in the history of our country that gave more careful attention to avoiding civilian casualties.” However as was released in the controversial Pentagon Papers in America in 1967 Secretary of Defence McNamara was quoted, “[the Viet Cong] apparently lose one-sixth as many weapons as people, suggesting… many of the killed are bystanders, or unarmed porters.” - Therefore the missions assisted in denouncing American troops to the Vietnamese people, as one American soldier asserted of the ‘Search and Destroy’ tactic, “If they weren’t pro-Vietnam Cong before we got there, they sure as hell were by the time we left.” – Karnow
His attempt to slow the flow of North Vietnamese soldiers and supplies into South Vietnam by sending American forces to destroy Communist supply bases in Cambodia in 1970 in violation of Cambodian neutrality provoked antiwar protests on the nation’s college campuses. From 1968 to 1973 efforts were made to end the conflict through diplomacy. In January 1973, an agreement reached and U.S. forces were withdrawn from Vietnam and U.S. prisoners of war were released. In April 1975, South Vietnam surrendered to the North and Vietnam was reunited.” Still to this day people will argue the relevancy of the Vietnam War as well as the impact in which it had on America and its people. Citing: Mintz, S. (2007).
However, all of this is nulled by the fact that America was set back at all when it appeared that America was invincible. This caused a great distrust in the American people with the military leaders on how optimistic the war could really be. All of this occurred in the late sixties, which was a time of rebellion (and utter ignorance in some sense) going against mainstream ideas. The liberation of other countries was not important to the American people, regardless of
Over 1.4 million military personnel and an estimated 2 million civilians were killed in the war. The war ended with the defeat of South Vietnam. Ultimately Vietnam was unified. This war had a huge impact on Southeast Asia politically, socially, and economically. Southeast Asia is a sub region of Asia, consisting of the countries that are geographically south of China, east of India, west of New Guinea and north of Australia.
Q. Evaluate the effectiveness of the strategies and tactics used by the opposing sides during the Second Indochina War It is clear that from the various strategies and tactics used during the Second World War, that the communist North were far more effective than those of the US and ARVN forces. The communist North was predominantly fighting for nationhood and independence, and thus sustained a remarkably high morale throughout the war. Both the NVA and the VC utilised effective strategies and tactics, especially the decision to combine guerrilla warfare with more conventional strategies. On the other hand, the US and ARVN forces were less effective in using strategies and tactics as they were not accustomed to the terrain, and their conventional
The French were not involved in this war but a played a role in how and why it started. After World War II the French had control of Vietnam, The French rule was harsh and once Ho Chi Minh came to rule he tried for independence from French and as this happened communism came about. The U.S.A was worried about the spread of communism in Asia and believed that they too should have a democratic government. What sparked the interest of the United States was the “Domino Theory” which meant that the goal of communism was
The Vietnam War affected both the social and political views of this nation. This war took one great nation and completely divided it in two. As shown by examples in this paper, the political and social changes were drastic enough and demonstrated by enough people that it was able to move an entire generation. Even today, the different views of the Vietnam War are seen in the way the Vietnam Veterans Memorial is viewed by many today: “ A somber reminder of the loss of too many young Americans, and of what the war did to the United States and its messianic belief in its own overweening virtue.” [ (Sitikoff, 1999)