The Vietnam War And Defeat The Viet Cong

Blood, gore, intense combat, little sleep, death. These are some words that describe the Vietnam War. The Vietnam War had 240 days of combat in one year. World War II had forty days of combat in four years(Interesting Facts). That statistic shows how rough the Vietnam War was. The fighting was constant between the two sides. This war was fought over politics and had many gruesome battles.

The Vietnam War was one of the most deadliest wars in America, many were killed and even more injured. The war began because of America’s efforts to stop the spread of communism. The Vietcong may of won the war but America showed that we will not let communism spread, the domino theory come into effect, and America’s faults in our war program and way to attack the Vietcong. The war was lost but from a overview of the war America learned from their lose.

The Vietnam war has been referred to by many names, one of the longer ones was 'the cornerstone of the free world southeast Asia'. It was called that by John F. Kennedy. He was talking about Vietnam being and essential country in a non-communist world. He believed that if Vietnam became a communist country, all of the surrounding countries would also become communists. This is the main reason America was involved in the Vietnam war. Another reason was that America wanted to spread their “political ideas around the globe”. They wanted to do this so that their anti-communism stance was clear. The public also wanted to keep communism from spreading. To soldiers, the war was like a crusade, a great journey to purge the communists from Vietnam.

The Vietnam War was the first major war American’s had suffered defeat. The Vietnam war was a war of confusion, competition and biasness. The outcome of the war was far greater than an upset American nation, but a severe breakdown of the Vietnamese culture, economy, environment and government. It also had a tremendous impact on American society even up to present day. It was unclear from the beginning of the war if the American’s should even be involved. It was a war between Northern and Southern Vietnam but the U.S saw it as an indirect way to challenge the USSR’s sphere of influence in Southern Asia and to prevent the domino effect and the further spread of communism. The Vietnam War completely changed the way the United States

The Vietnam War was one of the bloodiest wars in the history of Vietnam. Vietnam use to be a peaceful country until the idea of communism started spreading across Vietnam. Many wanted to stay democratic but saw what happened to the Germans and started to lean towards communism. Many also wanted to stay democratic and still had it hopes high that it will soon get their lives and economy back on track.

The Vietnam War started in 1959 and ended in 1975, this was the only war that America could not win. They tried everything, but the Vietnamese guerrilla warfare, in addition the foreign environment cause the stronger and bigger American Army to pull out. Allowing North Vietnam to Annex the south, and bring communism into Vietnam. At the same time Vietnam was fighting a war in their homeland, United States was fighting one of their own in there. This war was a little different; this was a fight over basic human rights and equality among the people. This war was a civil rights movement, for African Americans to have equality. Even with the inequality toward them, African

A majority of the fighting during the war took place away from urban areas, in small villages and hamlets were the residents were sometimes Viet Cong guerillas. The only real way to pick out the enemy combatants in Vietnam was to look for their weapon. Even so, the usual non-combatants (women and children) were quite frequently combatants or in worse cases weapons. It was not unusual for the children to be booby-trapped and approach a group of soldiers to kill them. The manner in which this war was fought was not good. Not only were the armed forces fighting the war with one armed tied behind their back, but also they often had a hard time knowing who was the enemy. The fight was never brought to the enemy. The only action that took place in North Vietnam was bombing, and even then it was the bombing of targets picked for political reasons, not strategic reasons. It is reasonable to think that if the Marine Corps, Navy, Army, and Air Force were given free reign to fight the war in the manner they saw fit the outcome would be quite the opposite of what actually happened. This is also a source of doubt for the American citizen. Most adults living in the United States knew how the war was being fought, or more appropriately how the war wasn't being fought. This was not a case where body politic of US made the decision early on to win and win big.

The Vietnamese had a large advantage during the War because the civilians helped fight, the jungle came with many dangers and helped with guerrilla warfare, and the Vietnamese knew the land and tunnels. “No war is easy for those who fight it and each conflict brings its own challenges” (Llewellyn). The Viet Cong were successful fighters because they were used to fighting countries to stay communist. This allowed them to develop many tactics. The American mission was to secure South Vietnam, gain trust and loyalty of the citizens, and eradicate the Viet Cong. However, it seemed nearly impossible (Jennifer).

In late 1967, the United States (US) military created a narrative about their activities in Vietnam that led the American public to believe that the US was winning against the Communist forces of the North Vietnamese (NVA) and Viet-Cong (VC). This narrative remained unchanged, and was in fact reinforced, despite the interception of intelligence detailing plans for a major offensive operation in South Vietnam. The Communist forces planned to stage a major operation in order to ensure a final victory over the US and allied forces and to provoke a popular uprising. A close examination of US Department of State archives, research papers from various military colleges, and primary source material from the Intelligence Community (IC),

As many know the United States defeat in Vietnam was colossal and could have been completely avoided by doing a few particular things differently. What took place in the Vietnam War when the United States was defeated by the North Vietnamese forces was a devastation to say the least. North Vietnam was in action for the cause of rolling out communism into South Vietnam. The United States was supporting the opposition of stopping the spread of communism to South Vietnam and the world while also encouraging democracy. Although the United States had what was considered one of the most well built and functioning armies in the world, they fell in the war in Vietnam because they did not have much of the nation’s approval and the North Vietnamese were familiar with the terrain and they were banded together to fight for a cause they strongly believed in, communism.

The Vietnam War was one of the first wars to be broadcasted in one’s own living room. It is also one of the most misconstrued and misunderstood wars that have resulted in American defeat. Being one of the longest wars fought in history, it has left many questioning the motivation behind the conflict that spanned two decades before being resolved. Despite being a conflict between North and South Vietnam, the United States decided to enter the war in spite of being faced with opposition from its citizens. This was a war of choice, not necessity. The United States’ incentive was solely stimulated by self-interest and progressed by deception. It has generated controversial opinions when analyzing whether the war was justifiable in terms of origin, motivation and U.S. involvement. The U.S., to justify their interference in the war, used the domino theory, which exaggerated and instilled fear of communism in the public. Unfortunately, it is not enough to rationalize their decision and will further be scrutinized when applying the Just War theory.

In 1945, at the end of WWII, Vietnam started their war for independence against their colonial rulers, France. Nine years after the start of the First Indochina War, the French were defeated at Dien Bien Phu which led to a peace conference in Geneva. At the conference, Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam received their independence from France. However, Vietnam was divided between a Communist North and a Democratic South. In 1958, Communist- supported guerrillas in South Vietnam, known as the Viet Cong, began to fight with the North Vietnamese government. Since this occurred in the middle of the Cold War, the United States came to the aid of South Vietnam by sending military advisers into the country. Still, the South Vietnamese government continued to lose land and some controversial events led to the United States deploying more than 500,000 troops in Vietnam. Even with this much military might, South Vietnam could not stand and surrendered to the Communist North in 1975.

They fought at the times and places of their own choosing and not in a traditional battle sense, and the US was not prepared for this. If the Vietcong felt they were losing a battle they would melt away into the jungle, retreat into North Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia, living to fight another day. The North Vietnamese used the art of camouflage to disguise their transportation vehicles, putting palm fronds and banana leaves on truck roofs and traveling at night without headlights. Herbicides were used by the US to deprive the Vietcong of natural cover. Over 100 million pounds of agent orange or chemicals like it were sprayed over millions of acres of forest with devastating ecological consequences.

The Vietnam War started on the first day of November in 1955. The main opponents were the United States and South Vietnam against North Vietnam and the Vietcong. The Americans wanted to contain communism in fear of it spreading to other countries while the North Vietnamese wanted to unite both parts of Vietnam. At first, the Americans only trained South Vietnamese troops to do all of the fighting while the North Vietnamese employed the Vietcong to help their military take over South Vietnam. Despite having a successful military campaign, the United States lost the Vietnam War politically.

The Vietnam War was a horrible war caused by the division between the communist government of North Vietnam and South Vietnam. Brave U.S. troops were sent to prevent areas of the world falling under Communist influence. Many Americans were holding their breaths, hoping for a good outcome, but they know that even if they won the war, the troops that came back would never be the same. This war had changed them for the worst. They saw horrible things than ever imaginable. Every single time someone grabbed a 75 cent newspaper, the headlines would scream in big, black letters, “Thousands More Dead and 50 More Bombs Dropped on U.S. Troops Since Yesterday.”