Introduction to the Vietnam War
1.Human history has been dotted with innumerable wars and conflicts that have historically left undeniable negative impact on humanity. The two world wars and the nuclear attack during the second world war has convinced the people across the globe about the futility of wars, and that it only contributes to human devastation and no permanent solution to political and social issues. The Vietnam War which is also known as the second Indochina war was one of the wars in the last century that changed the course of the history and the political course of the world.
This war was known as the “Resistance War against America” in Vietnam and the Vietnamese people whole heartedly supported the cause of this particular war (Short 2014). The Vietnam War was fought primarily between North Vietnam and South Vietnam. The two sides of Vietnam was supported by the two political blocks of the world, the Communist block headed by Soviet Union along with its communist ally nations, and the Liberal or Western block headed by America. North Vietnam had the support of the Soviet and China while South was catapulted by USA and other western powers. This can be called one of the many proxy wars that were going on around the world as a consequence of the Cold War. Within South Vietnam was a guerrilla faction that was supported by the North Vietnam who fought a guerrilla war from within the country against the allied military of South Vietnam and the USA. There was a huge military might that was involved from the USA’s side who were using air power, artillery and heavy fire power to counter the guerrilla warfare of the Viet Cong, the communist guerrilla faction that was fighting the war. The allied military force of South Vietnam and America ad to defend the formal military of North Vietnam known as “North Vietnamese Army”, or “People’s Army of Vietnam” at the border and the Viet Cong from within the territory of South Vietnam.
The political forces involved in the process therefore consisted of the two blocks of political power of the cold war. The communist blocks constituting the members USSR, China, some countries of Eastern Europe and Scandinavian nations had been on a policy of spreading communism in more number of countries. However the liberal block of the western countries consisting of United States of America, United Kingdom, France, Australia and many other Western countries had been on a containment policy that was aimed at stopping this spread of Communism across the world. Japan however had been encouraging a settlement through dialogues (Havens 2014). Therefore the Vietnam War was seen as the Communist effort of spreading communism on the other hand the western effort of containing that policy by the Domino Theory.
Political entities involved and their ideology
The proxy wars of the Cold War gad been the cause of many of the conflicts within many nations. The Asian and African countries were also affected by the cold war, as the colonial powers were using their colonies to supply military might at the proxy war zones.
John F Kennedy was the American President during the Vietnam War, whereas Ho Chi Minh was the leader of the North Vietnamese faction who led the revolution and wanted the unification of Vietnam under a communist umbrella. During the long drawn war which happened in several instalments across 20 years, from 1955 to 1975, four Presidenst served the United States of America among whom John F Kennedy and Richard Nixon played important role in shaping the conflict. Post 1970s the United States of America started to withdraw from South Vietnam and encouraged the process of “Vietnamisation”. Within the United States of America, a counter culture developed in view of the atrocities at the Vietnam War zone. There was rise of a section of people within America who started living a life of rebel by not following norms of the society and the government standards.
The United States of America after withdrawal from the Vietnamese War had lost its face value as soon within 1975 North Vietnam captured Saigon, and the two Vietnam blocks were unified. This war had cost devastating number of human lives. The number of Vietnamese killed are numbered in millions, on the other hand about 60000 US service men are reportedly deceased as a result of this war.
It is proved by Historical accounts that Wars have never been able to find permanent solutions. USA involvement in the Vietnamese War did not bear any result for the country, rather thousands of lives were lost and there was huge loss of money and military resources. This war has left its mark in history because of the massive number of lives lost.
2. The Vietnam War also known as the Resistance War against America is deemed to be of atrocious nature. The worst war crimes in terms of frequency and scale were committed during the Vietnam War by the US forces. At the ground level of the War, the US army did not make any distinction between the friends from enemy. The war was characterized by consternation; cataclysm and frustration for great revenge following the units took casualties. The US troops considered it the chasing ghosts, phantoms and the shadowy enemy who had the ultimate control over the proceedings of the war. Another characteristic of the Vietnam War was racism, alienation and depersonalization that was deeply entrenched in the discourse of the Vietnam War. The US troops deployed derogatory remarks embedded in racist ideologies to name and shame the enemy. The communist dominated Vietnamese troop referred to the US troops as criminals and intruders. These features of racism and xenophobia further intensified the hatred and emboldened the US troops to unleash their grotesque nature on the Vietnamese citizens (Gibbons 2014). The root cause of the war can be traced to the cold war of the bipolar world where there was an ideological conflict between the communist led nations and the nations that sided with the western liberal principles of USA. The war escalated to open fire sensing the guerrilla warfare of the Viet Cong, the communist guerrilla faction that was engaged in the war. The stated objective of the communist Viet cong was to spread the ideology of communism and convert Vietnam into a communist led nation. On the other hand, South Vietnam was determined to curtail the rise of communist forces and was supported by USA and the major western powers of the world. The diplomatic process that preceded the outbreak of war was the cold war that had divided the major nations of the world. The cold war is an important phase in the word political history where the two superpowers of the world USA and USSR were engaged in the ideological battle (Le Espiritu 2014). This was manifested in the acquisition of territories, the Cuban missile war and the number of proxy wars that epitomized the cold war. USA and USSR along with their allies exploited the internal political tension of Vietnam to establish their ideological authority at the cost of massacre and the worst forms of war crimes in the history of warfare.
Nature of the War
3. The Vietnam War continued from 1954 to 1975, when North Vietnam was successful in establishing control over North Vietnam and the city of Saigon was renamed as the Ho Chi Minh City. One of the most cataclysmic impact of the war was displacement, death and devastation of innumerable Vietnamese common men. The greatest political impact included the unification of the North Vietnam and the South Vietnam.
At the end of the war more than 2 million Vietnamese were killed and the economy of the country was ruined (Gibbons 2014). The political struggle of USA and Russia in establishing their supremacy resulted in the war and the war resulted in destruction of the Vietnamese economy and death of 2 million Vietnamese people. The United States of America was insulted in the international political scenario because of its involvement in the war in the first phase and then retracting from the war which resulted in the defeat of the South Vietnamese political leadership and administration.
The victory of North Vietnam was seen as the triumph of the communist block and Ho Chi Minh as a leader was glorified throughout the world among the communist community as a great leader. On the other hand Richard Nixon was the President of the United States who was held responsible for withdrawal from the war and the defeat of South Vietnam consecutively.
Within the United States there was large-scale opposition to the country’s involvement in the Vietnam War, the Massacre that followed and the loss of face of USA in the international scenario. Many anti-war citizens were demonstrating all over the country or were misbehaving with the soldiers returning from the war (Litz 2012). About 58000 of the American soldiers died in the battle field of Vietnam.
4. The conflict that happened at Vietnam and the Asian regions as a result of the Cold War could easily be avoided if there were proper measures in place and all the parties would be showing proper restraint. The parties of the cold war were engaged in establishing supremacy over each other. Both the blocks were trying to put forward their ideologies and expand their ideologies and bring new countries under their influence (Falk 2017).
The Vietnam War can be considered as the proxy war of the larger scene of cold war. When Russia and America were at loggerheads with each other many of the countries of the world were divided into the two blacks perpendicularly. The communist block under USSR had been active in spreading their influence in parts of Asia. As it is well known that Vietnam was divided into two parts influenced by the two blocks. The cold war had direct threat of a full-fledged nuclear war. The Cuban Missile crisis has been one of the boiling points of the cold war. This incident has convinced both the sides that there was an actual threat of a nuclear war.
Impact of the War on Human Lives
However unlike Cuban Missile crisis there were many other regions around the globe where both the parties were surrounding two conflicting parties to exert their influence. In Vietnam, the case was similar and the North Vietnam with its communist ideology was at war with the south which was supported by America (Short 2014). The war between North and South Vietnam caused casualties which ran into thousands and lakhs. Only from the USA army there were more than 58000 casualty. This huge mass massacre could be avoided if proper action was taken and both the sides acted more responsibly.
In a simulated situation when there was a tension building up among the two parties it is ideal that they try to resort the differences out in a peaceful manner through mutual dialogues. USA should have stayed out of the Vietnamese scene, and USSR should have allowed Vietnam grow politically as an independent entity. When there was a chance of conflict emerging both the powers should have come on the tables to have a dialogue and resolve the conflict along with the Vietnamese political entities. The communist political party in Vietnam could be brought to table and a peace proposal could be given (Duiker 2018).
These are some of the ways in which the conflict in Vietnam could be resolved peacefully without intervention of foreign powers. The armed conflict was a result of unnecessary power play of foreign powers in the Vietnamese soil. In a simulated situation when there was a tension building up among the two parties it is best that they try to help the differences out in a peaceful manner through mutual dialogues. When there was a chance of conflict emerging both the powers should have come on the tables to have a dialogue and resolve the fight along with the Vietnamese political entities.
Reference:
Duiker, William J. The communist road to power in Vietnam. Routledge, 2018.
Falk, Richard A. The Vietnam War and international law. Vol. 1. Princeton University Press, 2017.
Gibbons, William Conrad. The US Government and the Vietnam War: Executive and Legislative Roles and Relationships, Part IV: July 1965-January 1968. Vol. 4. Princeton University Press, 2014.
Havens, Thomas RH. Fire Across the Sea: The Vietnam War and Japan 1965-1975. Princeton University Press, 2014.
Le Espiritu, Yen. Body Counts: The Vietnam War and Militarized Refugees. Univ of California Press, 2014.
Litz, Brett. “Moral injury in veterans of war.” Research Quarterly 23, no. 1 2012.
Short, Anthony. The origins of the Vietnam war. Routledge, 2014.
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