...Many historians viewed Kennedy as a young, naïve president who lacked a clear policy but the counter argument is that Kennedy was decisive and assertive. In order to judge whether John F. Kennedy lacked a clear policy in Vietnam we have to compare the policies of Dwight Eisenhower’s in Vietnam and John F. Kennedys policies and how it contradicted with their ideologies. The view by some historians is that The Dwight Eisenhower foreign policy was popularly known as the “New Look”. This policy aimed to maintain the American financial economy while Eisenhower was planning the Cold war and continue the containment of communism regime. Also, the “New look” policy relied heavily on nuclear weapons to stop communism. Therefore the policy was been...
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...Vietnam War Taylor Davis MLS 2006 McDonough Vietnam War The Vietnam War was a disaster from the start for America. America was outnumbered and did not have a clear strategy going into the war. Technically, congress never declared war on Vietnam, so America nor did win or lose the war (Triebwasser). Neither America nor Vietnam won the war as it is still considered as stalemate. As Stewart said, “Meanwhile, the war appeared to be in a state of equilibrium. Only an extraordinary effort by one side or the other could bring a decision” (Stewart, 2010, pg. 330). This war did not go according to plan and the outcome of this war did not favor America. Many men were killed in this war and other injured from enemy fire and gases that were used during the war. America lost the fight (war) in Vietnam. Between the Government and the landscape of Vietnam made it difficult for America to win the war. There are many reasons why America did not succeed in Vietnam and lost the war. The effect of the Cold War was the Vietnam War. The war was to stop Vietnam from becoming a communist nation. America was out to stop communist from spreading into other countries. The effect of Vietnam becoming a communist country would not affect anyone in the world except Vietnam itself. As Pagel stated, “The actual value of Vietnam as a territory, economy or political presence on the world stage was insignificant” (Pagel, 2012). As an outcome of the war, Vietnam is still a communist nation. America failed...
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...Kennedy and Johnson unable to avoid increasing involvement in Vietnam? The United States’ involvement in the Vietnam War proved to be the most controversial episode in American history. There are many influences why the USA stayed so closely involved with Vietnam, including strategic hamlets, secretaries and personal beliefs. In the election campaign of 1960 Kennedy promoted himself as being tough on communism. He supported the Truman Doctrine, and believed in the ‘domino theory’, the idea that communism would inevitably spread from North Vietnam to Laos and Cambodia. His slogan was “Vietnam is the place”, which helped him gain support. Kennedy's failures at the Vienna summit in 1961, and the Bay of Pigs fiasco in Cuba, forced him to stiffen his position on Vietnam, not wanting to lose American citizens support. There was the curse of appeasement, as Eisenhower had not done enough during his time as President. Kennedy needed to prove himself as he was a democrat. The last democrat who was President lost the Korea War. He also had a fear of attack because of this by the republicans, as US citizens thought he was soft on communism. He was seen as a friend of Vietnam. In 1961, Robert McNamara was the Secretary of Defence as was known as a “Hawk”. This meant he was for the war and for military solutions. He was a close confidant with both Kennedy and Johnson, and strongly believed in the USA’s commitment to South Vietnam. He was a liberal intellectual who wanted freedom. However,...
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...The North Vietnamese Communist leadership's ability to reassess and adapt during the Vietnam War was reflected in how well they combined guerilla and conventional operations to achieve their strategic goal of unifying Vietnam under communist rule. Throughout the conflict, the Viet Cong (VC) were employed to conduct guerilla operations while North Vietnamese Army (NVA) and VC "main force" units were used to transition to conventional operations. Guerilla operations enabled Hanoi to inflict a steady flow of casualties on US forces which increased anti-war sentiment in America. NVA and VC main force conventional operations reinforced the US Army's conventional approach to the fight which caused the Americans to alienate the people of South Vietnam. By alienating the South Vietnamese people, the Americans enhanced the VC's ability to conduct guerilla operations and control rural population centers which weakened the credibility of the Government of South Vietnam (GVN). The combined effects of guerilla and conventional operations supported the North Vietnamese strategy of a protracted conflict that was sure to weaken the resolve of the United States and eventually defeat the GVN. The relationship between conventional and guerilla operations was a key element of the Vietnamese communists’ “Dau Tranh” strategy to fight and win the Vietnam War. A brief description of the Dua Tranh (meaning struggle) strategy is appropriate since it was the basis for North Vietnam’s success. The strategy...
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...the left to make comparisons to the American experience in the Vietnam War. These people argue that the United States has put itself into an in-extractable “quagmire” from which there is no feasible withdrawal. This type of reasoning by historical comparison is not wise because no two historical events are completely alike. In the case of Iraq and Vietnam, extreme caution should be exercised in comparing two wars so far apart in historical circumstances, geography, and time. It becomes pretty obvious that the differences between the two conflicts greatly outnumber the similarities. This is especially true in the strategic and military dimensions of the two wars. There is simply no comparison between the environment, the scale of military presence, losses incurred over time, the quality of enemy resistance, the role and scope of enemy allies, and the duration of open warfare style combat. There are, however, two political parts of the Iraq and Vietnam wars that are similar in nature: our attempts at nation-building in a foreign culture, and our trying to sustaining domestic popular support in a long and drawn out war against insurgents. Policymakers should have an understanding of the reasons for U.S. political failure in South Vietnam, as well as for the Johnson and Nixon administrations’ failure to sustain popular support for the accomplishment of U.S. military objectives in Vietnam. A repeat of those failures in Iraq could have uncalculated consequences for U.S. foreign...
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...the left to make comparisons to the American experience in the Vietnam War. These people argue that the United States has put itself into an in-extractable “quagmire” from which there is no feasible withdrawal. This type of reasoning by historical comparison is not wise because no two historical events are completely alike. In the case of Iraq and Vietnam, extreme caution should be exercised in comparing two wars so far apart in historical circumstances, geography, and time. It becomes pretty obvious that the differences between the two conflicts greatly outnumber the similarities. This is especially true in the strategic and military dimensions of the two wars. There is simply no comparison between the environment, the scale of military presence, losses incurred over time, the quality of enemy resistance, the role and scope of enemy allies, and the duration of open warfare style combat. There are, however, two political parts of the Iraq and Vietnam wars that are similar in nature: our attempts at nation-building in a foreign culture, and our trying to sustaining domestic popular support in a long and drawn out war against insurgents. Policymakers should have an understanding of the reasons for U.S. political failure in South Vietnam, as well as for the Johnson and Nixon administrations’ failure to sustain popular support for the accomplishment of U.S. military objectives in Vietnam. A repeat of those failures in Iraq could have uncalculated consequences for U.S. foreign policy...
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...Dominic Rycraft HUMN 303H Professor McCarthy February 20, 2015 A Broken Union The American Dream is the ideal that every US citizen should have an equal opportunity to achieve success and prosperity through hard work, determination, and initiative. Many say that they have now made that dream a reality. In the early 50’s this wasn’t the case, we still had that dream but many obstacles to get through to achieve that dream. During this time America will be put through strain and heartache to prosper and become the country that many look toward for freedom. The 50’s were a time where we had to take a step back and reanalyze because of the Civil Rights Movement and the Vietnam War. These two major events that happened in America may have shaped us in the wrong way. During this time in America, we were divided as a whole. It wasn’t one country but two, not by where you lived but rather by your skin color. If you were born with the wrong skin color you would be penalized for this. “Although African Americans’ subjugation holds a special place in U.S. history, they were by no means the only important group facing severe marginalization during the 1950s and since. Native Americans as well as Latinos and Latinas were subject to systematic racial discrimination, dispossession of property, and hate crimes.” (Super, 2014) America was a dark place if you weren’t white and that held us back as a nation. To end racial segregation and discrimination against black Americans, the African-American...
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...The Vietnam War was a long armed conflict between North Vietnam, its allies the Viet Cong against South Vietnam and their allies, the United States. North Vietnam was fighting to reunify Vietnam, however North Vietnam was a communist government, ruled by Ho Chi Minh. It was believed that if South Vietnam had fallen to communism, than the rest of Asia would follow. This was known as the Domino Theory. In order to help stop the spread of communism, the U.S. fought alongside South Vietnam. Nonetheless, after a long, costly war, the U.S. had lost the Vietnam war, which would not stop South Vietnam fall to communism. The United States had entered the Vietnam War after the Gulf of Tonkin incident, where North Vietnamese had fired upon U.S. Navy destroyers in 1964. This incident had compelled Congress to take action. Thus, the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution was made, which gave President Johnson permission to take all necessary actions. The...
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...Book Review: Tet Offensive 1968: Turning Point in Vietnam Organized by the North Vietnamese General, Vo Nguyen Giap, the Tet Offensive aimed to impregnate an uprising in South Vietnam. However, horrific battle scenes that took place in Saigon, Hue and other cities resulted in a cataclysmic defeat for the North. James Arnold, author of Tet Offensive 1968: Turning Point in Vietnam, does a substantial assessment of detailing the plans and purposes involved in the key battle of the Vietnam conflict. The author explains how, despite American and South Vietnamese victory in the battle, the American public and their political leaders came to perceive the war as lost. The book, with just over ninety pages long, articulates a major military offensive from two perspectives. It is a book that leaves out essential key components because to offer an imperative discussion of such a massive engagement like the Tet Offensive in limited space is nearly impossible. However, the author offers a surprisingly well written introduction to the operation. Arnold includes illustrations captioned with a description for a concise understanding of the offensive through visual effects. The illustrations are used to portray American soldiers, North Vietnamese Army (NVA) soldiers, and VC (Viet Cong) soldiers as isolated individuals who were physically and emotionally deprived. Photographs are also used in Arnold’s book. Some photos included in the book are Russian weapons used by the NVA and VC, camouflaged...
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...Most Americans sent to Vietnam were chosen by the draft. The Selective Service System, as it was called, favored the middle and upper classes. College students could avoid service, as could those in “critical” occupations, such as teachers and engineers. As the war escalated, the draft was changed so that some students were called up through a lottery system. Still, those who knew the medical requirements might be able to produce a doctor’s affidavit certifying a weak knee, flat feet, or bad eyes—all grounds for flunking the physical. Of the 1200 men in Harvard’s class of 1970, only 56 served in the military, and only 2 of them in V The poorest and least educated were also likely to escape service, because the Armed Forces Qualification Test and the physical often screened them out. Thus the sons of blue-collar America were most likely to accept Uncle Sam’s letter of induction. Once in uniform, the sons of Hispanic and black Americans who had fewer skills were more often assigned to combat duty. The draft also made it a relatively young man’s war. The average age of soldiers serving in Vietnam was 19, compared with the average of 26 for World War II. Most American infantry came to Vietnam ready and willing to fight. But physical and psychological hardships took their toll. An American search-and-destroy mission would fight its way into a Communist-controlled hamlet, clear and burn it, and move on—only to be ordered back days or weeks later because the enemy had moved in again...
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...The American Revolution and the Vietnam War were lost because of poor leadership, political restraints, lack of public support and failure to seize the initiative. There was no clear strategy, little awareness of the type of fight that the enemy was waging, no understanding of the enemy's culture, and terrain where the fighting was taken place. The enemy had the upper hand, with the pace, where to fight, the length and the duration of the engagements. The Soldiers were put in a difficult situation, they had no local source of manpower, or replenishment. The insurgents lived among the people, helped them in their everyday chores, so they were willing to help them when needed. In some instances these Peasants and Colonists were themselves the...
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...To what extent was the growing opposition in the USA responsible for Johnsons failure to defeat communist forces in Vietnam in the years 1963-1968? Some people may believe that the growing opposition in the US was the main factor towards Johnsons failure to beat communism due to reasons such as the failure of US tactics and US morale hitting rock bottom. However there are a variety of other factors which may also have had an input, these include the extreme amount of media coverage and youth/civil rights protests. Firstly, it is obvious that the failure of US tactics, leading to opposition within the us, played a vital role towards Johnsons failure at beating the communists. This is after the US public realised that various tactics such as Operation Rolling Thunder, Search And Destroy Missions and Chemical Warfare often harmed innocent people, causing am outrage at the way the war was being fought. This is then further displayed by how between the years 63-68, 3895 US soldiers were killed in Vietnam, ending in many calls for Johnson to pull out of Vietnam, a war which many believed the USA had no place to be involved in. Johnson knew the public opinion was extremely important due to the fast approaching election, and so couldn’t push the army to its full potential due to fear of losing his place as president, thus showing how the growing opposition in the USA was responsible for Johnsons failure to defends communist forces in the years 1963-68. On the other hand, I can easily...
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...The Vietnam War Vietnam is a small country in the Southeast Asia. It has a population of 80,000,000 people. The official language of Vietnam is Vietnamese. The capital city is Hanoi. Although the country has many strong points, it also has a bloody history that includes wars. One of the greatest wars that the country has been through is the Vietnam War-the War against the US. The war started in 1954 and ended in 1975. The Vietnam War was a great failure to the US on both warfare and domestic issues. The history dates back to the 1940s when Vietnam was fighting for its freedom from the colonial French. The not giving in policies of French triggered the anger in Vietnamese. In the beginning of the twentieth century many has joined numbers of movements to gain back freedom. Later Vietnamese from all over the country would gather under the leader of Ho Chi Minh, (Neu, 2005, p.2). The man who led the revolutionary army of Vietnam to fight for freedom was Ho Chi Minh. He had so much influence to the country and to the world. As Charles E. Neu said of Ho around the time he was a leader “Ho became one of the great revolutionary leaders of the twentieth century”, (Neu, 2005, p.3). He was the man behind all the actions. In 1941, the Viet Minh or the Independent of Vietnam were formed under the lead of Ho Chi Minh, (Neu, 2005, p.3). Through many battles and hundreds of thousands of lives has been taken, Vietnam finally emancipated from France. On May 7, 1954 the end of the battle of...
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...impact of the conflict in Vietnam but I am going to be talking about the 3 main points. They are how it was a military success, how it failed in its military objectives and how it didn’t have an impact on the NVA/VC because of their change of their tactics. In my opinion I don’t think the US bombing had a great impact on the conflict in Vietnam but it did have little impact. The first point is Operation Rolling Thunder being a military success. Operation Rolling Thunder was the largest bombing campaign used by the US it lasted for 3 ½ years. For 2 years intensive bombing in Hanoi by the port of Haipong forcing the North Vietnamese to the negotiating table. As it shows from a CIA top secret document and it quotes “Four specific buildings in the Vinh Linh town were destroyed.” To support this quote is another from a CIA top secret document . “Headquarters of district administrative committee, state trade office, a theatre and a hospital were also destroyed.” This shows that ORT was a military success as it had done what it intended on doing therefore it had a positive impact as it destroyed military targets. On the other hand another point is a failure in its military objectives, and had no impact. The military objectives were to kill the Vietcong and bomb them in to surrender. This became a problem for US bombing campaigns as it was hard to tell the Vietcong from the citizens of Vietnam and lots of innocent people lost their lives. The landscape of Vietnam was destroyed and this...
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...obstacles in its path, threatening and challenging its wealth. The United States is a Country of free thinking with fruitful opportunities for the everyday people. The United States has faced many economic upswings, such as the baby boom era; has experienced excessive military spending, like the Reagan era; has dealt with wars, like Vietnam; and has even experienced political failure, like the Bay of Pigs and President Kennedy. Although we have faced many disappointing turns, and has been tested with great obstacles and difficulties, the lasting power of this country cannot be tested and will not be waivered. 1950’s –Boom Goes the Economy Baby! World War II was one that left America, the people, and the social and economical growth completely drowned by the debt and aftermath it created. In the 30’s President Roosevelt had implemented the “new Deal” when he was elected into office. This deal he had, gave Americans hope that the depression they were in would be soon over. By the year 1939, the New Deal had run its course. In its short existence, the New Deal’s programs helped improve the lives of the American people suffering from the events of the war-caused depression. Although this new deal was not as successful as planned, it did set a precedent for the federal government to play a key role in the economic and social affairs of the nation. In later years Harry Truman attempted to reinitiate some of the same principles and programs but his efforts had little impact...
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