Vietnam War

                   Vietnam War

  Introduction

America’s inauguration magnitude as the mighty imperial power of all in the universe was nothing to argue to the historians and remained to the new generation. According to the  French historian Alexis de Tocqueville, USA is a  unique nation with visions of proceeding along paths in which no limits are termed to be perceived. Up to date, American imperialism refers to the economic, cultural, and military influence of the USA on the rest of the world. This imperialism first popularised during the President James K. Poil era in the 1800s.  Various factors motivated the empire economically, politically, and religiously. Besides, exploration of other lands and ethnocentric were critical factors to imperialism.  During colonialism, the USA had the acquisition of properties and war as their significant ways to defeat their rivals, like in the case of the Spanish American War. Many did regard America officially as an imperial power nation and the top dominant of the 20^th century after it won the war. It was also after this war that the USA was able to acquire possession of Guam, Philippines, and Hawaii. The USA continued its dominance by building the Panama Canal during the Theodore Roosevelt era in the early 1900s. All these were successes until the 8^th of March 1965, where USA combat troops officially deployed in Vietnam. Despite the war fought during five different presidential eras in Vietnam, Americans lost answering the question of whether the Vietnam War was an example of USA imperialism in a third world as NO. The main reasons for failure in the Vietnam War were widely related to; state policy, military, intelligence, to mention a few.

It was in 1945 when Harry Thurman became the president after the death of Roosevelt. During this time, an anti-colonial fight between France and the communist nationalists was at the peak. Unlike his predecessor’s will to fight against colonialism, Thurman acquiesced upon the France idea of establishing themselves in Vietnam. Thurman’s idea met heavy criticism and warned that it was to lead to bloodshed and total unrest by officials of the State Department in Asia. In 1947, the USA, under Thurman, commanded that its foreign policy was providing the essential assists to countries whose stability is venerable to threats from communism. USA involvement by funding France’s military, deepen the conflict assurances that the USA would certainly never wins the citizens of Vietnam’s minds and heart. Scholars estimated that America was funding more than a third during this war before Thurman’s era ended.

In 1954, despite the support from the USA, France had catastrophic heavy defeat to Dien Bien Phu, and their colonial reign came to a halt. Fearing the Vietnam victory would mean that Vietnam was a communist nation, some U.S. advocates had pushed the use of nuclear weapons in aid of French.  Dwight D. Eisenhower, however, declined. Eisenhower had succeeded Truman as the president and did want to lose the war during his era. He, therefore, chose to stick to the “Domino Theory,” a belief that if one nation were to fall under communism, then the neighboring countries would follow. During that time, Vietnam partitioned as North Vietnam ruled by Vietnamese Communists (Ho) and South Vietnam governed by American supporters (Diem) and their troops. Its remembered that it was during the Eisenhower era that the election to unite the two Vietnam’s regions failed for fear that the Vietnam Communists would have won. Though Diem took the Southern land and distributed it to his close and wealthy friends, Eisenhower continued supporting him, referring to him as “The Greatest of Statesmen.” Unlike in Southern, Ho ensured equal distribution of land to the poor in the North.  The USA went ahead to fund Diem with weapons despite Diem proven corrupt. Before the Eisenhower era came to an end, they were an open fight of torture as well as political assassination between the two regions.

Considering that John F. Kennedy had learned from his predecessor mistakes, many had recognized him as the messiah to bring a halt to the American- Vietnam war. Also, his promising political tracks was in peoples mind. Remembering his visit to Vietnam in 1951 as a congressman,  he stood to lambast his country’s effort of assisting French in a “lost battle.” He also strongly expressed his belief that not any number of American military could assist in conquering an enemy that exists everywhere and nowhere at the same time.  The change came after elected in 1960 and supported South Vietnam with weapons, helicopters, fighting jets as well as river patrol boats. The USA military during Kennedy’s era raised above 16,000, some known to have begun clandestine and illegal combat engagement. Fearing that he could be the losing president, he went on to authorize the excess use of defoliants like Agent Orange as well as napalms. As a result of small matter disagreement as it is said, Kennedy sanctioned Diem’s death secretly in 1963 a few weeks before his assassination.

After the assassination of President Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, his vice president, took over. For fear of losing and unwilling to deviate from his predecessor’s approach of the war, he continued supporting South Vietnam. As a way of implementing the ides to shift the war prosecution to a higher gear, Johnson’s administration officials advised that approval by Congress was necessary. On the 7^th of August 1964, Congress passed the involvement of direct military operations in Vietnam to a law almost unanimously. “Tonkin Gulf Resolution.” was the name referred, giving a broad mandate to the U.S. military in acting in Vietnam. Johnson went ahead and authorized massive booming simultaneously as well as increasing the number of troops in Vietnam. U.S. officials and high-rank military kept believes that the victory was nearing the immanency contrary to the reality revealed in Pentagons Papers. Based on the edition of these papers, President Johnson was aware of all shortcomings and flawed information that was confusing and contradicting, yet he supported the report sincerely. In every Vietnamese mind, Johnson’s era fuelled polarisation in the county. Knowing he could not win the war, Johnson decided ultimately to not run for 1968 Presidential re-election.

Historian’s argument on whether the US-Vietnam war was a success or a total failure has proved to be a failure due to the poor strategic employed during the entire war period.  First was political falls due to failures of U.S. intelligence not to understand that Vietnamese primary reason to go for war was to drive away foreign occupiers. The U.S. had done so in the past and so it could have understood Vietnamese pain. It was instead fixated basically on anti-communism and believed that the concept of the war based on partisan, fought by invaders from northern Vietnam governed by Ho, the communist. Secondly, the hierarchy of U.S. military reports was misleading as approval of loyalty, and only contrary voices came out of military service. The mass bombing (rolling thunder) had little impact on the North since only a few useful targets like bridges were the center of concentration. The U.S. lost eventually not only because of being outfought but outthought too.  The entire war came to a spectacular failure to the U.S. government for it could see the problem but opts not to solve it.

In 1968, a peace talk was intended to halt the more than a decade Vietnam War until by then-presidential candidate Mr. Richard Nixon intervened by convincing the southern Vietnamese to decline the dealings. As per researchers, Nixon feared that the breakthrough of peace talks was to bring a transparent negotiation of settlement to the citizen of Vietnam, and this would result in derailing his presidential campaign. Nixon’s campaign wanted the continuation of the war as it was a subject of the manifesto of his government to end the war. Nixon was at the center of a platform that strongly opposed the war by protesting and demonstrating to streets in need of de-escalation of the Vietnam War. After winning the precedential sit, Nixon gradually withdrew U.S. troops as an implementation of his promise policy “vietnamisation.” However, Nixon escalated the war in secrets ways of bombing and sending ground troops in both Laos and Cambodia. By so doing, his intentions were to temper and disrupt supply lines to the North Vietnamese in 1972. His acts continued until early January 1993 when Nixon pronounced that” peace with honor” had been eventually achieved.  The U.S.  altogether withdrew the direct involvement, just before the saturation peak of “Watergate Scandal” was reached. Even after the U.S. withdrawal, the fight continued for two years. In 1995, North Vietnamese marched powerfully into Saigon, the capital of South Vietnam, where the establishment of national reunification under the rules of communist halted the civil war for good.

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