Compare And Contrast America At War Vs Vietnam War

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Recommended: Similarities between Vietnam and America

LTC Dave Como
Essay Topic:
What similarities can be drawn if we were to compare America's exit from Vietnam and our current withdrawal from Afghanistan?

CGSC AOC Class 16-57
Professor Rodney Morris
January 18, 2018 America at War; Insurgency Conflicts
The United States has entered into many wars and has won decisive victories with the exception of Vietnam and Korea, which were considered at best a stalemate. In Vietnam, the U.S. military faced arguably the most complex, effective, lethal insurgency in history . The United States entered the cold war with the communist movement in the Soviet Union and China. The United States saw itself as the global watch dog against the rise of communism as a threat to our way of life. Vietnam was …show more content…

Some argue that the war could have been won thereby avoiding the embarrassment of a military loss for the United States. “Evidence suggests that one of the reasons Hanoi launched a major offensive in 1972 was to offset the progress that South Vietnam had made in pacification and in eliminating the VCI.” The Tet offensive was a bold move, however it did not gain tactical success. It did however give some level of psychological advantage to the North Vietnamese efforts as it gained sympathy from left leaning segments in the United States. “But the sheer scope and ferocity of the offensive and the vivid images of the fighting on the nightly television news convinced many Americans that the Johnson administration had lied to them, and the president’s credibility plummeted.” The US saw some success after 1972, but in the end the US signed the Paris peace Accords. “In the long run, however, those gains (tactical gains) proved to be …show more content…

One lesson learned is that the U.S. must concentrate on developing clear goals. Another goal of the US Military is to win the nations long wars and use our global partners in our efforts. These strategies are laid out in the 2017 National Security Strategy. In the section titled Defeat jihadist terrorists the NSS has the following statement: “Jihadist terrorist organizations present the most dangerous terrorist threat to the Nation. America, alongside our allies and partners, is fighting a long war against these

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