Vietnam War Essay Sample The Vietnamese War was an American perpetrated conflict that took place between and , essentially fought on ideological grounds. The United States very much feared the Northern Vietnamese and the spread of communism in Southeast Asia. The Vietnam War was the second of the Indochina Wars and was fought Aug 28, · The Vietnam War is one infamous war in the history of America. It was the first war that America took part in an international stage and lost terribly. War statistics shows that the America lost a total of 58, lives and over , casualties. The war also ran into millions of dollars dispensed to finance the war The Vietnam War essay. Free Essays, War. The Vietnam War was probably one of the most controversial wars the United States had engaged in yet. It was unsuccessful in its efforts to curb the insurgency through its military efforts such that unquestionably, several problems exist with regard to the counterinsurgency strategies it had employed
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The Vietnam War was probably one of the most controversial wars the United States had engaged in yet. It was unsuccessful in its efforts to curb the insurgency through its military efforts such that unquestionably, several problems exist with regard to the counterinsurgency strategies it had employed. In face of this, the Administration opted for a Suppressive Counterinsurgency Strategy, vietnam war essay. This is the use of force to control behavior, rather than attempting to win support through social reform. The strategy was put into effect in Vietnam in the summer of and culminated in the shock of the TET offensive. In the summer ofthe Johnson Administration transformed its military strategy to one of reliance on US troops and firepower to defeat the National Liberation Front.
This is a strategy designed to take the war to the enemy, denying it freedom of movement and taking advantage of superior US firepower to deal the enemy with the heaviest blows. It constituted a purely military attrition solution for a politically-oriented insurgency. It aimed to separate the insurgents from their endogenous inputs and destroy the insurgency support system. To raise the costs of these things supporting the insurgents to an unacceptable level, tactics such as destroying food supplies, eliminating the protective cover of nature, forced-draft urbanization due to saturation bombing. And as a result of the late May-early June reassessment, the decision was taken to continue the Rolling Thunder to impede exogenous inputs and the primary focus was to center on the endogenous inputs and the insurgency system in the South.
In Junevietnam war essay, the merging of the attrition strategy with the Rolling Thunder operation and from them on until the post-TET reassessment of Marchthe US military strategy was based on the suppressive counterinsurgency model Shultz, Apparently, the suppressive model was seen as impractical in this case. Economics was used largely in the strategy as cost and benefits were being manipulated in order to affect the enemy. Yet, it is doubtful whether economics can penetrate the mind of the dedicated individual or group, especially in a revolutionary situation. The enemies in this case were passionate and dedicated individuals to their causes, therefore a strategy based on economics, cannot penetrate the minds of these individuals. By employing this strategy, vietnam war essay, the advocates were unable to take into account that negative payoffs actually tend to reinforce existing dedication Shultz, Also, vietnam war essay, it was suggested that United States had not used its military powers to their best advantage.
Of course, this was accounted for by the civilian leader of that time, President Lyndon B. Johnson and Secretary of the Defense Robert McNamara. They were the ones who imposed the strategy of Gradual Response. They were the ones who enforced several restrictions in the military that it could not do its job the way they should. Initially though, many do vietnam war essay believe the United States should be committing itself to Vietnam. Regardless that it was seen as necessary to forestall the advance of communism across Asia, as well as to maintain the US credibility in its global commitments, its actions were seen as more of over committing.
Some, vietnam war essay, former President Reagan included, have argued that it was too benevolent an act, this attempt of the United States to help a small country defend itself against a totalitarian neighbor set on conquest. Still, once committed, the United States should have seen to it that it had exerted the required level of force in such occupation. After all, the US military were well trained enough, and in general, there was an implicit faith that this body has sufficient skills and power to achieve the stated ends of American policies. It was definitely a big slap in the face to lose on such small war and therefore the use and misuse of these military instruments were duly criticized Herring, The conduct of the air war against North Vietnam was in vietnam war essay criticized to be incompetent.
McNamara and his people vietnam war essay indicted for ignoring resonantly former and time-vindicated principles of military strategy in their direction of the air war, vietnam war essay. Instead of designing it in a way that North Vietnam would be dealt with immediate and devastating blows that it would be crippled as a result to further wage war in the South, the Air Force and Navy was instructed to diffuse random targets. A gradual response strategy may be good ideally but it was a disaster in reality especially in urgent situations such as this, when escalation of the conflict was too possible and too hazardous Herring, By employing this ineffective strategy, vietnam war essay, the North Vietnamese was given the initiative and the time to adjust to the attacks and bombings they were receiving.
Not only that, the rigorous restrictions imposed on these military people and the overly centralized system of this military body resulted in the not hitting of the United States of the most important targets in the North Vietnam and those hit were not struck resolutely. Some of the bomb attacks were actually done for political purposes that it further undermined the US capability in warfare. Many agreed therefore that had only the US dealt with these Vietnamese insurgents quickly and decisively, then the outcome of the war would have been a reverse.
Albeit just too slow, the strategy would have still worked if the United States had continued to prosecute the war vigorously. When vietnam war essay United States altered it strategy in to the TET Offensive, it created an unmitigated disaster for North Vietnam and a chance for the US to finish the war with a knockout blow. Yet, vietnam war essay, because of an overly cautious civilian leadership and a negligent media, this opportunity was not seized, the initial quite successful battles using the TET were stopped and this determined the outcome.
The vietnam war essay, despite existence of massive evidences to the contrary, panicked and set out to believe and made everyone think so well that these battles would end in lose-lose situations, no matter how the enemies would be defeated. Their panicky stand created widespread public disillusionment at home and forced a much-undecided Johnson to reject the plans for a major counteroffensive and rather pursue a negotiated settlement. The United States ironically snatched defeat in the jaws of victory Herring, Inwhen the Nixon Administration secured a peace settlement through the timely use and decisive use of vietnam war essay power ina bitter Congress pandering to the public weariness of Vietnam, denied Nixon the means in order to uphold the agreement.
American aid to South Vietnam was ruthlessly slashed. This impeded on the morale of an ally of more than 20 years and was in effect, an encouragement to North Vietnam to launch the last offensive. Indirectly then, the Congress actually handed South Vietnam over to Hanoi Herring, An obvious setback in the US counterinsurgency efforts was on how it was too lacking on imagination and its strict adherence to traditions and doctrines. Even though things were obviously not working out as they should be, the military just continue doing what they are used to doing, vietnam war essay.
What the United States had failed to do was set up a warfare designed to counter insurgent situations per se, instead of relying too much on conventional war doctrines Herring, Two misjudgments were seen to be the determining factors of the unsuccessful outcomes. The media had of course played a part by imploring the immorality of using force in a modern world. After all, the situation was urgent, vietnam war essay more apt strategy for such case should have been chosen. As a sign of this bad choice, the military leaders had decided to fight a conventional war in a revolutionary war setting, a very dire strategic failure.
The basic mistake here is fighting the war in a manner that made failure a likely possibility. The setting of a counterinsurgency war in the environment of Vietnam posed anything but traditional problems, therefore it is nothing but natural that a strategy deemed as traditional attack mission of the infantry as such was employed would backfire. Moreover, vietnam war essay, attention and resources were diverted away from pacification, an indispensable ingredient for success in Vietnam. Whatever results the military got from their strategies were all too temporary. Large numbers of troops were indeed killed, vietnam war essay, but they were quickly replaced, vietnam war essay.
Driving out enemy forces out of their monopoly in South Vietnam was again ephemeral, vietnam war essay they could easily return when the US troops divert their attentions into other problem areas Herring, vietnam war essay, Skip to content Home Free Essays The Vietnam War essay. Related essays: Leadership and Command General William E Depuy and General Gerhard Johann David von Scharnhorst.
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Feb 27, · Why the United States Lost the Vietnam War. Essay Submission for the. Don Carlos Kennedy Memorial Scholarship. Vietnam Veterans of America. Texas State Council. Submitted by. Allen W. Jeffery. February 27, Us Involvement In The Vietnam War Essay. The lead up to the Vietnam war is very significant to why the U.S started to get involved in the war. Once the U.S became a big role in the war and now that Johnson had became President the U.S begun to changed. How the U.S got out of the war was a significant thing that the whole world knew about Feb 15, · Concerned about the situation, the Kennedy administration decided to increase aid to South Vietnam. The armed forces and military advisers were also provided to the Republic of Vietnam in order to assist them in fighting partisans. We will write a custom Essay on Vietnam War: History and Facts specifically for you. for only $ $11/page
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