General Overview Of Vietnam War
Was America Justified in engaging in this War?
Yes I believe that America was justified in engaging this war because if they did not intervene between the communist forces and France they could have lost Vietnam lots of southeast Asia and possibly Australia and New Zealand. The French were losing the war against the communist forces so they would of definitely lost to Them. America Invaded to stop the spread of communism throughout Southeast Asia.
What were reasons for war?
Vietnam had been a French colony From Around the beginning of the 1800’s up until 1954 when they signed a treaty at the Geneva conference. This briefly separated north Vietnamese communists from the south anti-communists. The French military had lost control of Vietnam at around the same time as the Korean war had ended. the communist forces tried to take Vietnam from the French for themselves.
What Was warlike.
The War was a very gruesome and traumatising one. Most of the war veterans Have severe PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) from the horrific events that had happened in front of their eyes. Here is a short story/speech from David Sabben who Had served in the Vietnam war when he was just 21 years old.
At the age of 21, Dave Sabben was a platoon commander.
‘The level of our training, and not only mine but of everyone, was of such a good standard that when action was required we slipped into it, and certainly myself I slipped into it very easily. I was able to focus on the things that I needed to focus on. Your environment closes around you and nothing, in my experience, nothing else matters.
Particularly as an officer. This is what I need to know. I need to know where my troops are. I need to know where the enemy is. I don’t need to know how scared I am. I don’t need to know that I need a drink of water or something. I’m totally focused on what I need here. I’ve got my map. I’ve got my radio. I’ve got my weapon if I need to fire it.”
Dave served with distinction, but the loss of his men was always a terrible blow.
“You don’t believe that it’s happening. You can see a soldier lying there and there’s a flinch and they go slack and that’s how most soldiers are wounded. It’s not a hysterical flinging of the arms in the air and a double somersault backwards; it’s not like that at all. If he’s standing up it’s like his legs are just cut out from under him. And it doesn’t matter whether you knew him or not.
In that split second of witnessing that, you have an image in your head. That guy, he will never hold his kids on his lap. He’ll never have a Sunday lunch with mum and dad again. You just sense the loss.
It’s been said, probably by someone much wiser than me, that the soldiers win the battles but the politicians win the wars or lose the wars and Vietnam was no different. The politicians sent the soldiers in. We were not very well equipped. We were not very well supported. We won the battles. We lost the war.’
This story talks about how it felt when someone you never knew got shot and killed in battle. How he imagined that they would have never live their life ever and instead it was lost fighting in a war.
How Was the War Justified?
American officials had imagined and believed that if they had lost Vietnam to a Communist victory that it would have led up to multiple more communist victories until it became to hard for America to fight against. America had been paranoid about being taken over by communism since the end of the second world war.
What was the outcome of the war?
The cost and the fatalities of the growing war had proven to much for America to keep going. The U.S had pulled its troops out of Vietnam in 1973 and South Vietnam had fell to a full scale invasion from north Vietnam in 1975. Vietnam Came out to be a strong military power in south-east Asia but its agricultural, industry and business were very disrupted
