During the events of the Cold war, many proxy wars began to engulf disputed, independent nations that were considered of importance. Two major wars being the Vietnam war, and the Korean war. The cause of the United State’s involvement in both wars, was the attempt to fight the spread of Communism. The president of the US at the time of the Korean war, Dwight D. Eisenhower, had an ideology that if a country became Communist, then Communism would spread to neighboring countries. Which influenced the United States to become involved in both.
Although the circumstance of both wars being different, the overall political objective was to fight Communism. Despite the main goal being to fight Communism, the wars themselves were different on many aspects. First of being that Korea was far more of a traditional war. Both sides having similar firearms, heavy artillery, and an actual known boundary of who’s side is who’s. Apposed to Vietnam, where men under Ho Chi Minh’s leadership seemingly stood absolutely no chance against the Americans on almost all aspects.
The Vietcong had lesser weaponry, lesser training, and just an allover lesser sized military. This unevenness prompted the northern backed troops to resort to guerrilla tactics. Making almost impossible for the United States troops to tell who their enemy truly was. When in comparison to the Korean war, The enemy at least always had a uniform for capitalist backed troops to identify them by. Although, Even if the North Koreans had lesser equipment, guerilla warfare would not be in their advantage, considering the terrain they were fighting on .
The Term Paper on The Forgotten War Korean Korea Memorial
... Mines in Washington County, was re-designated as the Korean War Memorial Highway. State Rep. Steve Stoll, D-Festus, sponsored legalization in the ... U. N. and South Korean troops and 1. 4 million communist troops from North Korea and China. The United Nations and North Korea ... the beginning of the Cold War and a long struggle that ended in defeat of dictatorial communism." (Omicinski) U. S. prisoners ...
While on the other hand, Vietnam had choice conditions of a tropical jungle for guerilla tactics. See, Korea’s forests were not dense enough to conceal movement, and making things harder was the heavily guarded border separating the north and south known as the 38th Parallel. Where as in Vietnam, relative locations where only known to be controlled by the Vietcong. Other noted significant differences are that In Korea, China had taken part in the war by assisting the Northern regime. While in Vietnam, China had little to no involvement.
Even though the two are very different when it comes to the battlefield conditions, the political outcome was almost identical. Both ended with an overall failed objective for the United States. failed in the sense that Communism continued to spread despite their efforts. Korea being split into two nations, and south Vietnam being overrun by the northern Communist regime. Although Communist regimes being portrayed as an absolute horror for democracy and capitalism, The political parties that were backed by the United States in both instances where Dictatorships.
Sorta ironic right? Furthermore, the presence of media in the Vietnam war had led to extremely unpopularity with the United States public. The same is for the Korean war. Both had extremely slow progress towards completing strategic objectives. Other similarities being that both wars were located in Asia, and both wars being caused communism vs capitalism. In the end, surveyors of these East Asian conflicts have the advantage of hindsight: We may see them as they have happened, not as they are happening.
This means that it is easy to observe the social and physical entities of these wars, while at the same time understanding that the underlying political machinations are the same. Twice, the West went to war against the pawns of the Communist regimes, and twice they met the same challenges. However, the Korean War is considered a victory by some aspects(although we are technically still in an armistice with North Korea) while the Vietnam War is considered a failure in many respects. Never the less, both wars were widely considered to be futile.
The Term Paper on The Lost War Vietnam War
I can still imagine the powerful blasts echoing through my grandfathers mind as he dove for cover in one of our trenches. The year was 1972 and our great nation of Vietnam was at war with the Yankees, the United States. In the end it was a war that we won even though the Americans argue that it was the other way around. The war was not an easy one to win though. Thousands of lives were lost and ...
