The war of Vietnam has been considered to the most important event in the history of Vietnam as well as United States. This conflict has affected the lives of Americans as they were enrolled in army (Young, 2017, p.570). According to data, millions of people were traumatised, wounded and lost their lives and family due to this war. The conflict began in 1955, encompassing the era of Cold war and finally ended in 1975.
The analysis discusses the history of the Vietnam War and refers to its causes, consequences as well as solutions to this military conflict. The discussion analyses the impact of the Vietnam war on the society, polity, economy and administration of the U.S.
The United State desired to stop the extension of communism through the Vietnam War but had undesirable consequences on the Americans, including economic, social and political significances, this consequence of the conflict shaped Modern History of the World.
Background information: The Vietnam War is also known as Vietnam’s struggle for freedom. It was a prolonged conflict between the nationalists or the communists and the US army. The nationalists of Vietnam wanted to unify the north and south Vietnam under communist government but the southern part wanted to prevent the communism to be spread (Dohrenwend et al., 2013, p. 237). This is why they took help form the United States. On the other hand, norther part was helped by the people’s republic of China. In this conflict Cambodia and Laos also got involved.
The nationalists of northern Vietnam and Vietnam congress that aimed to reunification of Vietnam, considered this conflict as the colonial war which they initially fought against France backed by the US. According to Clarke, Gregory and Salomon (2015, p.401), the US was involved in such a war that was completely unnecessary as they had no scope for winning the battle. The contemporary political leaders lost national support as the Us citizens were against the war.
The war of Vietnam has been widely discussed in media and academic sources. The researchers have assessed the role of Vietnam war in the history of modern world. They discussed the contemporary US foreign policy. According to Falk (2017, p. 233), the rhetoric of the contemporary president on Vietnam balanced the idealistic arguments that applied principles to problem-solving of people as well as pragmatic arguments that emphasized on the efficacy of politics. The principled appeal of the president provides a legitimate support for his foreign policy of Vietnam which represent his to be a principled president. This provided the authority a scope to avoid the public criticism.
As discussed before, northern part of Vietnam was under a communist government whereas the south Vietnam was not (Gibbons, 2015, p. 44). Therefore, the north Vietnam leader Ho Chi Minh aimed to spread communism and unify the whole Vietnam. This was opposed by the southern part. USA took this opportunity by assisting South Vietnam. This took this civil conflict to an international level. There are three chief causes behind the war-
The Vietnam conflict has enormous impact on the lives of the American in both the spheres of public as well as private. The result of military conflict also affected the American foreign policy. The US was considered to be the greatest superpower of the world yet there were negative effects of the president Kennedy’s decision regarding the solution of the war.
According to the researchers, the USA entered Vietnam as a superpower that was certain to win the conflict but the downfall in the Vietnam war broken assurance and confidence (Li et al., 2015, p.67). Millions of American citizens started to reconsider and reassess this established belief. The USA after this conflict left battered a well as uncertainty for the future of the policies especially for the complexities originated by the Cold war.
The foreign policy of the USA was criticised by public as the statistical data reveals that during the war with France, it lost 76000 dead and 65000 wounded but USA lost 58000 dead and 300,000 wounded. The war had shaped the relationships between the importance of the political opinion of the US citizens and the politics, which was biased by the media that was functioning during this military conflict of Vietnam (Pribbenow, 2016, p.57).
The US government policy was widely criticised by many historians, journalists even politicians. They provided radically different attitudes and estimation regarding the causes as well as consequences of war. The popular correspondents and historians were Robert Shaplen, Bernard Fall, George Kahin and John Lewis. These researchers build an anti-war ideology and encouraged the people to protest against the importance of war with Vietnam. Therefore, in 1968, this movement influenced Johnson’s administration’s decisions and resulted in policy reversal (Salehyan, Siroky & Wood, 2014, p.661). The research reveals that in this conflict the Nixon administration rushed the U.S. military withdrawals, sustained to restrain the conflict, worsening in the U.S. army morale as well as its discipline.
The chief solutions to this Vietnam war was based on its significance that it was the most important international conflict against the U.S army in the 20th century. In spite of the fact that the war was rather small for the USA as it involved limited actions on their part but this 9 years of American official involvement in this war, more than two million Vietnamese and 58,000 Americans lost lives.
The chief military actions during this Vietnamese war was influenced by the civilians with the military. Vietnam eventually became the centre of the strategy of Cold War. Various tactics of limited war were related to different operations of the USA. These strategies were openly criticized by the civilian society leaders in America. Both the Presidents John Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson employed democratic solutions. The limits were set to prevent spread of the armed conflict in Vietnam. the U.S. presidents including their governments opposed the growth of freedom of action though the U.S. military force senior members recommended expansion of the scopes of the military conflict in Vietnam.
Some of the features of this the War aided to shape the history of contemporary World. The connection among reasons and significances of many historic events in the Modern World influenced economic, socio-political development of the society (Hart, 2014, p.742) The reasons and significances of the War are used for understanding the efficacy of American presidencies. It also assesses role of the U.S. presidents and media for shaping the public opinion. The War disapprovals had a strong influence on construction of the future foreign policy.
The anti-war movement due to the Vietnam war had huge influence on the spans of the Vietnam war as well as its outcomes. Both Presidents understood that anti-war demonstrations had upset the American efforts to Vietnam and encouraged the rival force in winning the war. Including to this, media coverage also had a solid impact on the consequences of this war (Powaski, 2017, p.102). These aspects shaped the Modern History and provided instances of the influential role of common people in judging the solutions to this military conflict.
Moreover, the different characteristics of this Vietnam War also had a tough effect on the national relationships. The financial condition in America was greatly influenced with the desires of the militaries to conduct armed operations. The expenses of this military conflict resulted American economy weaker.
According to the researchers, the War was completely based on the expansion of the guerrilla combat and the introduction of military hardware like helicopters. These were used by the army in problematic terrain. As it was a guerrilla combat, Vietnam War was people’s war. There was no strict division between army and the civilians (Short, 2014, p. 28). The military experience of the Vietnam War influenced largely the strategies of other military interferences as well as wars that include the Gulf War in 1990 and Iraq invasion in 2003. The importance of media was vital in setting agenda and distribution of propaganda for other military actions including Gulf War, Iraq invasion, the attacks of 9/11 also invasion in Afghanistan.
Conclusion
Therefore, it can be concluded that, The Vietnam War had important effects on the Modern World History. First of all, people believing in tough executive powers has influence on formation of public changed their beliefs. Secondly, American policy in Vietnam clearly assessed the efficiency of its foreign policies. The rival experiences of USA in Vietnam had swayed the people’s confidence on the national military power.
References:
Clarke, P. M., Gregory, R., & Salomon, J. A. (2015). Long-term disability associated with war-related experience among Vietnam veterans: retrospective cohort study. Medical care, 53(5), 401.
Dohrenwend, B. P., Yager, T. J., Wall, M. M., & Adams, B. G. (2013). The roles of combat exposure, personal vulnerability, and involvement in harm to civilians or prisoners in Vietnam-war-related posttraumatic stress disorder. Clinical Psychological Science, 1(3), 223-238.
Falk, R. A. (2017). The Vietnam War and international law(Vol. 1). Princeton University Press.
Gibbons, W. C. (2014). The US Government and the Vietnam War: Executive and Legislative Roles and Relationships, Part IV: July 1965-January 1968 (Vol. 4). Princeton University Press.
Hart, J. (2014). The New International History of the Wars for Vietnam. Reviews in American History, 42(4), 739-745.
Li, M., Corry, N., Williams, C. S., Ho, C. L., Horesh, D., Karstoft, K. I., … & Kulka, R. A. (2015). Course of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder 40 Years After the Vietnam War Findings From the National Vietnam Veterans Longitudinal Study.
Marmar, C. R., Schlenger, W., Henn-Haase, C., Qian, M., Purchia, E., Li, M., … & Karstoft, K. I. (2015). Course of posttraumatic stress disorder 40 years after the Vietnam War: Findings from the National Vietnam Veterans Longitudinal Study. JAMA psychiatry, 72(9), 875-881.
Powaski, R. E. (2017). A “Worm with a Hook”: Lyndon Johnson’s Decision to Escalate US Involvement in the Vietnam War, November 1963–July 1965. In American Presidential Statecraft (pp. 67-120). Springer International Publishing.
Pribbenow, M. L. (2016). Victory in Vietnam: The Official History of the People’s Army of Vietnam, 1954-1975. University Press of Kansas.
Salehyan, I., Siroky, D., & Wood, R. M. (2014). External rebel sponsorship and civilian abuse: A principal-agent analysis of wartime atrocities. International Organization, 68(3), 633-661.
Short, A. (2014). The origins of the Vietnam war. Routledge.
Young, R. (2017). The “Real Victims” of the Vietnam War: Soldier versus State in American Comic Books. The Journal of Popular Culture, 50(3), 561-584.
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