air force by saying "this is a political war and it calls for discriminate killing. The best weapon…would be a knife…the worst is an airplane" (Courtwright 2005, p
Although initially the American government hoped that the southern section of Vietnam would be able to wage conflict against its northern supporters (and communist supporters in the south known as the Viet Cong), it remained dependent upon the government of the South for the knowledge of foreign culture for the duration of the conflict. Still, the government's lack of prudence in Vietnamese culture was evinced during failed initiatives such as the Strategic Hamlet Program, which began in 1961 and was a joint effort between American military forces and the government of South Vietnam to relocate the population of the latter into secure camps (Herring 1971)
Ho and his associates skillfully used Vietnamese nationalism and even xenophobia over their old and new enemies (China, France, the United States) to mobilize the masses, while American leaders thought Vietnamese Communists could be controlled by the Chinese. Americans thought that North Vietnamese leaders were Soviet puppets, but the Vietnamese skillfully used Soviet-American rivalry for their own advantage (Moss, 2010, p
But the failed pattern of diplomacy vis-a-vis Vietnam and Southeast Asia really began in 1954, when then Secretary of State John Foster Dulles was sent by President Eisenhower to negotiate the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO). When Dulles "…circumvented the provisions of the Geneva Accords" by unilaterally including Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia into the SEATO pack, Dulles was on thin ice in terms of American credibility (Moss 52)
It began with the liberal Democrats who "could not long support a war against a revolutionary movement, no matter how reactionary the domestic tactics of that movement." (Kissinger) In other words, liberal Democrats could not long support a war against fellow socialists and by the late 1960's, their opposition to the war was quite substantial
The war killed 58,000 Americans, and cost Americans about $150 billion dollars. America first sent troops to the war because leaders felt it was the only way to stop the spread of Communism in Southeast Asia (McCullough)
Additionally, there are varying cultural nuances that can influence the way that communication is handled and that orders can become manifest. The Strategic Hamlet Initiative largely failed due to a lack of America's understanding about the cultural particulars involved in this missive (Friedman, no date)
Finally, in order to actuate such tactics one must ensure that the logistics have been firmly put in place for success. Logistical information is principally handled by logisticians, which allow for tactics to be completed in order to achieve strategic objectives and ensure readiness (Gainey, 2010)
52) Petraeus states that policy-makers who employ the lessons of the Vietnam War or of any past event "should resist the American tendency for overgeneralization." (Petraeus, 2010, p
S. military could have learned from the defeat of the French military in its efforts to colonize and control Indochina that this region was exceedingly difficult govern by an outside country or power (Moss, 2010, p
As Herring points out, the entire warfare in Vietnam, all thirty plus years of it, was a mainstay on the radar of the national media. Certainly, the last ten years of the conflict were thoroughly chronicled to a very interested audience (Herring 1123)
politics and the outcome of the war. Her conclusion is that most journalists openly doubted the military's ability to win the war, rather than the political legitimacy of fighting the war in the first place (Groll 19)
S. troops that were fighting in Vietnam use the Cambodian soil to wage attacks in 1970 under president Nixon (Anderson D., 1999)
S. And South Vietnam, with Australia and other friendly troops (Australian War Memorial, 2013)
In August, 1964, Johnson got the Congress approval and officially waged war in Vietnam where millions of Vietnamese civilians and soldiers died. At least 58-000 Americans died (Miller & Maier, n
S. army and citizens within the gulf taking into account the increased war and violent activities that were taking place between the North and South Vietnam at the Gulf of Tonkin and even the firing at the Maddox which was a destroyer on a fact finding and intelligence collection mission (The History Place, 1999)
He sided with the president to make the war restrictive hence establishing the rules of engagement. He thought the Chinese and the Soviet would join the war deeming it a military campaign against the Communist Block (Dorschel, 1995)
The results were tens of thousands of deaths, hundreds of thousands of casualties, a battered economy followed by a gas crisis and a painful scratch on American pride. (Stoll, 2012) Today, especially in large cities, one can see many homeless individuals who claim they are Vietnam War veterans
Student protests were fueled by fur because "draft policies largely exempted college students and men with critical civilian skills, the armed forces in Vietnam were largely composed of the least privileged young Americans. African-Americans were disproportionately represented in the army and accounted for disproportionately high share of combat fatalities" (Bailey 961)
While these respective protagonists come from different backgrounds, their experiences are relatively similar, as they are all frustrated and left with permanent traumas as a result of their participation in the conflict and because of the events that they went through. "My wounding in Vietnam both physically and emotionally haunted me, pursued me, and threatened to overwhelm me" (Kovic, 16)