Before the U.S. went to Vietnam, twelve years before the war started, the French were there, it was their colony. The French controlled the country. Northern Vietnam wanted to make their nation Communist as China was probably their influence. The people of southern Vietnam wanted the opposite. It was a typical tropical climate in Vietnam. South Vietnam urgently asked for immediate and extensive help from the United States. As the struggle progressed the U.S. Government made a decision to send troops to South Vietnam. This was how they ended up fighting beside the U.S. military. Fighting aircraft and army helicopters flew to South Vietnam. (They flew from U.S. aircraft in the South China Sea. Their major objectives were to keep peace before war erupted. However, keeping the peace did not work. The battle began, which meant time for three thousand more troops, more accurate machinery and high radio frequency links.
“The word Vietnam has evoked powerful and often contradictory images, and the lessons drawn have dictated answers to the most pressing questions.” The Vietnam War occurred roughly thirty-five years ago. When researching the Vietnam War, one may expect some confusion. To this day, the United States remains confused about the war and exactly how it ended. We, as a society and economy, lost thousands of soldiers and billions of dollars. However, when viewing the bigger picture, a small outcome of the whole thing. The United States also gave up a gigantic victory. The Northern Vietnamese Army won the war. Not only was it a horrible scene but the invasion capped the nation’s eyes and hearts in 1968. During the fight, the United States military did not know how the South Vietnamese were going to react to the bombings.
You are maybe asking yourself a question, “Why or how did the South Vietnamese settle on the United States’ terms?” After the Joint Chief of Staff accompanied the city with practice bombings, the United States troops invaded Cambodia and Laos. The Vietnamese were not prepared and they could not resist. For a long period of time, United States troops were finding people underground hiding from the practice bombings that were going on. On a regular day in Vietnam, you could hear the sounds of Vietnamese voices in the cool air, everyone was always busy and life seemed so smooth. If it weren’t for the cheap radios, the workers outside would go nuts, every second you would hear, “boom, boom, boom!” Bombings began in the morning and would not stop, sometimes until five o’clock the next morning. The cities were distracted and Vietnamese people lived like heathens during the war. In city doorways, there were already homeless refugees lying around. Army Panchos were made so they could sleep comfortably on the hard ground. Most of the time, families had lost complete protection of other family members. Mothers tried their best to huddle their children and make sure the shelter was good and safe. Many children relieved their guardians and went into gutters around the city. Down inside of the gutter was nothing but wild dogs fighting rats over rotten garbage from the sewage. Most Vietnamese people survived without food and only a little water. The South Vietnamese were with the United States military and they made an effort to get food and water from us. Overall, at the end of this tragedy, over a million troops and innocent people were dead.
First of all, what were we in war for? The United States of America always goes to another country to either help someone with financial problems or to negotiate something with other governments. We made a big mistake and I hope they have learned from it back in Washington D.C. One of the most terrible moments that happened during the war was when the U.S military came out with the technology to sniff out the human smell. They would put it on the front of helicopters and do sweeps over the jungles. If they got any human readings, they would call in the attack bombers, which would drop napalm (Jelly Gas), for total destruction. This shows the tactics used by the US. The U.S. was just bombing blind. We are known for taking over land during wars. In the Vietnam War, we didn’t want any part of it at all. After our soldiers would take over, we would kill everybody and didn’t care. It affected our nation mentally and physically. A big problem at this point was who was the enemy in this picture. Fact: “America dropped more bombs in Vietnam than they did in World War II. In fact, it was three time as much.” Many say the reason that happened the fact the military did not have any targets in the Vietnam jungles, only guesses.
The U.S. was involved with the war before many people thought. The U.S. had taken a stand for the French long before the Vietnam War. “The United States was deeply and critically involved from the very beginning, commencing in October 1945, and from the outset the war was, to a major extent, American as well as French—even though the U.S. public did not realize this.” These countries were not the only participants of the United States diplomatic support. Paris had some word to share also. Luckily, it was not against the United States. It seems when you have so many countries involved in one agreement; everything seems to fall off. As the years progressed, wars went on. The part that hurts the most is innocent people, not just American soldiers, died without knowing what they where fighting for. American troop casualties were the most killed ever in a war. We actually came out pretty good with fifty thousand deaths. The Vietnamese people lost millions and as far as the French in the earlier years, you can double the million. “Till this day we celebrate Veterans Day for all of the casualties and the ones that are missing in action. After Vietnam when the United States retreated they left behind many soldiers. Now many are dead and some are just a mystery in another world.
Army soldiers were pressured throughout the war for many assignments. Sometimes a lot of soldiers would get really angry, or even frustrated with their head man in charge. A funny part is that it makes me wonder if it was all involving a political show down between two Americans. It was all that mayhem for the United States government.
In conclusion, the Americans left Vietnam with their heads hanging down it was nothing to be happy about. The deadline for the United States troops may have been the most exciting thing to ever happen in Vietnam. The last American soldier left in Vietnam were captains and majors and senior sergeant leaders. Americans were an army of a half a million strong until the end. One day there was a courtside hearing in Vietnam towards the end of the war. A military leader explained that Vietnam is inactivated at this date and its mission and functions reassigned. We had to explain it next to the South Vietnamese. When Southern Vietnamese found out they were screaming with joy.
It is now 1999 and we still have not learned from our mistakes. Sometimes I wonder if we were the bad guys in the fight. We bombed others without really going over the country taking care of business. Like the war we are in now in Kosovo. We hit China and many people got hurt. What are we over there for is my question. Are we bombing these countries properly? Why can’t our government make negotiations and solve it there? Many times we do have to solve our problems by war, but is it going to solve anything?
The Term Paper on Why Did US Lose The Vietnam War
... Peace talks between representatives from United States, South Vietnam, North Vietnam and the NLF had been taking place in ... carrying water, sewing, etc.).” Most peasants in South Vietnam were extremely poor. For centuries, the Vietnamese peasants ... on ‘Hamburger Hill’, the soldiers’ underground newspaper in Vietnam offered a $10,000 bounty on Honeycutt. Despite several ...
The Essay on Vietnam War 8
... 1973 the United States ended its military involvement in the Vietnam War and in 1975 South Vietnam surrendered to northern forces. Thousands of Vietnamese began fleeing ... orphaned. Furthermore, it has been estimated that about 12 million people became refugees.Approximately 1,218,000 were resettled in more than 16 countries ...
