Westmoreland: The Vietnam War
The infamous Vietnam war cast serious doubt on Westmoreland’s claims of progress in the war effort. Even after the war, Westmoreland fought off criticisms of his conduct of the war in Vietnam. The United States began developing ground forces to Vietnam under Westmoreland who had decided to conduct a war based on Attrition. His strategy of attrition aimed to inflict heavy losses on North Vietnamese and Viet Cong forces using search and destroy operations tactics and superior U.S. firepower. Westmoreland largely ignored other key responsibilities most importantly in dealing with their counterparts in the South Vietnam’s Armed Forces. His way of war did nothing to affect the situation in South Vietnam's villages and remote areas where the enemy's …show more content…
He underestimated the enemies’ untiring perseverance to win the war. The enemy did not show any breaking point, no matter how many losses they incurred in every battle, they kept on filling up replacements to make up losses. Westmoreland seemed to be on a treadmill, fighting an unending war. On the other side, Westmoreland asked for more troops but got only a fraction of that figure. At the time he stated openly that he was pleased with the approval for his request but in reality, he was very …show more content…
As the war continued, the military actions of the Viet Cong decreased as the role and engagement of the NVA grew. U.S. and South Vietnamese forces relied on air superiority and overwhelming firepower to conduct search and destroy operations, involving ground forces, artillery, and airstrikes. In the course of the war, the U.S. conducted a large-scale strategic all-out-war and attack against North Vietnam.
The North Vietnamese government and the Viet Cong were fighting to reunite Vietnam. They viewed the conflict as a colonial war and a continuation of the First Indochina War against forces from France and later on the United States. The Americans government viewed its involvement in the war as a way to prevent a communist takeover of South Vietnam. This was part of their broader global policy, ultimately aiming to stop the spread of communism in the
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972 Words | 4 Pagesthe Vietnamese soldiers lost a lot of food supplies and lost some of their hiding positions. The war began with an alert from the two U.S. destroyers docked at the Gulf of Tonkin, they were attacked by North Vietnamese troops. What the U.S. did not know or were confused about was were they in Vietnam waters, or were they in a different area near Vietnam waters? Having several incidents occurring President Lyndon B. Johnson declares war on Vietnam for attacking one of ours without a reason to do so or without a provoke of any sort. That was when the Vietnam war began and Lyndon B. Johnson sent troops to Vietnam to try and take them over with just invading
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455 Words | 2 Pages1. The first problem that the United States faced during the Vietnam war was that the people of the United States were opposed to the Vietnam war. Another problem was that North Vietnam kept helping the Vietcong get stronger. 2. The options that were available to both presidents were to either fight the Vietcong head on or withdraw the American troops and hold out until the other side got tired of fighting.
Vietnam War Dbq
812 Words | 4 PagesNixon issued a policy of Vietnamization, which he hoped would decrease the need for American troops in Vietnam. However, this did not limit the war nor end the anti-war sentiment at home. Nixon, hoping to end North Vietnamese supply lines, launched American troops into the neutral Cambodia. This failed, and in the end brought widespread massacres and destabilized the region. As the war escalated, so did protests on college campuses.
Vietnam War Dbq
1111 Words | 5 PagesNorth Vietnam was known for its harsh and effective fighting tactics over the course of the war, including guerilla warfare. Although some might say that the U.S. lost the war in Vietnam because of the tactics used by the North Vietnamese, they actually lost the war because of heavy protesting from citizens, a lack of strength
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246 Words | 1 PagesFor Nixon, Vietnam was a two-front war, the battle was in Asia and America. Nixon, “saw himself engaged in a contest with the anti-war movement for the public mind in the United States and the private mind in Hanoi”. Clearly understanding that he would need public support, Nixon astutely identified the “silent majority” of American and gained their support for his policy of Vietnamization to end the Vietnam War. First, Nixon attempted an aggressive assault on North Vietnam with increased bombing raids. Soon it was realized the escalation and warfare would not be successful.
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283 Words | 2 PagesDuring the Vietnam War, President Eisenhower placed CIA operatives and many different military advisers into Vietnam. President John F. Kennedy was the one to finally make the decision to send American soldiers over to Vietnam so that we could fight. President Lyndon Johnson announced and ordered the very first authentic combat by American troops, and finally, President Richard Nixon was the one who ended the war all together. Unfortunately for America, despite all the decades of resolve, whopping amounts of money, over 60,000 American lives and injuries, the United States had still ultimately failed to achieve all of its
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1164 Words | 5 PagesIn using artillery and air power of weapons like the M163 Vulcan, M42A1 Skysweeper, and the MIM23 Hawk we were able to take down our enemies. There was 2.7 million soldiers that served in the Vietnam War. In this being said there were 58,000 that died or remained missing, and 300,000 that were wounded. More than one hundred forty billion dollars was spent on this war. The U.S failed to overcome its objective of preserving an independent, noncommunist state in Vietnam, now no one knows how or why we fought this war or weather the military outcome was possible for the United States.
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1288 Words | 6 PagesPresident Johnson even brought home senior commander in Vietnam, General William Westmoreland to support their campaign. In public and private addresses, Westmoreland affirmed that the US and allied forces were making significant progress against the Viet Cong and the North Vietnamese Army, winning major battle and inflicting heavy casualties on the NVA and main force VC units. During a discussion with an interviewer from Time magazine, Westmoreland even challenged the communists to launch an attack, which did happened in a short time
Was The Vietnam War A Mistake Essay
633 Words | 3 PagesOne of the main reasons why the Vietnam War was a mistake was that it was based on flawed assumptions about the nature of the conflict and the ability of the United States to win. The war was fought under the assumption that it was part of a broader struggle against communist expansionism, and that the United States had a responsibility to contain this threat wherever it appeared. However, this assumption was flawed for several reasons. Firstly, the conflict in Vietnam was primarily a nationalist struggle, with the goal of unifying the country under a single government, rather than a purely ideological one. While the communist forces in the North were motivated by Marxist ideology, the Viet Cong guerrillas in the South were primarily motivated by a desire to end foreign domination of their country.
Revolutionary War Vs Vietnam War Essay
496 Words | 2 PagesIt is quite difficult to compare two wars that happened 180 years apart from each other, the Vietnam war 1955 to 1975, and the American Revolutionary war 1775 to 1783. Yes, both wars are all that different from each other, in fact I would say that they were the two least similar wars in American history. These wars are very similar because they both used guerilla warfare, a form of irregular warfare that uses tactics such as ambushes, sabotage, raids, and mobility to fight a larger less mobile military force. However a major difference in the wars was that the Revolutionary war was fought to gain independence, while the Vietnam war was fought to maintain independence. Another difference is that the U.S. were ‘Victors’ in the Revolutionary war, and were not so in the Vietnam war.
Film Analysis: The Fog Of War
1043 Words | 5 PagesVietnam saw the war as a fight for independence while the U.S. saw the war as a fight against the communist regime, aiming to instil its capitalist approach in order to alienate the Soviets from the rest of society. This is a perfect example of numerous things in the theory of Realism, namely: the balance of power, the idea that peace and stability are most likely to be maintained when military power is distributed to prevent a single superpower from controlling the world; the security dilemma, the tendency of states to view the defensive arming of adversaries as threatening, causing them to arm in response so that all states’ security declines; and national interest, the goals that states pursue to maximize what they perceive to be selfishly best for their country (WPTT, 2011, pp.32-33). The U.S. saw the Vietnamese becoming allies with the Soviets as a security dilemma, so in order to somewhat restore the balance of power, a war was declared on the Vietnamese, all to preserve its national interest. The U.S. declared war on Vietnam even though there was no real need for one, as the Vietnamese were much too busy fighting for their independence from the Chinese in an attempt to differentiate
Why Was Vietnam So Unpopular Essay
1691 Words | 7 Pages, Why was it so unpopular? For the first question Vietnam and the United States have revealed that the Vietnam War served as an anti-communist war of America. But at the same time, it represents Vietnam in the pursuit of national independence. It also supports further allegations that the Vietnam War is a conflict between nations. The reasons that United states didn’t win the war some it’s because US soldiers
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1566 Words | 7 PagesThe United States offered extensive military power to ensure South Vietnam was not conquered, whilst their troops gradual withdrew from South Vietnam. Nixon knew the South Vietnamese Army was weak and corrupt and needed to be strong enough to essentially win the war, which led to huge funding to make the South Vietnamese have a clear military advantage. However the South Vietnamese army still relied on American air power. Vietnamization as a policy had the potential to succeed if a promise of a viable South Vietnam had been brought into effect 15 years prior to the agreement, not 3 years before which showed its shortcomings Vietnamization, it culminated with the Spring Offensive of 1972, where the South Vietnamese army successfully repelled the invading North. This possibly gave Nixon the hope that he could transfer the responsibly for South Vietnams defences back to the South Vietnamese Government.
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300 Words | 2 PagesWhat is known in the U.S. as the Vietnam War, is known in Vietnam today as the American War. It was a war with the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, which was commonly known in the U.S. as North Vietnam. The Vietnam War was the second part of Vietnam’s most recent wars against foreign domination. The first part was the French-Indochina War, which was an anti-colonial war.
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555 Words | 3 PagesThe United States believed that it was their responsibility to contain Communism. They wanted to stop the spread of communism across the world. They saw that Vietnam as the start of the spread of Communism so it contributed as one of the reasons of going to war. The Domino theory was a theory that if one country in a region falls to Communism that the surrounding countries would fall to communism as well. The U.S. also saw the Domino Theory in Vietnam.
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