US Involvement In The Vietnam War
United States Involvement in the Vietnam War
History 308: The Vietnam War
May 1, 2013 Did the United States blindly plunged into an unnecessary conflict for wider Cold War considerations? Some characterize the conflict as a limited war fought to defend South Vietnam and its neighbors against communist aggression and bring a united peace for a self-governing Vietnam. But was it necessary and justifiable for the U.S. to intervene in Vietnam: to defend freedom and liberty or to protect imperial interests dictated by America 's world position and economic means? Although it had functioned as an independent state for over a thousand years, the French were just the latest to impose colonial dominance over Vietnam in the …show more content…
The emphasis on firepower and attrition emanated from an organizational structure strongly predisposed to conventional war-fighting approaches. Yet it proved both ineffectual and counterproductive given the unconventional nature of the Vietnam War. The U.S.’s bombing campaigns to try and gain control seemed to back fire as not only were the bombs inaccurate, the North Vietnamese Army continually rebuilt in the bomb’s wake and were undeterred. Our ground troops, who entered the country in 1965, were in unfamiliar territory. They didn’t understand the culture or the Vietnamese language of those they were trying to help and all too often they didn’t understand the reasons they were there risking their lives for a people who didn’t seem want them there in the first …show more content…
“We will not make the same old mistakes,” Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger proclaimed of Vietnam in 1969. Although Kissinger and Nixon wished to withdrawal from Vietnam under honorable conditions and not abandon the South Vietnamese, their policy suffered similar flaws as the administrations’ preceding them. Nixon’s ‘comprehensive peace plan’ was no better than Johnson’s so why would the North Vietnamese Army relent now? This resulted in four more years of bloody warfare in Indochina, a marked increase in domestic strife and a peace settlement that permitted American extrication but was neither honorable nor lasting. The North continued to demand the total and unconditional withdrawal of all U.S. forces from Vietnam and called for the establishment of a government from which the U.S. backed Thieu, would be
History 308: The Vietnam War
May 1, 2013 Did the United States blindly plunged into an unnecessary conflict for wider Cold War considerations? Some characterize the conflict as a limited war fought to defend South Vietnam and its neighbors against communist aggression and bring a united peace for a self-governing Vietnam. But was it necessary and justifiable for the U.S. to intervene in Vietnam: to defend freedom and liberty or to protect imperial interests dictated by America 's world position and economic means? Although it had functioned as an independent state for over a thousand years, the French were just the latest to impose colonial dominance over Vietnam in the …show more content…
The emphasis on firepower and attrition emanated from an organizational structure strongly predisposed to conventional war-fighting approaches. Yet it proved both ineffectual and counterproductive given the unconventional nature of the Vietnam War. The U.S.’s bombing campaigns to try and gain control seemed to back fire as not only were the bombs inaccurate, the North Vietnamese Army continually rebuilt in the bomb’s wake and were undeterred. Our ground troops, who entered the country in 1965, were in unfamiliar territory. They didn’t understand the culture or the Vietnamese language of those they were trying to help and all too often they didn’t understand the reasons they were there risking their lives for a people who didn’t seem want them there in the first …show more content…
“We will not make the same old mistakes,” Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger proclaimed of Vietnam in 1969. Although Kissinger and Nixon wished to withdrawal from Vietnam under honorable conditions and not abandon the South Vietnamese, their policy suffered similar flaws as the administrations’ preceding them. Nixon’s ‘comprehensive peace plan’ was no better than Johnson’s so why would the North Vietnamese Army relent now? This resulted in four more years of bloody warfare in Indochina, a marked increase in domestic strife and a peace settlement that permitted American extrication but was neither honorable nor lasting. The North continued to demand the total and unconditional withdrawal of all U.S. forces from Vietnam and called for the establishment of a government from which the U.S. backed Thieu, would be