Vietnam War Essay, Research Paper

By the late 1960s, the conflict in Vietnam had escalated to a limited war involving approximately half a

million military personnel and billions of dollars a year. The American presence in Indochina had steadily

increased from the Truman administration to Kennedy’s decision to initiate greater American involvement in 1961.

The peak of 543,000 American forces was achieved in 1969 and was the culmination of US aid to the nation of

South Vietnam. The US policy since the beginning of the Cold War had been containment of Communist

aggression and advances. US intentions of ensuring democracy throughout the world had not changed, however

the US did not support the right of self-determination in Vietnam in scheduled elections in 1956. Rather an

incorrect analysis of the Vietnam situation: inaccurately identifying it with the previous Korean quagmire and the

overall attitudes of indiscriminate fear of any communist movement, regardless of circumstances, prevailed over

American foreign policy and helped begin an ill-advised escalation of American involvement into the Vietnamese

civil war.

The brief excerpts from The Arrogance of Power address these sentiments. J. William Fulbright discusses the

reasons for American involvement in Vietnam as stemming significantly from previous American experiences,

namely Korea and McCarthyism. Both factors created an environment where all communist movements were

viewed with fear and hostility. More forthright American involvement was initiated in these prejudiced times, with

indirect military assistance to the French in Indochina in 1950, disregarding important considerations of

nationalism and anti-colonialism. America’s involvement in Vietnam violated the terms of the Geneva Agreement

of 1954 and American intervention was also justified by the American recognition of the demarcation line

between North and South Vietnam as a valid political boundary, contrary to the Geneva Agreements specific

statement that the line was strictly provisional. To find a solution, Fulbright declares that we must recognize that

nationalism is the strongest political force in the world and we must therefore adjust our priorities accordingly, to

accommodate the possibility of a communist influenced nationalist movement. We must allow a communist

influence in the government instead of attempting to repress a genuinely nationalist revolution, which is the case

in Vietnam. In conclusion, Fulbright states that the Vietnam War drains valuable resources, which could be better

spent on improving the general status of our country.

Because American policy prioritized anti-communism over sympathy for nationalism, this created a dangerously

erroneous view that the conflict was simply another incident of communist aggression that had to be contained at

all costs, like Korea. Furthermore, the US violated the scheduled elections in 1956 by supporting “President Ngo

Dinh Diem in his refusal to hold the elections provided for in the Geneva Accords, presumably because he feared

that the communists would win . . .” This not only showed a fundamental problem with US policy, but also the

rejection of self-determination, which contrarily Johnson had stated as one of the reasons for US involvement in

Indochina. According to Johnson, the US was in Vietnam, sacrificing lives to support “a world where each people

may choose its own path to change.” Yet, the US simply violated the Geneva Accords with increased American

support and intervention.

Although the US military intervention had bolstered Diem’s government, it did not solve the

fundamental problem of establishing a viable and stable nation in South Vietnam. In addition, US strategy

proceeded not only in ignorance of the local circumstances, but apparently didn’t even have a clear plan to

establish a lasting government or to effectively defeat the communists. This was compounded by the fact that the

US would not tolerate an unfavorable outcome of national elections, particularly a communist victory, and

self-determination as a right appeared all but non-existent.

The US was in a complex situation with no clear-cut path to victory; however Fulbright suggests that

we must recognize the fundamental problem with our foreign policy. He says that we must accept a government

elected and supported by the people, even if it is communist because “American interests are better served by

supporting nationalism than by opposing communism.” Basically, the US needs to rethink their foreign policy in

general and formulate a response in Vietnam and elsewhere according to all the factors of the local situation,

such as recognition of the power of nationalism and the recognition that not all revolutionary movements are

solely communist oriented.

This is not the only instance where US intervention was justified on the basis of defending freedom

against communist movements. Intervention in the Dominican Republic in April 1965 and as recently as the

American invasion in 1983 of Grenada were just a few examples of American suppression of self-determination

and support of repressive, undemocratic regimes, strikingly similar to US support of Diem and the other regimes

that followed in South Vietnam. The US needs to seriously reevaluate its stance on foreign policy and to stop

wasting money on anymore “open-ended” wars.

Bibliography

Fulbright, J. William, The Arrogance of Power. (1966)

Johnson, Lyndon B. “Our Duty in Southeast Asia” (1965)

William A. Link et al., American Epoch: A History of the United States since 1900 Affluence and Anxiety 1940-1992,

Volume II (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1993)

In the early 1960?s, North Vietnam wished to unify North and South Vietnam

through military force. Since the United States feared the spread of communism in Asia,

John F. Kennedy provided economic and military aid to South Vietnam to prevent the

takeover by North Vietnam. At this time, this was still a civil war. The United States

were not yet officially involved.

The North Vietnamese resented this intervention by the United Sates and so, three

Vietnamese torpedo boats fired on the U.S. destroyer, ” Maddox ” on August 2nd, 1964.

The ” Maddox ” had been in the Gulf of Tonkin ( international waters ), thirty miles off

the coast of Vietnam. On August 3rd, 1964, President Johnson gave the right ” to attack

with the objective of destroying attacking forces “. Retaliation air attacks began on

August 3rd. Their aim was to destroy North Vietnam’s gunboat capability. As two more

United States destroyers were supposedly sunk, more air and sea forces were sent. Up

until now, the U.S. had refrained from direct combat. This is when the United States

formally entered the Vietnam War. The U.S. did this for two reasons. We wished to

maintain the independence of South Vietnam and we had to prove to allied nations that

we would help them resist Communist takeover. As Congress was about to vote whether

or not to allow the combat to move into North Vietnam, the North Vietnamese attacked a

major U.S. airbase at Bein Hoa. On February 7th, 1965, Johnson ordered retaliation

bombing on North Vietnam. Rolling Thunder was the name of this operation. It’s purpose

was to put pressure on Hanoi and convince them that Communism could not and would

not win.

At the end of 1965, one hundred and eighty thousand Americans were in South

Vietnam under General William S. Westmoreland. The U.S. mainly depended on

superior firepower and helicopters. The Viet Cong and North Vietnamese depended on

surprise attack and concealment.

The United States soldiers realized that the war would last for many more years

and wondered if the U.S. war effort could succeed. At the end of 1968, The number of

American troops in South Vietnam reached it’s peak of 542,000 men. The Viet Cong and

North Vietnamese launched a major invasion against the United States called the Tet

offensive from January 30th to February 25th, 1968. At the Khe Sanh U.S. firebase, there

was a major ground battle. There was a siege from January 21st to April 14th. It was

thought to be the ” American Dien Bien Phu “. The United States turned it around

however, with their victory at Hue. By 1969, combat decreased rapidly and American

troops began to return home.

The role of Communism was extremely important in this conflict. Communism

was one of the main reasons of why the United States entered the war in the first place.

The U.S. ” had ” to enter the war to stop the spread of Communism in Asia since North

Vietnam was Communist. Had North Vietnam succeeded in converting Vietnam into a

Communist country, it could become very powerful and go on to ” persuade ” other

countries to become Communist. The U.S. believed that Vietnam could become

powerful. They were amazed that France, an Allied power, had been beaten by the

Vietnamese.

North Vietnam was a Communist country. The man who had proclaimed

Vietnam independent, Ho Chi Minh, was a Communist. During the war with the French,

Ho Chi Minh took refuge in northern Vietnam and settled there with his followers. He

founded the Indochina Communist Party and the Viet Minh. He became the president of

North Vietnam from 1945 to 1969. North Vietnam was a poor area and was cut off from

the agricultural benefit of South Vietnam. Ho Chi Minh was forced to ask assistance

from major Communist allies – the Soviet Union and China. Both aided North Vietnam

before and during the war.

The North Vietnamese invaded South Vietnam. They wanted to use military

tactics to force unification. The United States did not allow their unification. The U.S.

knew that the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese wished to establish one ruling

government, the Communist Party. This led to the Vietnam War and U.S. intervention.

On January 27th, 1973, South Vietnam Communist forces ( Viet Cong ), North

Vietnam, South Vietnam and the United States agreed on many things during the Paris

peace talks. The talks lasted over two years before any agreements were made that suited

all of them. The forces involved agreed that U.S. troops would gradually withdraw from

Vietnam and all prisoners of war would be released. They also agreed that South

Vietnam had the right to choose their own future, whether or not to unite with North

Vietnam. North Vietnamese troops were given the right to remain in South Vietnam but

they could not be reinforced. President Nixon finalized the accepted treaty and began to

remove United States troops.

After the peace talks, fighting continued between the North and South

Vietnamese. North Vietnam went against all that was outlined at the peace talks after the

majority of American soldiers left.

The military involvement in Vietnam is directly related to the political management of the military throughout the war. The military controlled by the politicians. The micro management of the military by the White House for political gain is the primary reason for both the length and cost, both monetary and human, of the Vietnam War. One of the largest problems was the lack of a clear objective in the war and the

support to accomplish it. The politicians controlled the war in Vietnam. It was to be a limited war. The military was never allowed to fight the war how they thought that they needed to in order to win it.

To conclude on the Vietnam War, the political management of the war made it unwinnable. The military was at the mercy of politicians who knew very little about what needed to be done militarily in order to win the war. There is an enormous difference between political judgment and military judgment. This difference is the primary reason for the outcome of the Vietnam War.

Vietnam War, military struggle fought in Vietnam from 1959 to 1975. It began as a determined attempt by Communist guerrillas (the so-called Vietcong) in the South, backed by Communist North Vietnam, to overthrow the government of South Vietnam. The struggle widened into a war between South Vietnam and North Vietnam and ultimately into a limited international conflict. The United States and some 40 other countries supported South Vietnam by supplying troops and munitions, and the USSR and the People’s Republic of China furnished munitions to North Vietnam and the Vietcong. On both sides, however, the burden of the war fell mainly on the civilians.

The war also engulfed Laos, where the Communist Pathet Lao fought the government from 1965 to 1973 and succeeded in abolishing the monarchy in 1975; and Cambodia, where the government surrendered in 1973 to the Communist Khmer Rouge.

This article is concerned primarily with the military aspects of the war; for further discussion of the historical and political issues involved, see Vietnam: History.

Vietnam

(1945-54). The war developed as a sequel to the struggle (1946-54) between the French, who were the rulers of Indochina before World War II, and the Communist-led Vietminh, or League for the Independence of Vietnam, founded and headed by the revolutionary leader Ho Chi Minh. Having emerged as the strongest of the nationalist groups that fought the Japanese occupation of French Indochina during World War II, the league was determined to resist the reestablishment of French colonial rule and to implement political and social changes.

Following the surrender of Japan to the Allies in August 1945, Vietminh guerrillas seized the capital city of Hanoi and forced the abdication of Emperor Bao Dai. On September 2 they declared Vietnam to be independent and announced the creation of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, commonly called North Vietnam, with Ho Chi Minh as president. France officially recognized the new state, but the subsequent inability of the Vietminh and France to reach satisfactory political and economic agreements led to armed conflict beginning in December 1946. With French backing Bao Dai set up the state of Vietnam, commonly called South Vietnam, on July 1, 1949, and established a new capital at Saigon (now Ho Chi Minh City).

The following year, the U.S. officially recognized the Saigon government, and to assist it, U.S. President Harry S. Truman dispatched a military assistance advisory group to train South Vietnam in the use of U.S. weapons. In the meantime, the two main adversaries in Vietnam-France and the Vietminh-were steadily building up their forces. The decisive battle of the war developed in the spring of 1954 as the Vietminh attacked the French fortress of Dien Bien Phu in northern Vietnam. On May 8, 1954, after a 55-day siege, the French surrendered.

On the same day, both North and South Vietnamese delegates met with those of France, Great Britain, the Soviet Union, the United States, Communist China, and the two other Indochinese states, Laos and Cambodia, in Geneva, to discuss the future of all of Indochina. Under accords drawn up at the conference, France and North Vietnam agreed to a truce. It was further agreed to partition the country temporarily along the 17th parallel, with the north going to the Communists and the south placed under the control of the Saigon government. The agreement stipulated that elections for reunification of the country would be held in 1956.

Neither the U.S. nor the Saigon government agreed to the Geneva accords, but the U.S. announced it would do nothing to undermine the agreement. Once the French had withdrawn from Vietnam, the U.S. moved to bolster the Saigon government militarily and, as asserted by some observers, engaged in covert activities against the Hanoi government. On October 24, 1954, President Dwight D. Eisenhower offered South Vietnam direct economic aid, and the following February, U.S. military advisers were dispatched to train South Vietnamese forces. American support for the Saigon government continued even after Bao Dai was deposed, in a referendum on October 23, 1955, and South Vietnam was made a republic, with Ngo Dinh Diem as president. One of Diem’s first acts was to announce that his government would refuse to hold reunification elections, on the grounds that the people of North Vietnam would not be free to express their will and because of the probability of falsified votes (although Diem and other South Vietnamese officials were also accused of fraudulent election practices).

Introduction

The American Civil War was probably the most important period of arms development in history. The Civil War was appropriately called ?the last of the ancient wars and first of the modern wars?. This was because many revolutionary breakthroughs occurred in this war, yet the military still relied on some of its old weapons and techniques. In this report, I will elaborate on some of the guns and ammunition used during the civil wars. I feel that the weapons are the most important part of a war.

Weapons are the key element of war. They can determine who wins or loses. When it comes down to it, wars do not depend on the quality of fighting, they depend on the development of arms. Whoever develops the most advanced weapons will most likely be successful. This has been proved throughout history.

The rifles and pistols used in the Civil War were basically more advanced versions of the ones used in the Revolutionary War. The rifles and pistols were more accurate, had a longer range, and were more powerful. The guns were much more efficient to use also. The Civil War introduced the world?s first rifle and pistol cartridges and the first repeating rifles. This made reloading much easier and gave the soldier the ability to shoot faster. This was greatly improved from the 2 minutes it took to load in the Revolutionary War. All of these improvements in weaponry placed the odds greatly against the soldier. In fact, more people died in the American Civil War than in all of America’s wars put together.

The rifle, once again, played the greatest role in this war. It was the most used weapon in the Civil War. Rifles of the Civil War were the first to use cartridges and were very accurate. This made a battle shorter because many accurate bullets could be fired in a short time.

The first sniper style rifles were used in the Civil War. They were known as Benchrest Rifles. Now armed with a rifle which could fire a round accurately up to 1,800 yards, long range riflemen became a real threat. Benchrest rifles were so named because they were so heavy that they were easiest to fire with the barrel resting on a bench or other support. Before the war, primarily target shooters and sport hunters had owned these specialty muzzle-loaded rifles. With an average length of about 50 inches, a benchrest rifle weighed up to 40 pounds, making it an impractical choice for standard infantry duty. The very tight fit of the bullet and the bore needed for range and accuracy made the weapon very slow to load and put the user at a disadvantage on the battlefield. These guns usually were used with the long-tube telescopic sight. Morgan James invented this sight in 1848. It only had a mere 4x magnification, but for a good marksman, this was sufficient for an accurate shot. The Benchrest rifle was not only a rifle, but also a status symbol. Only the best sharpshooters were allowed the Benchrest rifle. Any soldier with one of these rifles were highly respected as a trusted soldier.

The first machine-gun type weapon ever used in combat was built for the Confederate War Dept in Sept 1861 by Confederate Captain R.S. Williams. The Williams rapid-fire gun was first used in May 1862 at the Battle of Seven Pines and worked so well that the War Dept ordered 42 more of them. The gun was actually a crank-operated, very light artillery piece that fired a one-pound projectile with a range of 2,000 yards. It was manned by a crew of three and could fire at a rate of 65 rounds per minute. One operator aimed and fired the weapon by turning the crank, the second placed a paper cartridge into the breech, and the third placed the percussion cap. There was one problem with this gun, though; it was very prone to overheating.

The weapon whose invention possibly had the greatest impact on the future of war was the Gatling gun. The Gatling gun was a crank-operated rapid fire gun. It did not have the overheating problem of the Williams gun and could fire an amazing 1,200 rounds per minute. The balls were fed into the gun by gravity through a hopper mounted on top of the gun. The inventor was Dr. Richard J. Gatling of North Carolina. He invented the weapon to curb man’s desire for war by making a device which would make war too horrible to contemplate. His philosophy obviously did not work, but he did make a large contribution to future wars. Variations of the Gatling gun are still used today. Unfortunately, the Gatling gun was unable to make an effect on the civil war because the U.S. government didn?t approve of it. When it was finally used, it was during the battle of Petersburg which was too late in the war to make a large impact.

Pistols also had an impact on the Civil War. Probably the most effective was the LeMat percussion Revolver. It was unique because it had two barrels. A cylinder that held nine rounds fired through the top barrel and the bottom barrel harbored a charge of buckshot. It was a foreign gun, invented in France by Dr. Jean Alexandre Francois LeMat. When the Civil War began, the Confederate army made contracts with Dr. LeMat for a large number of these pistols. The LeMat Percussion Revolver was a very effective and reliable weapon, which made it very popular during the civil war.

Cannons, mortars, and howitzers were widely used. While these three weapons are similar, there are distinct differences in their style. Cannons were used for firing straight into something. Mortars are usually in a fixed position and fire at their target in an upward arc. They are not very accurate and were usually aimed by the amount of gunpowder used. Howitzers arc their shells onto a target, similar to a mortar. They can also be used to fire straight into a target like a cannon. They were the perfect combination

between a cannon and a mortar.

The weapons of the Civil War were state of the art for their time. They pave the way for the weapons used today. Although the Civil War was one of the bloodiest wars in history, a lot of good came out of it. Weapon technology was greatly improved; we would not be where we are today if it had not been for the Civil War. The greatest accomplishment of this war was the abolition of slavery. Slavery was a terrible thing that had to be stopped, and weapons made it happen. Without weapons and the Civil War, we may still have slavery in this country today.

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