Vietnam War Legacy
The Vietnam War and Its Legacy The Vietnam War is one of the most shocking eras in American history. Not only did the utmost world power in the world get bested by an almost third-world country, but we lost badly. This war could have been won, or even prohibited in the first place. The United States should have won this war, with a blend of better weapons usage, better maneuvers, and better support from their home country. Many people do not know the reason for the U.S involvement in getting into a war with Vietnam. Vietnam used to be controlled by the French and gained its independence after the battle of Dien Bien Phu. Communism at the time was a popular thing back then and was growing although the Asia region. The U.S opposed communism
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and feared that communism would take over all of Vietnam. Communism started with North Vietnam and slowly made its way down to the south. At the time Vietnam was split in half after gaining independence from the French. The north was where all communisms was, and down south was where anti-communism was. Ho Chi Minh was the leader of the communist group up north. He wanted to control all of Vietnam to make it a full communist country. The south’s government was not as strong as the north. This is where the U.S came in to provide protection to the south. In the beginning the U.S provided the south with just money and military advisers. In 1962 president John F. Kennedy sent over 400 military advisers. These advisers helped South Vietnam against the north. After hearing about how the north wanted to take control of the south the U.S went into action. The U.S had to fulfill their promise they made to south, by protecting them from communism. The U.S had sent military soldiers to Vietnam already, but Lyndon Johnson was the first to order the first real combat. On Aug. 2, 1964, the United States was drawn further into the war when the USS Maddox, a destroyer cruising in the Gulf of Tonkin, was attacked by North Vietnamese patrol boats 30 miles off the coast of North Vietnam. Two days later the Maddox and another destroyer were attacked; two North Vietnamese patrol boats were sunk by return fire. After the north lost the patrol boat we officially went to war. The Vietnam War was the longest war known to history. The war lasted from 1959-1975, one of the U.S longest war. The war took place on the ground in South Vietnam and boarding areas of Cambodia and Laos. Going into the war the U.S did not know what they were going up against. The Vietnamese army was called the Viet Cong. The Viet Cong did not have a special uniform. They dressed in regular civilian clothes, which made it harder for the U.S to determine who to attack during the war. The Viet Cong did not have planned attacks they did a lot of ambushing especially at night. They caught the American’s off guard with their ambushing. The U.S should have been smarter to plan for these attacks. The U.S did not lose any wars before, so maybe the winning streak built up a ton of confidence. When in reality the U.S should have planned accordingly before going over to Vietnam to fight. One of the main concern U.S should have thought about before going was that they going to fight on foreign land. They are going to fight on land that they know nothing about. Vietnam is almost like a jungle, so anything can happen.
The U.S should have been much smarter and concerned about the war rather than being over confident about winning the war. This feeling of confidence cost the U.S the loss of many troops and a ton of money. Many families left in pain losing a family member. The U.S desperate for the win was drafting male and females for the war. The troops that were being drafted were young as nineteen. This shows how desperate the U.S was about winning and how they were not doing so well in the war. Instead of drafting more people to fight in the war they should have made a plan to actually stop the war and completely shut down the communism in North Vietnam. In 1965 the U.S sent over 200,000 soldiers to Vietnam, this shows how serious the war had gotten in such little time. During Lyndon B. Johnson’s presidency he sent more troops over to Vietnam to fight each year. By the middle of 1968 the number exceeded 538,000 soldiers in Vietnam. President Johnson thought sending over more troops would ensure a victory, before withdrawing forces. This idea did not go as planned when many soldiers were being killed. Every increase was matched by the corresponding side. North Vietnam’s allies did not send over troops, but stepped up their aid, and thousands of North Vietnamese regulars filtered across the seventeenth parallel to fight with the Vietcong. The U.S new plan was not to seize any particular battlefield as in previous wars, but to execute as many of the enemy as possible through bloody “search and destroy” actions. As the scope of the action expanded, the number of American casualties increased. The Vietnam War was a very devastating many soldiers were killed on both sides. Not just soldiers but many Vietnamese civilians. The U.S could have won the war, but there were many causes that prevented that. The U.S underestimated the Vietcong’s ability and tactics. Many of the soldiers were not interested in fighting in the war because of the lack of support from the people back home. Not only that, but the most important reason for the lost was that the supply line (Ho Chi Minh Trail) was never shut down by the Americans thus allowing the Vietcong to send and receive supplies. The Ho Chi Minh Trail was used by the Vietcong as a way for its troops to get into the South. They also used the trail as a source route for weaponries, food, and gear. The Ho Chi Minh Trail ran along the Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam borders and was mostly jungles. The most obvious advantage of the Ho Chi Minh Trail was that it was well protected from U.S. forces, as the jungle provided natural camouflage from bombers and Infantry scouts who sought to find the Trail’s precise location to stage a huge offensive to interrupt and abolish the Trail’s supply routes. The jungle provided a natural canopy, and by limiting most activities to nighttime, the Vietcong protected its supply lines. For example, bicycle groups were nearly invisible to bombers and ‘air to ground’ fighter planes, and therefore, the bicyclists were able to transport their supplies securely to the Vietcong in South Vietnam. After investigative the different features of the Ho Chi Minh Trail, it is obvious that it was a crucial part of the Vietcong victory over the powerful United States in the Vietnam War. Without the Trail, the Vietcong may have lost the war, as it provided them the earnings to effectively dispense supplies and troops to the southern battlefields. In spirit, their Vietcong tactics would have been handicapped, permitting U.S. forces to dictate the appeal of the war and successfully operate their technological advantage. Fortunately for the Vietcong, the supplies and personnel that were frequently transported into South Vietnam by means of the Trail provided the Vietcong and others the required apparatus and personnel to successfully compete with the U.S. Armed Forces. The Vietcong leaders properly evaluated the significance for the Trail's existence and location to remain undercover, developed resourceful stealth carriage approaches for the Trail. By effectively executing the plan for the Trail that originated in 1955, the Vietcong proven that even the United States was a vulnerable opponent. If the U.S could have been able to stop the Ho Chi Minh Trail early on in the war the war would have been an instant victory.
The Ho Chi Minh Trail was the only advantage the Vietcong had on the U.S. Not only did the trail stop the U.S victory over the Vietcong, but the U.S did not want to invade the north so other surrounding countries would not get involved such as china. If the other neighboring countries got tangled in the war, that would have been world war III. We have already lost enough of our soldiers. This war could have lasted much longer if the U.S did not resign from the war and come to an agreement with North Vietnam. The war could have escalated to another level no one knows, but it was a good idea that the U.S took the defeat. On 1973, the Paris Peace Accord was signed. The terms of the accords titled for a complete truce in South Vietnam, allowed North Vietnamese forces to retain the ground they had captured, released U.S captives of war, and called for both sides to discover a political solution to the battle. All soldiers left over in Vietnam were able to emanate back home. With US forces left from the country, South Vietnam stood unaccompanied. The situation degraded in 1974, when Congress approved the Foreign Assistance Act of 1974, cutting off all military assistance. This act disconnected the threat of air strikes should North Vietnam break the terms of the accords. Soon later the act’s passage, North Vietnam activated a limited offensive in Phuoc …show more content…
Long Province to test Saigon’s resolution. The province fell rapidly and Hanoi compelled the attack. The North stormed through the south, and finally captured Saigon. South Vietnam surrendered 1975, resulted from the collapse of its capital. After thirty years of war, Ho Chi Minh’s dream of a united, communist Vietnam had come true. The Vietnam War was a very devastating time in history many lives were jeopardized on both sides Vietnam and the U.S. The U.S went over to Vietnam to stop the spread of communism, but did not plan on getting the outcome they received. The war did not need to happen the same consequence happened to South Vietnam before the war even happened. The U.S could have had a better shot at winning the war if they could have stopped the Vietcong’s supply line, and received the proper support from the people back home. That is the legacy of the Vietnam war.
Boot, Max. "The Wrong War: Why We Lost in Vietnam." Commentary 107.1 (1999): 66. Expanded Academic ASAP. Web. 6 Nov. 2012.
Document URL http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CA53501097&v=2.1&u=txshracd2907&it=r&p=EAIM&sw=w Werner, Jayne. "A short history of the war in Vietnam." Monthly Review June 1985: 14+. Expanded Academic ASAP. Web. 6 Nov. 2012.
Document URL http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CA3793125&v=2.1&u=txshracd2907&it=r&p=EAIM&sw=w Gilster, Herman L.
"John Prados, The Blood Road: The Ho Chi Minh Trail and the Vietnam War." Armed Forces & Society: An Interdisciplinary Journal 26.2 (2000): 350. Expanded Academic ASAP. Web. 6 Nov. 2012.
Document URL http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CA61557358&v=2.1&u=txshracd2907&it=r&p=EAIM&sw=w Manning, Steven. "Legacy of a lost war." Scholastic Update 6 Apr. 1990: 14. Academic OneFile. Web. 6 Nov. 2012.
Document URL http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CA8962073&v=2.1&u=txshracd2907&it=r&p=AONE&sw=w Lamb, David. "Revolutionary Road." Smithsonian 38.12 (2008): 56-66. Academic Search Complete. Web. 6 Nov.
2012.
and feared that communism would take over all of Vietnam. Communism started with North Vietnam and slowly made its way down to the south. At the time Vietnam was split in half after gaining independence from the French. The north was where all communisms was, and down south was where anti-communism was. Ho Chi Minh was the leader of the communist group up north. He wanted to control all of Vietnam to make it a full communist country. The south’s government was not as strong as the north. This is where the U.S came in to provide protection to the south. In the beginning the U.S provided the south with just money and military advisers. In 1962 president John F. Kennedy sent over 400 military advisers. These advisers helped South Vietnam against the north. After hearing about how the north wanted to take control of the south the U.S went into action. The U.S had to fulfill their promise they made to south, by protecting them from communism. The U.S had sent military soldiers to Vietnam already, but Lyndon Johnson was the first to order the first real combat. On Aug. 2, 1964, the United States was drawn further into the war when the USS Maddox, a destroyer cruising in the Gulf of Tonkin, was attacked by North Vietnamese patrol boats 30 miles off the coast of North Vietnam. Two days later the Maddox and another destroyer were attacked; two North Vietnamese patrol boats were sunk by return fire. After the north lost the patrol boat we officially went to war. The Vietnam War was the longest war known to history. The war lasted from 1959-1975, one of the U.S longest war. The war took place on the ground in South Vietnam and boarding areas of Cambodia and Laos. Going into the war the U.S did not know what they were going up against. The Vietnamese army was called the Viet Cong. The Viet Cong did not have a special uniform. They dressed in regular civilian clothes, which made it harder for the U.S to determine who to attack during the war. The Viet Cong did not have planned attacks they did a lot of ambushing especially at night. They caught the American’s off guard with their ambushing. The U.S should have been smarter to plan for these attacks. The U.S did not lose any wars before, so maybe the winning streak built up a ton of confidence. When in reality the U.S should have planned accordingly before going over to Vietnam to fight. One of the main concern U.S should have thought about before going was that they going to fight on foreign land. They are going to fight on land that they know nothing about. Vietnam is almost like a jungle, so anything can happen.
The U.S should have been much smarter and concerned about the war rather than being over confident about winning the war. This feeling of confidence cost the U.S the loss of many troops and a ton of money. Many families left in pain losing a family member. The U.S desperate for the win was drafting male and females for the war. The troops that were being drafted were young as nineteen. This shows how desperate the U.S was about winning and how they were not doing so well in the war. Instead of drafting more people to fight in the war they should have made a plan to actually stop the war and completely shut down the communism in North Vietnam. In 1965 the U.S sent over 200,000 soldiers to Vietnam, this shows how serious the war had gotten in such little time. During Lyndon B. Johnson’s presidency he sent more troops over to Vietnam to fight each year. By the middle of 1968 the number exceeded 538,000 soldiers in Vietnam. President Johnson thought sending over more troops would ensure a victory, before withdrawing forces. This idea did not go as planned when many soldiers were being killed. Every increase was matched by the corresponding side. North Vietnam’s allies did not send over troops, but stepped up their aid, and thousands of North Vietnamese regulars filtered across the seventeenth parallel to fight with the Vietcong. The U.S new plan was not to seize any particular battlefield as in previous wars, but to execute as many of the enemy as possible through bloody “search and destroy” actions. As the scope of the action expanded, the number of American casualties increased. The Vietnam War was a very devastating many soldiers were killed on both sides. Not just soldiers but many Vietnamese civilians. The U.S could have won the war, but there were many causes that prevented that. The U.S underestimated the Vietcong’s ability and tactics. Many of the soldiers were not interested in fighting in the war because of the lack of support from the people back home. Not only that, but the most important reason for the lost was that the supply line (Ho Chi Minh Trail) was never shut down by the Americans thus allowing the Vietcong to send and receive supplies. The Ho Chi Minh Trail was used by the Vietcong as a way for its troops to get into the South. They also used the trail as a source route for weaponries, food, and gear. The Ho Chi Minh Trail ran along the Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam borders and was mostly jungles. The most obvious advantage of the Ho Chi Minh Trail was that it was well protected from U.S. forces, as the jungle provided natural camouflage from bombers and Infantry scouts who sought to find the Trail’s precise location to stage a huge offensive to interrupt and abolish the Trail’s supply routes. The jungle provided a natural canopy, and by limiting most activities to nighttime, the Vietcong protected its supply lines. For example, bicycle groups were nearly invisible to bombers and ‘air to ground’ fighter planes, and therefore, the bicyclists were able to transport their supplies securely to the Vietcong in South Vietnam. After investigative the different features of the Ho Chi Minh Trail, it is obvious that it was a crucial part of the Vietcong victory over the powerful United States in the Vietnam War. Without the Trail, the Vietcong may have lost the war, as it provided them the earnings to effectively dispense supplies and troops to the southern battlefields. In spirit, their Vietcong tactics would have been handicapped, permitting U.S. forces to dictate the appeal of the war and successfully operate their technological advantage. Fortunately for the Vietcong, the supplies and personnel that were frequently transported into South Vietnam by means of the Trail provided the Vietcong and others the required apparatus and personnel to successfully compete with the U.S. Armed Forces. The Vietcong leaders properly evaluated the significance for the Trail's existence and location to remain undercover, developed resourceful stealth carriage approaches for the Trail. By effectively executing the plan for the Trail that originated in 1955, the Vietcong proven that even the United States was a vulnerable opponent. If the U.S could have been able to stop the Ho Chi Minh Trail early on in the war the war would have been an instant victory.
The Ho Chi Minh Trail was the only advantage the Vietcong had on the U.S. Not only did the trail stop the U.S victory over the Vietcong, but the U.S did not want to invade the north so other surrounding countries would not get involved such as china. If the other neighboring countries got tangled in the war, that would have been world war III. We have already lost enough of our soldiers. This war could have lasted much longer if the U.S did not resign from the war and come to an agreement with North Vietnam. The war could have escalated to another level no one knows, but it was a good idea that the U.S took the defeat. On 1973, the Paris Peace Accord was signed. The terms of the accords titled for a complete truce in South Vietnam, allowed North Vietnamese forces to retain the ground they had captured, released U.S captives of war, and called for both sides to discover a political solution to the battle. All soldiers left over in Vietnam were able to emanate back home. With US forces left from the country, South Vietnam stood unaccompanied. The situation degraded in 1974, when Congress approved the Foreign Assistance Act of 1974, cutting off all military assistance. This act disconnected the threat of air strikes should North Vietnam break the terms of the accords. Soon later the act’s passage, North Vietnam activated a limited offensive in Phuoc …show more content…
Long Province to test Saigon’s resolution. The province fell rapidly and Hanoi compelled the attack. The North stormed through the south, and finally captured Saigon. South Vietnam surrendered 1975, resulted from the collapse of its capital. After thirty years of war, Ho Chi Minh’s dream of a united, communist Vietnam had come true. The Vietnam War was a very devastating time in history many lives were jeopardized on both sides Vietnam and the U.S. The U.S went over to Vietnam to stop the spread of communism, but did not plan on getting the outcome they received. The war did not need to happen the same consequence happened to South Vietnam before the war even happened. The U.S could have had a better shot at winning the war if they could have stopped the Vietcong’s supply line, and received the proper support from the people back home. That is the legacy of the Vietnam war.
Boot, Max. "The Wrong War: Why We Lost in Vietnam." Commentary 107.1 (1999): 66. Expanded Academic ASAP. Web. 6 Nov. 2012.
Document URL http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CA53501097&v=2.1&u=txshracd2907&it=r&p=EAIM&sw=w Werner, Jayne. "A short history of the war in Vietnam." Monthly Review June 1985: 14+. Expanded Academic ASAP. Web. 6 Nov. 2012.
Document URL http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CA3793125&v=2.1&u=txshracd2907&it=r&p=EAIM&sw=w Gilster, Herman L.
"John Prados, The Blood Road: The Ho Chi Minh Trail and the Vietnam War." Armed Forces & Society: An Interdisciplinary Journal 26.2 (2000): 350. Expanded Academic ASAP. Web. 6 Nov. 2012.
Document URL http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CA61557358&v=2.1&u=txshracd2907&it=r&p=EAIM&sw=w Manning, Steven. "Legacy of a lost war." Scholastic Update 6 Apr. 1990: 14. Academic OneFile. Web. 6 Nov. 2012.
Document URL http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CA8962073&v=2.1&u=txshracd2907&it=r&p=AONE&sw=w Lamb, David. "Revolutionary Road." Smithsonian 38.12 (2008): 56-66. Academic Search Complete. Web. 6 Nov.
2012.