Vietnam: An Unpopular War
VIETNAM WAR 12
The paper takes a look into the unpopularity of the Vietnam War and the failed strategies, which resulted in the defeat of the U.S. army in Vietnam.
A lot of news and opinions exist regarding the Vietnam War, which tells us about its unpopularity (Writer Thoughts). Several reasons exist about this specific topic and this paper addresses those reasons.
Different scholars have put forward arguments regarding the strategy of America, who used a conventional military strategy, rather than the one formed on the counterinsurgency principles, during the war in Vietnam. Jonathan Caverley, in his recent article, talks about a very strong challenge towards Vietnam War's historiography. Caverley rejects the focus of standard history on the strategic perspective, and organizational culture of the American army and General William Westmoreland, and presents an argument that the foundation of the American strategy in that war can be linked back to the strong public constraint, and complete influence of the leaders. These arguments do not support the evidence presented by history, but they do challenge the wisdom that has already been established regarding the Vietnam War. The officials of the administration of Lyndon Johnson never instructed their military on the ground war fight that took place in the South Vietnam's borders (McAllister, 2010). General Westmoreland never wanted to change the American military strategy, in order for the focus to stay on pacification at the expense of the tactics of search and destruction. The American military as well as the civilian officials fully believed that counterinsurgency was the responsibility of South Vietnam, which should not be assumed by the United States ground forces. Furthermore, the public opinion on this matter was weak yet played an important role on the decision making of the Johnson administration, during the important years of the war. The counterinsurgency disputes may not have been won by democracies; however, the main sources of the failures were not civilian disinclination towards the casualties.
Vietnam War in the history of America is a very controversial operation said to have been done by the military. There was a lot of domestic conflict that took place, after which a lot of the opinion of the public changed to constraining the foreign policy of America, which showed that this war was an important political incident for the public of America, as well as around the globe. The American families were glued to the television, which brought news about the war every time, raising the domestic protests as well (Lau, et.al, 1978). When the presidential election of 1968 was taking place, majority of the electorate referenced the Vietnam War to be one of the most vital problems that the country was facing. Furthermore, the war was not only a military matter, but it was also affecting the lives of the American public, in more than one way. More than half a million people in America fought the Vietnam War, which directly affected the lives of the American public, and to add the impact more, more than thirty percent of the people in America, had family members or friends fighting in the war by 1968. This made the public personally involved in the war, since they feared the death of that relative or friend in the war.
Different theories of psychology state that this particular element should have been an important part of the policy, regarding the war, because it involves attitudes of the people. It is generally understood that the people change and develop their attitudes according to the level of satisfaction they get from a certain event, which also maximizes their involvement in that event, like the Vietnam War. The theories of reinforcement state that the people learn attitudes the same way they learn habits, however, they prefer things that fulfill their satisfaction (Lau, et. al, 1978)....
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