Lessons About The Vietnam War Essay

1280 Words3 Pages

Aldrine Jade Pascua
February 29, 2016
NJROTC
Senior Chief Naki
Unsurprising Lessons About the Vietnam War
Why do we continue to revisit the Vietnam War, or any historical event? Because we hope that the disastrous experience will hold lessons for future strategic decisions. After the French left and Ho Chi Minh couldn't interest the US in opening relations, himself coming from the north had decided to form a communist country. It is believed the US president didn't wish to offend France by normalizing relations with Ho. So he began a campaign of terrorism against the south. It had always been his dream to reunite Vietnam into one country. Free elections had been promised and agreed to but they didn't happen. Ho pressed for actions against us out to coerce them into joining the north. Vietcong troops used threats and coercion against innocent civilians. When it became obvious the Chinese were assisting Ho, the government of the south asked the Allied countries for assistance. The fighting escalated and still in 1968 there were great numbers of Allied troops there assisting the south. Communists used sympathizers in the us to …show more content…

First, the US civilian and military leadership underestimated the will, determination, and capabilities of its enemy, the north Vietnamese. Out this experience, the Vietnamese forced a strong collective identity. In addition to a single language, a shared tradition, and a united territory was an image of heroic resistance to foreign rule. Leaders who fulfilled this image got attract intense loyalty, credit and enormous sacrifice from the population. But those leaders who succumbed to foreign pressure, or accommodated foreigners for personal gain could not count on public support, except from a small percentage of the population, that portion that had benefited from foreign

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