Comparative Essays using assigned essays from cMahon, Robert J. (2008). Major Problems in the History of the Vietnam War (4). Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. [ISBN-978-0-618-74937-9 (Previous editions of t

VIETNAM WAR
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Vietnam War
In order to understand the major problems of the Vietnam War, it is important to look at a brief introduction of the entire war. The Vietnam War is one of the biggest wars remembered in history. Although active violence officially broke out in 1954 less than a decade after the World War II, the conflict had already started during the World War II. Vietnam, a nation on the eastern side of Indochina, a French colony, was invaded by Japan and Japanese occupied it as its colony. As the World War II continued, Ho Chi Minh, a Vietnamese from the Northern region was inspired by the Chinese and Soviet communists to fight for independence. He formed Viet Minh or what was called the League for the Independence of Vietnam to fight against the colonial powers and drive the Japanese and the French colonial powers from Vietnam. In 1945 as the World War II was coming to an end, the Japanese withdrew themselves from the region leaving French to be the only colonial power.
By 1954, Ho Chi Minh and his communist party had risen to power and they declared independence on the Northern Party of Vietnam with Ho Chi as the president. They broke the war between them and the southern Vietnam under the rule of French-backed Emperor Bao Dai. This war broke at the height of the Cold War between the two superpowers who were at the time trying to woo as many allies as possible. In the midst the Cold War becoming more intense, the Vietnam War became a major interest in the Soviet Union supporting the north and their rival United States supporting the south as they stood their grounds not to spare any allies of the Soviet Union.

The United States formed allied with the southern government and cracked down on the Viet Minh sympathizers by arresting them and imprisoning them.
What was the cause of the American commitment in the war? As mentioned earlier the conflict started during the World War II and escalated during the crucial stages of the Cold War. After a chronological of events that occurred such as; Japan withdrawal of its forces from Vietnam, end of World War II, Declaration of Democratic Republic of Vietnam as an independent nation by nationalist Ho Chi Minh, starting of the Cold War, and America found itself in a big dilemma unable to make decisions on which side to support. This was because, in its policies, America had opposed to colonial rules and was of the opinion that the colonial powers could act as trustees or help their subjects transform themselves into self-ruling governments. On the other hand, the U.S under President Roosevelt and later his predecessor Truman had promised the European powers that were the colonial powers that they will not interfere with their colonial territories. This put America in a fix when Northern Vietnam under nationalist Ho Chi declared themselves independent and wanted independent for the whole of Vietnam expecting support from the U.S who were for the self-rule. The main problem was that America did not want to lose France since she was a very strong ally and supporting the independence of Vietnam would mean betraying the promise they had with the European powers.
Another important reason was that being the battleground of the World War II Europe was still psychologically, economically and politically unstable. If the Asian countries aligned themselves to communism, it would pose a danger to the already delicate security of Europe which was the main concern of the Western powers. This made the America more concerned and involved in the Vietnamese war as to tackle the increasing influence of the Soviet Union and communism especially since China under Mao Zedong had been successfully transformed to communism. The transformation of China into communism opened a floodgate of communism into Asian countries meaning that American was losing influence against the Soviet Union. There was also the fear that loss of any country in Asia to communism without would influence other Asian countries to align themselves with communism including countries such as the Middle East and India which would have a direct effect on the United State’s geopolitical effects.
Consequently, alignment of the Asian countries with communism would also deny the West strategic commodities such rubber which in return would have had a direct effect on the American economy. For instance, these commodities were crucial raw materials for their industries. The another reason why Truman administration committed itself to the war was the fact that, Indochina was strategically placed in Southeast Asia. Losing it to communism would give communists an upper hand as it could be the base of operations where the communists would launch their attacks on the Asian countries to win their alignment into communism. Therefore, the United States had to use every means necessary to stop this from happening. Hence, it got itself practically committed to the war. As stated earlier, Europe stability was a major priority for the Western allies.
Due to their previous positions during World War II, France and Germany still had not reconciled, and this threatened cooperation in Europe. To ensure unity America gave in to the pressure to sign the Northern Atlantic Treaty in 1949, which would see the Western allies including Germany and France united against a common enemy. This meant that all the treaty members had committed themselves to help one another and in this case commitment to the Vietnam War.
However, in as much the America commitment is looked from the United States point of view, it is important to note other international powers influenced the U.S to join the war. These powers are mainly France and Britain. In order to win, America had to support them in making social strategies that demonized Ho Chi Minh and Viet Minh as a communist puppet that cared little about nationalism. They also played the role of reducing complex social issues of Vietnam which were based on the fight against colonialism into mere simplified Cold War confrontation between Western liberal capitalism and Soviet-led communism. When the United States seemed not to be convinced about the war they moved a step further to establish a European Defense Community. This was an organization crafted by America to ensure inclusion of newly weaponized Germany into the Western Europe in order to ensure there were a minimum threat and maximized stability Western allies. The formation of the organization was in the best interest of France who was assured continued support of the U.S while British were assured of benevolent power and the same time maintain low-profile.
More ever, it was also a risky move losing such a powerful ally at the height of the Cold War. This is because they needed as much support as they could get. This made the Vietnamese feel betrayed as the United States later decided to incline to the French side since they were afraid helping Ho to gain control was like supporting the Soviet since he was a strong supporter of communism who had been educated in Moscow and had served in the military in Indochina. The United States did not also consider Ho Chi to be a strong ally. Therefore, they ignored his efforts to recognize him as president.
In as much as there were these strategic tactics by the Europeans on the U.S support, Truman’s administration is somehow faulted for falling into the trap of believing in the notion that all Viet Minh was wholly communist and that it served the interests of Moscow and Beijing. This increased the resilience of the Vietnamese as some of them were pro-nationalism and anticommunist. However, the support of the colonialism by the United States made them united. There is also an accusation that Truman failed to utilize his leverage on France and he instead gave to French demands at all costs in order to maintain a good relationship even though it was clear the war was in favor of the Vietnamese. Truman failed to utilize the leverage that all the anti-colonialism nationalist leaders were in support of the American policies of anti-colonialism.
In addition to undermining Ho’s efforts to be recognized as president, and for the Democratic Republic of Vietnam as independent, United States made even worse by openly supporting France to reestablish its colonial rule and endorsing the French supported Bao Dia. Compared to Ho Chi, Bao Dia was very unpopular, and he only depended on supporters who could be bought at any time. Unlike Bao, Ho was a nationalist and enjoyed strong support from a majority of the Vietnamese. The support of French-backed Bao by the United States made Ho stronger than Bao. He gained more support since the Vietnamese were against the French rule, and they wanted independence at all costs. Despite an analysis by the United States experts on how to change the popularity of Bao, Truman’s administration continued to ignore the advice. The analysts had advised the French change their policies and give Bao more power. This would make his supporters view him as a symbol of national heritage other than a French puppet. This would also attract more support from the Indochinese who was brought together by imperialism and communism.
The another problem was that United States resources were being overstretched. This was, because, it was immediately after the World War II and most of the countries in Europe and Asia had not recovered from the effects of the. France itself was not anywhere close to recovering. This made the United States the main resource contributor regarding resources and manpower.
By around November 1967, there was still as a stalemate between the North Vietnam and the South Vietnam. However, the North Vietnam made a move to that changed the status quo of the war. They launched a series of attacks on Southern Vietnam cities in order to force the United States to withdraw its support of the South Saigon regime. The attacks are famously known as Tet offensive, is remembered as it marked the turning point of the Vietnam War. Even though the United States military and the southern Vietnamese soldiers were able to withstand the attack and defeat the enemy, the Northern Vietnam had won since it managed to cause psychological horror in the minds of the American public’s who were only following through broadcasts. The American started demanding for withdrawal of American forces from Vietnam forces. This was because, despite the continued campaign by the American representative that the war was almost over and that America was winning, the offensive proved to the contrary as the American public actually saw there was much that needed to be done and they were not ready to support the war any longer.
However, in as much as the Tet Offensive had many psychological effects, the Americans were not ready to accept defeat. This was evidence when the United States decided to increase the number of soldiers in Vietnam including activation of thousands of American reservists. This increase of the soldiers attracted mixed reaction shaping the politics of United States. Many were of the opinion that the president should take responsibility and apologize to the public for the failure. Even though there was a success in the Tet Offense on the side of American and Southern Vietnam the number of casualties was devastating and some of the America personnel felt that the attack had made the opponents stronger as it had very huge effects by demoralizing the soldiers. In as much as Ho Chi Minh’s side suffered more victims during the offensive, the war damaged the public opinion of the military strategists who in return denied the general’s requests for more soldiers to be sent to Vietnam.
In March 1968, the then American president announced that we would not rerun for the office and a CBS journalized announced the real facts of the war that almost 30,000 American soldiers had been lost. This ruined the political career of the president who was held personally responsible by the American public. Apart from affecting the public opinion, the war also had a devastating effect on the American soldiers since it demoralized them because they were not being supported back home by their people.
As a result of the United States soldiers demoralization by the lack of support by the own people at home and the frustrations of not making any progress towards winning the war, they launched a crackdown to hunt down Viet Cong and their supporters. The unsuccessful crack frustrated them more, and they ended up massacring thousands of civilians in the South Vietnam village of My Lai. The massacre became public in 1972 which contributed more to the American public opposition to the war and demanding the withdrawal of America from the war. Also as a result of frustration of America not winning the war as they had anticipated, the United States decided to increase its operation and involved CIA-led operation which had been initiated in 1967 but had not been activated. The operation named Phoenix Program was launched to eliminate the Viet Cong leadership. This program was, however, compromised as it was full of corruption and unsubstantiated information that it is accused of assassinating more than 20,000 individuals most of whom are believed not to have been involved with Viet Cong.
In other words, South Vietnam leaders were accused of taking advantage of the American program to assassinate their opponents. This led to protests from the public and termed the whole operation as nothing less of crime against humanity. This also contributed to America’s loss of grip on the support for the war and its defeat by the Vietnam communists.
In conclusion, as seen from the start, the United States made several wrong tactics and decisions the led to the ill-fated war outcome. These included the decisions to support the French whatever the cost and undermining the spirit of nationalism among the Vietnamese. There was also simplifying complex colonialization issues into just mere Cold War mentalities. In as much the United States had won the battle during the Tet Offensive, it is agreed they had lost the war as the outcomes made the public protest and withdrew support of the war. More ever, there were problems encountered in the midst of the war. For example, there was the issue of the United States resources being overstretched. This was, because, it was immediately after the World War II and most of the countries in Europe and Asia had not recovered from the effects of the. France itself was not anywhere close to recovering. This made the United States the main resource contributor in regards to resources and manpower. Alternatively, the mistakes done in decisions making had significant effects both to the American effects and to the Cold War strategy that they were trying to win in the first place. It is, however, not fair to demonize America alone and look at all parties who had an interest in the war globally and their contribution.
Bibliography
McMahon, Robert J. Major Problems in the History of the Vietnam War (4). Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. [ISBN-978-0-618-74937-9,2008