The War In Vietnam (1961-75) Was Lost In The U.S.A, Not Vietnam. Discuss.
The War In Vietnam (1961-75) Was Lost In The U.S.A, Not Vietnam. Discuss.
The small Southeast Asian country of Vietnam has had a relatively long history of foreign occupation. In the second half of the 19th century, the French controlled Vietnam, as well as the neighboring regions of modern day Laos and Cambodia. During the French rule, there began to be Vietnamese nationalist movements, but they only became efficient and organised when Ho Chi Minh founded the Viet Minh in 1941. This Nationalist group was the only resistance against the Japanese when the French Vichy government allowed them to invade in 1942. When Japan capitulated after American nuclear bombing, the Viet Minh was left in control of Vietnam and subsequently declared its independence. Following the Yalta Conference, however, Vietnam was divided at the 16th parallel. The North was to be occupied by the Chinese, the South by the British troops, aided by temporarily re-armed Japanese troops. France regained control of her erstwhile colony in 1946, but following a breakdown in negotiations between France and the Viet Minh, the Viet Minh commenced a successful guerilla campaign against the French. In an effort by the French to appease the Viet Minh, Vietnam was again divided, this time at the 17th parallel. The northern region went under Viet Minh control, the Southern under French control. Internationally supervised elections were to be held in 1956 in which the people were to vote for the regime that they supported, and Vietnam would remain under that regime's control. At this point, the Americans entered the situation. They gave support to the corrupt anti communist South Vietnamese President Diem in refusing to hold the elections, and began to supply U.S aid to S. Vietnam. Soon the monetary aid was supplemented with military air support and them with ground troop support. The war in Vietnam (1961-75) had started.
Some argue that this war was not lost in Vietnam, but in the USA. I understand this to be a reference to the protests and the turning of public opinion in America towards the war. In America, protest against the war began on a small scale. At first, the protesters were a negligible percentage of the population, but they grew rapidly and their protest could no longer be ignored. What was it that caused the protest in the USA, and how was it the number of protesters grew so rapidly? Many different factors combine to form an answer ...
This is a preview of the whole essay
Some argue that this war was not lost in Vietnam, but in the USA. I understand this to be a reference to the protests and the turning of public opinion in America towards the war. In America, protest against the war began on a small scale. At first, the protesters were a negligible percentage of the population, but they grew rapidly and their protest could no longer be ignored. What was it that caused the protest in the USA, and how was it the number of protesters grew so rapidly? Many different factors combine to form an answer to this question. Firstly, there was the factor of American dead. There were virtually no protesters until American casualties began to come home. As the number of coffins increased, so did the number of protesters. The reason behind this is simple: the American public didn't really care about Vietnam, and about the way it was being governed. They did not really protest because it was against the ideals they held. They protested because more and more people that they had known were coming home in a coffin draped with an American flag.
Television also played a key role in spreading protest about the war. It displayed the brutality and horror of the war. It showed American boys being shot, and it shooting, burning, destroying, and sometimes targeting helpless civilians. This was all brought into the watcher's house. Somehow this made the conflict seem more real, more present, especially when color television and satellite television was invented. Television also filled the credibility gap that had appeared between the American government and its people. Following the publishing of top secret documents from the Pentagon that indicated that the government had purposely mislead the American public, the American people no longer put complete trust in what the government said. They began to look elsewhere for the real truth, and found it in the evening news, showing the horrors of the Vietnam War in glorious Technicolor.
The introduction of "drafting" system also added to the protest. The drafting system meant that it was not just trained professional soldiers going to Vietnam. People were picked using a lottery with a questionable prize, and whether they wanted to or not, they were forced to go to Vietnam. This created great resentment among the population and those being chosen. They had not chosen to go. They did not want to, so why should they? After all, they thought, it's a free country. A typical protest response to being drafted was to either burn your draft card, or get a medical certificate exempting you from military duty. The drafting also seemed to be racially discriminate. In proportion to the black percentage of the population, the percentage of black soldiers in Vietnam was disproportionally high. This was caused by the fact that whites, with their more elevated social status, found it easier to get a medical certificate exempting them from military service. However, many blacks viewed this as a racist conspiracy, and also began to protest.
The cost of war was another factor. The war cost a tremendous amount of money, which came of course, from taxes. The "Great Society" had already become a sacrifice to the Vietnam War to provide the funding necessary for the Vietnam War and the War was still demanding more and more funding. All this funding was of course coming from the pocket of the American taxpayer. And instead of getting a "Great Society" to show for his taxes, he views Vietnam War brutality on his television, and sees his neighbor's son come home in a coffin. In short, the taxpayers did not think that the Vietnam War was a good way to spend their taxes, and they also began to protest. Also there was trouble in the government trying to actually divert the necessary funding to the Vietnam War. It was getting more and more difficult to supply enough funds, and cutting other projects going on in America had to stop somewhere. The Vietnam War had turned into a vacuum, and despite all the funds being poured into it, it still needed more.
Others argue that the war was lost, not in America, by the turning of public opinion, but in Vietnam where the Vietnamese guerilla tactics defeated the American army. This defeat came about due to lack of appropriate strategy and / or tactics, The American army failed, basically, to recognise what their enemy was, and to adapt accordingly. They could not really recognise who they were fighting against partly because they viewed the Vietnam War as a continuation or extension of the Cold War, and not as a separate war. Because the only viewed it from this one perspective, they failed to realise certain points about their enemy, and took for granted other points.
The Americans also failed completely to change their strategy according to the manner in which the V.C were fighting, that is low tech, guerilla warfare. The Americans tried to fight the low tech with the high tech. Guerillas in the jungle against heavily armed helicopters and carpet-bombing. The fight was helpless. The V.C blended in with the villages and made themselves indistinguishable from the ordinary peasants so that it was virtually impossible for the Americans to use their high tech weapons and bombs. It was impossible to tell a V.C and a peasant apart, and so any strategy that the Americans developed, such as the "strategic hamlets campaign" failed miserably. In fact, during the war, the Americans almost worked against themselves. By supporting a series of unpopular and corrupt governments the USA had alienated the Vietnamese people and pushed them straight into the hands of the V.C. Because of the widespread support from the peasants that the V.C enjoyed thanks to the USA, more villages would let them blend in when there were Americans, and the fighting efficiency of the V.C increased.
Also, apart from the tactics and strategy, America might have lost the war to Vietnam for one other reason. North Vietnam and the V.C were fully committed to the war, the whole nation was in support of it, and it was actually being waged in Vietnam. The V.C troops knew what they were fighting for, and whom they were fighting against. The American troops mostly had no idea why they were fighting, or who they were fighting against, the peasants being so similar to the V.C.
In conclusion, I believe that the Vietnam War was lost as a result of both. All the reasons and factors are linked together in a chain, each one causing or effecting the next. The Americans viewed the Vietnam War in the context of the Cold War. Therefore the Americans supported a series of unpopular anti communist governments, which lead to the increased efficiency of V.C guerilla warfare. The Americans did not adapt adequately, and this resulted in more American dead. This resulted in more protests, which results in etcetera, etc, etc. One may go down the line. The process leading to defeat was started in Vietnam, but ultimately it was the turning of public opinion against the war that lead to an American withdrawal. The fuse was touched off in Vietnam by a careless hand, and it burned back to touch off a powder keg of protest in the USA.
