History In Vietnam Essay, Research Paper
Vietnam
In 1955, with the help of massive amounts of American military, political, and economic aid, the Government of the Republic of Vietnam (GVN or South Vietnam) was born. The following year, Ngo Dinh Diem, a faithfully anti-Communist figure from the South, won
a doubtful election that made him president of the GVN. While in the United States of America , President Dwight D. Eisenhower supported the creation of a counter-revolutionary alternative south of the seventeenth parallel. The North felt as though they deserved to be in ownership of the South. In accordance to the Peace Accord, there would be an election to see who would govern all of Vietnam, not just half. Many interests were in Vietnam for many Americans in higher places, the main one was capitol. Many protests were going on at home, in America. People were marching at Capitol Hill and outside of most government buildings, speaking their minds for what they believe is wrong. Voicing how it was wrong to send troops over to fight the battle of another nation.
According to the terms of the Geneva Accords, Vietnam would hold national elections in 1956 to reunify the country. The division at the seventeenth parallel, a temporary separation without cultural precedent, would vanish with the elections. The United States, however, had other ideas. Secretary of State John Foster Dulles did not support the Geneva Accords because he thought they granted too much power to the Communist Party of Vietnam. The Americans decided that they would take more into their own hands and send troops over to Vietnam as allies for South Vietnam. They were sent in to look like allies, but really they went in to protect American investments as well use this as an opportunity to gain pride for their country. Unfortunately they were unsuccessful on their pride mission, they had actually down graded themselves and embarrassed their nation in front of the whole world. Not only did they just send in their men, but they sent them in blinded by their own ego. Soldiers were told many different things by different commanding officers, for the main reason that no real directions were given. Young 18 year-old soldiers were running around with live rounds in their guns and shooting at every and anything, not realizing that many of the people they shot were civilians. In the movie Apocalypse Now there is a scene were one of the soldiers is firing at people that are firing back, another soldier asked who was in command of their squadron, the soldier replied “I thought you were!”
During the time of the Vietnam war, drugs were in, and so was experimenting. Marijuana was a major drug for the young crowd, talking and smoking weed was a way to pass time sitting in the fields for hours at a time doing nothing. The drugs may have made the men feel better, but this only had worsened the situation in the terms of not knowing where they are; then disorientating themselves even more from the surroundings that were far from their usual. Paranoia played a role in the psychological outcome for men that returned home from the war. The paranoia along with the experimenting of drugs led to delusions, that led to many civilian deaths.
Unfortunately many young brave soldiers died on the battle fields trying to protect their country; but the sad part about this situation was that this battle had nothing to do with their nation.
On the night of January 31st 1968, one of the greatest campaigns in military history took place. 70,000 North Vietnamese soldiers launched the TET offensive, through tactical planning and the use of knowledge the Vietnamese proved that this was one of the best attacks ever. The North Vietnamese or Viet Cong, used their own style of warfare, not the usual straight on combat. The type of combat that would make them win , any and every type. Whether it meant sleeping in tunnels under the road, or in ditches, or staying awake in the water just so that they could attack. The Vietnamese used the bombs that the Americans threw against the Americans. Not every shell is going to open and explode, so for the ones that didn’t, the Vietnamese retrieved them from the fields and then disassembled them to create their own bombs in the form of land mines. The land mines were then placed in the American fields letting them have the opportunity to feel their own pain they tried to inflict on others.
The Viet Cong had an upper hand in this battle, the fact that they were able to blend in with the citizens in the villages. Being an American that was white or black at the time didn’t have it’s advantages, sticking out in the crowds of people because they didn’t look the same made them all an easier target to the VC.
As commanders thought about plans of better survival, the higher powers vetoed them and made new plans, even though they were across the waters on a whole other continent. The mis-communication between the generals that were actually there, and the ones that were in the USA, lead to massive numbers of deaths of American troops.
It seems as though they were just very unprepared for what had happened.
Conclusion
The Americans stuck their heads into a situation that they should have totally kept out of. But in turn for them trying to fight someone elses war, they received a beating from the Vietnamese. At the time the Americans believed that the little Vietnamese could not beat them. All they were, were little people who couldn’t cause any problems to the superior white man. Soon to be proven wrong. Finding a piece of literature from a Vietnamese writer that actually survived the war isn’t the easiest thing to do. But to find an American written paper about the brilliance and skill of armies is easy to find in any re-enactment of Vietnam. The way that movies and books and articles seem to be written give the impression that the Americans went to Vietnam and were saviours, glorious warriors, yet the world knows different. Nobody will ever know what the real outcome of everything that ever happened was, unless they were there.