During the late 1940’s to the early 90’s, the United States was involved in a Cold War with Communist Russia. Known as the ‘Cold War’ for its lack of any actual physical engagement between the two military superpowers, the two countries still fought between their ideologies through intensive attempts of espionage through use of cutting edge astro-aeronautic technology; threats of nuclear war; and through a plethora of smaller sub divided wars, most commonly using radicalized countries fighting for independence, known as ‘Proxy Wars’. The most notable of these wars being the Vietnam War, known for its gruesome war tactics and widespread international impact, it’s generally regarded that the Vietnam War was a failure for the United States. From its irrational causes too the great effects both domestic and international; it showed how far the United States was willing to go to combat different political ideologies and thus impacted American culture, their economy, and even the art of warfare itself.
The main conflict between the United States and Russia was primarily a conflict over economic philosophical ideologies. Russia’s communist ideologies for owning the means of production and sharing wealth, actively juxtaposed the United States own ideologies of a free-market capitalist state. Concerns and fears of this ideology spreading and reaching America grew, this would become more prevalent after World War 2 with the introduction of the ‘Domino Effect’ theory. Coined by Harry S. Truman and later expanded upon further by Dwight D. Eisenhower.
“Finally, you have broader considerations that might follow what you would call the “falling domino” principle. You have a row of dominoes set up, you knock over the first one, and what will happen to the last one is the certainty that it will go over very quickly. So you could have a beginning of a disintegration that would have the most profound influences. . .” (1, 2014)
The theory suggests that as more countries succeed and adopt a communist regime, that it would create a ripple effect, like the behavior of a line of falling dominos, whose effects would cause the fall of capitalism in the west. Although the theory is widely discredited today as unrealistic and based in fear (2009), it would be the largest contributor for the United States involvement in Southeast Asia as many proxy wars where funded and fought for under the fear of communist dictatorship spreading to other countries.
In most reports, the start of the Vietnam War is dated to 1946 with the start of the First Indo China war and would last a total of six different US presidential terms between both Indo China wars. The first war would be fought between the allied nations of North Vietnam funded by the Soviet Union, against the Democratic State of Vietnam in the South that was allied with France and supported by the United States. A cease fire would be signed in Geneva in 1954, temporarily separating Vietnam into their respective parties.
The Second Indo China war, or commonly known as the Vietnam war in the United States, was the most influential of the two wars. Lasting from 1953 to 1974, it would have a devastating impact on millions of Americans both deployed and domestic. In 1954, democratic politician of South Vietnam, Ngo Dinh Diem, would be elected in 1954 as prime minister and would later go on to be the first president for the Republic of South Korea. During his administration, counterculture coalitions would begin to crop up against Diem’s authoritarian policies, that would go on to trigger the JFK administration to send extra support to their South Vietnam allies in 1961 and would lead to Diem’s assassination in 1963 due to a military coup, after JFK’s gentle input about resigning their support of Diem (2016).
The Gulf of Tonkin incident was a military attack on US destroyer USS Maddox by the North Vietnam. On August 2nd, 1964 reports of three torpedo ships came to investigate the Maddox, situated near North Vietnam’s territorial waters. The Maddox had alleged to shoot a warning shot towards the ships which prompted the three cruisers to unload their arsenal onto the Maddox, but only minorly damaging the USS, and prompting the Maddox to heavily damage the torpedo boats. Two days later the Maddox would report a 2nd attack, later proved to be a false alarm, but would still be used by the Johnson Administration for a greater involved presence in Vietnam.
January 1st, 1968 marked the date of the New Year’s battle. Despite both parties agreeing for a ceasefire, North Vietnamese and Viet Cong forces would ambush multiple US barracks leading to 23 US casualties, and 348 belligerents killed (Johnson 1968). Although a victory for the US, the altercation would lead to the one of the most significant conflicts of the Vietnam war that stretched among 3 different phases over a span of 4 months, and would cost the lives of millions. The Tet Offensive was a counterattack by the NVA from previous US operations. The Tet Offensive resulted in 1.3 million US soldiers dead, and shed light on the horrific blood bath that was the Vietnam war into the eyes of the public.
One of the most disgusting confrontations from the war was the My Lai massacre, an attack ordered to kill Vietnam Civilians. The massacre would result in 504 Vietnamese dead, and many women and children would be killed and raped, US military officer Laws Calley Jr. would be the only one to face repercussions for the war crimes.
These decisions from the US Government, would go to goes to expose the dishonesty from the Nixon Administration, further instilling distrust and resistance in American citizens. Throughout the Vietnam war, antiwar demonstrations in the United States sought justice for the people of Vietnam. Student organizations, counter-culture activists, and more would march on Washington to protest the war in 1965, with many other protests throughout the war, many leading to widespread police brutality.
“The current war in Vietnam is being waged on behalf of a succession of unpopular South Vietnamese dictatorships, not in behalf of freedom. No American-supported South Vietnamese regime in the past few years has gained the support of its people, for the simple reason that the people overwhelmingly want peace, self-determination, and the opportunity for development. American prosecution of the war has deprived them of all three” (5, 2014).
The US did not fight for honor, only self-interest. The effects of this echoed far and wide, emphasized greatly by the popular saying of the time “The whole world is watching”. The Vietnam war was horrendously immoral, from the creation and the execution by its administrators. Civilians caught in combat saw no mercy, and soldiers sent from over sea suffered at the hands of gross incompetence by their superiors. One of the most exemplified examples is of the 1970 “Kent State Shootings” at Ohio State university, after 4 students were shot and killed during a peaceful anti-Vietnam demonstration due to Nixon’s growing involvement in Cambodia despite the proposal of his Vietnamization strategy, which set its goal on reducing United States presence in Indo China. Despite this the US would still heavily bomb the regions of Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam, this mixed with the blood of students, would spark nationwide university protests on scales previously unseen.
The war also saw a time of great domestic inflation for the US. During Johnson’s term the economy suffered greatly as war trudged on, unwilling to raise taxes to fund it, prices grew to accommodate the need of resources thus subjecting the US to inflation (History 2021).
Due to the sheer outnumber of military mass and fire power employed by the US, the Vietnamese’s initial approach to warfare would not work. Instead of bringing the battle to the Americans, they instead allowed the Americans to come to them. A unique style of guerilla warfare would be seen by utilizing the dense and humid cumbrous environment that the jungle could provide. Due to the vast inexperience of the GI’s skill in this type of combat and the physical toll of modern equipment that slowed them down, Jungle warfare would prove to be extremely deadly. Not only did the Vietnamese and Viet Kong understand the land and move in it with ease, but they also crafted makeshift traps. It was common to see boobytrapped land that blended into the jungle seamlessly, tactics such as spiked pit falls covered in excrement, fox holes, swinging tree top maces, flags rigged for explosions, trip wires, and more would be utilized by the Vietnam to cause maximum damage (Giles, 2022).
While north had effective and painful jungle warfare, American warfare tactics consisted of brutal war crimes. Due to the tactics of guerilla fighters, determining who were civilians and who were enemies was virtually impossible before it was too late. This would be used to justify mass civilian casualties. The US strategy also consisted of overwhelming the enemy with modern and experimental weapons, such as operation “Rolling Thunder”, which would focus on extensive carpet bombing of enemy territory. Another campaign, dubbed Operations “Ranch hand”, used herbicides known as the “Rainbow Herbicides” whose purpose was to defoliate jungle terrain, and kill any crops used to sustain enemy combatants. These herbicides, primarily one known as “Agent Orange”, would be responsible for over 2 million health problems, and around 150,000 birth defects in the Vietnamese (BBC, 2021). Napalm, a highly sticky and flammable projectile, would also be used by the US. Their unethical malpractice of the weapon would deem it a war crime to be used on civilians by the United Nations, later in 1980 (Guldner, 2021).
By 1973, the united state’s presence had officially left Vietnam and Indo China. A year later communist tanks would take siege on the capital of South Korea, marking the end of the Vietnam War. Ultimately, the extent of the American occupation in Indochina was not only fruitless in their attempts in stopping communism, but also lead to a major shift in the public’s perception of the United States government. We continue to see how the government’s action impact he public, not only ideologically but also in how history repeats itself when those left in charge work for their self-interest. War never changes, although how we fight them does.
