Westmoreland Vs Giap

During the Vietnam War General Westmoreland and General Vo Nguyen Giap were very different, but despite their differences they ultimately have the same goal. General Vo Nguyen Giap was a very highly regarded General during this war, but he was not born into the military like some other Generals from the Vietnamese war. One General That was born into the military was General Westmoreland. He was the general for the U.S. and Unlike General Vo Nguyen Giap Westmoreland knew he was going to be a part of the military the second that he was able to understand what the military is and does. Although these two men are very unalike they do have a couple of similarities.

The Vietnam was fought because the U.S. wanted to stop communism from spreading around

the world. It was a fight between the U.S. and French versus North Vietnam. The U.S. would win in the killing aspect of the war, but lost in the main purpose of the war which was to stop communism from spreading. This is because General Westmoreland was a great attacking General but he was going up against General Giap who was very strategically minded.(Spector1)
Vo Nguyen Giap was not very successful as a child and teenager but as he grew up he was able to go to college and become a well respected military leader. He was born on 1911 in Quan Binh Province into a poor family that was very Anti-French. His father was an ardent anti colonialist scholar which would lead Vo Nguyen Giap to start for Vietnamese autonomy as he grew up. He went to the same high school that Ho chi Minh attended. Ho Chi Minh was the communist leader of Vietnam. While still a student Vo Nguyen Giap joined the Tan Viet Cach Menh Dang, the revolutionary party of Vietnam. In 1930 as a supporter of student strikes, he was arrested by the French Surete and was sentenced three years in prison, but was paroled after serving only a couple of months. He then decided to study law at the University of Hanoi. He would then go on to graduate in the late 1930s. Giap went on to become a professor of history at Lycée Thanh Long in Hanoi; this is where he converted many of his fellow teachers and students to his political views. In 1938 Vo Nguyen Giap married Minh Thai, and they were both able to get jobs working for the communist party. Unfortunately for him this party was ban in 1939 so he had to escape to China, but he was unable to escape with his wife and sister-in-law therefore they were captured by the French police. Once they were captured his sister-in-law was guillotined and his wife was sentenced for life in prison, but she ended up dying after the first three years. (Vo)”Vo Nguyen Giap is best known as the general and commander of the People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN) during the Vietnamese resistance against France and the United States between 1946 and 1973.”(Verrone1) As a General Vo Nguyen Giap was not very great at combat, but was very strategic. For example his troops lost the most men in the war. Although this is true he was able to spread communism a little bit so in that sense they had beaten America which was the reason they were fighting over. General Giap had many problems in his life but he did well as a General for North Vietnam.
William C.

Westmoreland was born on March 26, 1914, in Spartanburg, South Carolina. Westmoreland was a very highly regarded General in the military. He led American troops through a large part of the Vietnam War as a four star general. He was a very controversial leader in this war, he had a long, notable career in the U.S. Army. From the time he was a teenager Westmoreland knew that the military was a part of his life. He went to school at the Citadel for about a year until he entered West Point. He graduated in 1936 and he earned the Pershing Sword award after being the top student in his class. The Pershing Sword award is an award you get for being the most militarily proficient cadet. When Westmoreland joined the military he was already a first captain for his rank because he had graduated a military school with his Pershing Sword award. For a few months Westmoreland was serving as a deputy to the U.S. Commander General Paul Harkins. After he was finished serving for a while General Paul Harkins put General Westmoreland in charge of troops in South Vietnam. He was the head of the Military Assistance Command. This was around the time when he got promoted to a four star general. Once Westmoreland was put to this position he assured America that they would win the war. One way he planned to carry out this goal was by escalating the number of American troops in the country. When Westmoreland gained control in 1964, there were about 15,000 to 20,000 American "military advisors" in Vietnam. By 1968, there were approximately a half million American soldiers in Vietnam. Westmoreland calculated achievement in Vietnam by the number of foe troops killed by the enormous quantity of American troops. The general supposed that if the enemy was killed at a pace that would be more rapidly than they could be replaced, the so-called "war of attrition," victory would be forthcoming. Westmoreland's strategies lost support over his term in Vietnam. The boost in troops did not

convert into success for the Americans in Vietnam which led to the strong feeling of contempt of the American public as more and more. Many more Americans lost their lives due to the plans of General Westmoreland and although this was true he was named the man of the year in 1965 by Time magazines. Westmoreland became the aim of many Americans' unhappiness about the lack of growth in the war. He had a controversial appearance in front of Congress in 1967 in which Westmoreland was to preserve the war, but instead he said the people that were critiquing the war were unpatriotic which was not the best decition was. His dilemma would continue to emerge in 1968 when the Tet Offensive by the North Vietnamese caught the Americans and South Vietnamese off guard and resulted in a major decrease in territory. They would eventually go on to get this territory back, but they loss more time and lives then they should have. U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson had forever restricted what Westmoreland could do in the war. Westmoreland was neither in charge of the South Vietnamese Army or the bombing raids of North Vietnam. Late in his term Westmoreland pressed for additional troops and growth of the war into Cambodia and Laos. In 1968, Westmoreland would go on to ask for 200,000 more troops, but he ended up being recalled back to Washington where he would go on to resign. He was named the Army's chief of staff, but was rarely consulted on matters related to the war by U.S. President Richard M. Nixon. He retired from the U.S. Army in 1972, and moved back to his home state of South Carolina. (Petruso1) When he returned to South Carolina he ran for governor as a republican but unfortunately was unsuccessful. ”In 1976, the general published his memoir, “A Soldier Reports.” After a CBS News documentary, “The Uncounted Enemy,” claimed that Westmoreland had knowingly misrepresented enemy troop strength prior to the Tet Offensive, Westmoreland filed a $120 million libel lawsuit against the news network in 1982. He eventually dropped the suit, with both sides claiming victory.”(History1)
Overall General Westmoreland and General Vo Nguyen Giap were two very different people and military leaders. General Westmoreland was very convinced that having more people would win him the war. Unlike Vo Nguyen Giap who was more strategically minded this would lead to him winning the war. They also had very different early lives. Westmoreland knew he was going to be in the military ever since he was a child and Giap had to go through much more troubles in his life to get to his position. Overall these were two very different people with the same objective of winning the war.