Strategies used by the opposing sides in the Second Indochina War (1965-1973)

The assessment of leadership can be a significant factor as to why America eventually lost the war. Essentially the leaders of the North, Ho Chi Minh and General Vo Ngygen Giap were prepared to fight for as many years as necessary to unify North Vietnam during Dien Biem Phu and the Second Indochina War. On the other hand, historical evidence clearly shows the RVN leadership had been unstable since Diem, as stated by Harrison “Within a decade, Diem had created a dictatorship so unpopular so as his own overthrow”. General Westmoreland failed and other respected generals failed to understand the Vietnamese and nature of war in the South, as a result led to Americas failure in Vietnam. America itself underwent multiple changes in Presidency through Kennedy Johnson and Nixon, and was forced to apply different approaches that had led of clear goals and coherent US foreign policy.

The United States of America, one of the most powerful nations in the world at the time, was completely unprepared for the war that it had joined in Vietnam. The terrain was unlike any we had ever fought in. From mountains to jungles to rice paddies, it was wet, hot, cold, and completely unforgiving. To say that the political situation was tenuous would be a drastic understatement. Not only could officials not make up their minds, neither could the general populace. The media had an influence in this war that was heretofore unseen. All of these factors were a great obstacle in and of themselves and then we put into play the greatest obstacle of all: the enemy. This was an enemy like we had never seen. The North Vietnamese Army (NVA) and the Vietcong (VC) were fast, agile, adaptable, and extremely unpredictable. The VC hid among the common populace and fought like demons. The NVA were well supplied, well organized, and did not restrict themselves the way many large armies do. This forced us to have to rapidly adapt and develop new tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) in order to counter all of these obstacles. Due to these needs and the rapidly advancing technology and versatility of helicopters, the Air Cavalry was born. The Air Cav was composed of several types of airframes including transport aircraft, attack aircraft, and reconnaissance aircraft. The reconnaissance aircraft were also known as Aeroscouts and were known for their boldness, audacity,

Assess the consequences of the Vietnamese victory against the French for Indochina in the periods 1954-1964.

Many ordinary Americans saw from the start that we could not possibly win Vietnam for the South Vietnamese. It was regarded as a "no-winner" (Encarta IV, C). Even so, we supported South Vietnam with containment, which was the Cold War policy of keeping Communism within its borders, instead of trying to get rid of it. Unlike the Korean War, we fought to keep South Vietnam, but we did not fight to gain control of North Vietnam.

The goal was to stop North Vietnam from taking over south Vietnam and converting it to

The American War was a test given to Vietnamese people to test their loyalty to the government. Before that nearly ten centuries under Chinese rule this country has never fallen apart. This clearly proves that warfare can be overcome by trust among the people and the strength of them working

The main causes to the failure of the Vietnam War was the lack of resourcefulness, and unfamiliar jungle terrain. Nixon and Kissinger’s first approach dealt with strengthening the South Vietnamese government, and even the military. “ARVN forces grew to more than a million, and the South Vietnamese air force became the fourth largest in the world” (Roark, 847). What this had meant was that Nixon and Kissinger did what they could to strengthen the military in South Vietnam. During that time, the U.S also advocated elections in the village, the building of schools, hospitals, and much more. The second approach of Nixon and Kissinger included the reduction of U.S Presence in Vietnam. “American forces decreased from 543,000 in 1968 to 140,000 by the end of 1971, although casualties remained high” (Roark, 847). This had meant that even though Nixon reduced the number of Americans in Vietnam, the deaths during the war had remained very high. Taking the Americans out of Vietnam had meant that the Vietnamese people had their own responsibility of destiny. If one foreign country fell to communism, the rest would

The Vietnam war started with a governmental conflict that would cause major problems across the country. The North Vietnamese wanted Communism and the South wanted to avoid Communism at all costs, because of Southern Vietnam’s stance of anti-communism they would be joined by America in their attempts to get rid of Communism. America involved

The objective was in part an attempt to prevent the Cold War from escalating. However, achieving this objective was unclear and was being fought in extreme conditions. According to Herring, Vietnam was, “a formless war against a formless enemy”. The US had never fought a war on such rough terrain like Vietnam. According to Herring, the war was, “It was an extremely difficult war for the United States to fight, waged in a climate and on terrain that were singularly inhospitable to outsiders” (410). According to the West article, “Vietnam was fought in thick underbrush and steep jungles. It was a grunt war far from roads.” (2) The Vietnamese were patient and resilient under the harshest of elements. These miscalculations provided a lesson for the US and thus, Vietnam continues to linger in the back of every American’s mind when deciding to engage in future

The Vietnam War was the most controversial war in American history. Costing more than 47,000 U.S. lives and $140,000,000, the war had momentous impact on the country, politically, economically, and socially. More significantly, the United States failed to achieve its stated war aims, for the first time in history. The goal was to preserve an independent, noncommunist government in South Vietnam, but by the war’s end in 1975, all of Vietnam was under the communist rule of Ho Chi Minh’s Democratic Republic of Vietnam. The U.S. emerged from the war disgraced: a global superpower had been bested by the nearly third-world nation of North Vietnam. But how? Antiwar sentiment among the civilian population contributed to the American defeat, but

The American Army had an unfavorable impact while fighting in Vietnam. They were incompetent when it came to using the land. The forests, trees, and trails were all dissimilar to the American Army. The Viet Cong could easily move through it. The article “Guerilla Tactics: An Overview” states, “The vietcong were masters at moving though and blending into the local terrain.” The American Army could not blend and fight on the land they had around themselves. In Vietnam, there are many densely forested areas. In the United States, that is not a common land feature. The Americans did not know how to get through the land. The land was hard to adjust to, but so was climate. Fincher says, “The reporters noted how difficult it was for Americans to adjust to a climate so different from their own” (11). They had many problems trying to adjust. They did not realize how hot, humid, and rainy it was compared to the climates they were used to at home. The Viet Cong had the advantage of fighting on their own land. They used their land to further their tactics in Guerilla Warfare. They knew how to use the land, and that made themselves more powerful. An article states, “Several contingents, however, made their way to South Vietnamese jungles, cached their arms, and waited until conditions were suitable to wage a guerilla war” (Fincher 31). The Viet Cong used all advantages they could. The Viet Cong

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

Understanding about the operational environment is the most important thing to think about the strategy. However, the government of the U.S. misunderstood about that in Vietnam because they were lack of knowledge of Vietnam. Originally, the Vietnam War was the Proxy War for the United States. The government of Republic of Vietnamese (South Vietnamese) was weaker than Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam). Many citizens of Vietnam not only North but also South like Viet Cong supported North Vietnam. The South Vietnamese government did not have legitimacy compare to North Vietnamese government. However, the U.S. decided to support the South and finally conducted the war against North Vietnam in 1964 that means the Proxy War became their

U.S military and political relations with Vietnam today help think about why the U.S supported South Vietnam and participated in the Vietnam War and how the relationship turned into the way it is today. The Vietnam War started on November 1, 1955 and lasted until April 30, 1975. This war involved many significant leaders such as Richard Nixon, Lyndon B Johnson, John F Kennedy, Ho Chi Minh and many others. North Vietnam leaders had a great impact on the war by organizing many guerrillas and offensives while the South Vietnam leaders were fighting against themselves. However, the U.S took a more forceful approach to the war by sending in troops and engaging in nuclear warfare.

Insurgent warfare was not a new form of conflict to this part of the world however; the North Vietnamese communist government took it one-step further to create almost an ideal insurgency in South Vietnam. An insurgency was developed and controlled from the Communist North Vietnamese government in Hanoi leading to both an unconventional and conventional conflict with the goal of unifying all of Vietnam. The North Vietnamese communist leadership exploited an immature and illegitimate South Vietnamese government successfully fueling the insurgency from Hanoi. Prior to the Vietnam conflict, North Vietnamese leadership studied Chinese communist guerrillas and Mao’s writings on insurgency warfare. Ho Chi Minh and General Vo Nguyen Giaps education from the Chinese guerrillas provided them with tools to orchestrate a powerful insurgency in South Vietnam. Once the insurgency established a foothold in South Vietnam, it thrived from outside support from surrounding countries to include China, Russia, Laos and Cambodia. With victory in sight in the mid 1960’s the North Vietnam communist government later transitioned from guerilla warfare to conventional warfare. As the United States entered the conflict in 1965, General Giap presented forms of armed dau tranh, which is military pressure applied intensively and quickly.1 The dau tranh strategy introduced the simultaneous use of both unconventional and conventional warfare climaxing with the Tet Offensive in 1968. Through an