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Subject:
The Vietnam War: Perception vs. Reality
DPioneer
7/17/2009 9:54:16 AM
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The Vietnam War: Perception vs. Reality- Excerpt
Strategic Studies Group
While there is a common belief that the Vietnam War has been critiqued, analyzed and researched in a meticulous manner, the truth is that the theoretical premise behind the assessment of America?s role in this war has not been based on divergent viewpoints and a comparative analysis concerning the same. Regrettably, scholarly research has taken a back seat to public opinion polls. These factors have left the American strategist ?stuck in the matrix so to speak concerning what is perception and what is reality in regards to strategic thought related issues that are relevant to the Vietnam War. In regards to this particular conflict, our intention is to clearly articulate how perception is different than reality. The Vietnam War provides perfect examples of the dangers of operating under the assumption that perception is equivalent to reality.
The following is an algorithm precise template for assessing some of the most relevant variables of the Vietnam War:
Priority of US Agenda -Theatre Interests vs. Regional or Global Specific Interests
The American public?s perception of their nations agenda concerning the Vietnam War has a lot to do with their belief that it was a failure.
Example:
Perception- America?s agenda concerning Vietnam was theatre specific in nature, as it was simply tied to Vietnam.
Reality- America?s strategic interests in Vietnam were region and global specific.These assertions are validated by a comparative analysis of what America accomplished on a theatre, regional and global specific level:
Theatre Specific Interests- TSI
Americas strategic intentions were to prevent Vietnam from becoming a catalyst for Communist expansion in Southeast Asia and to prevent Vietnam from falling into the hands of the Communist contingent from the north. After over 10 years of a highly exertive combat environment, America withdrew its forces from Vietnam and the country fell into the hands of the Communist forces from the north soon after. The American public perceives this as a failure. However, one must consider the following:
After losing well over 500,000 soldiers to combat related fatalities in the Vietnam War over a 10 year period, the Communist contingent in Vietnam lost all of its motivation to spread the Communist doctrine to other nations in Southeast Asia through implied military support in addition to losing its ability to do so financially due to the cost of the Vietnam War. Americas ability to facilitate this occurrence while staring down Russia and China in addition to addressing division and civil unrest within its own borders is nothing short of amazing. This is clearly a strategic victory for America in every sense of the word.
Region Specific Interests RSI
As stated in the previous section, America?s strategic goals in Vietnam were tied to region specific concerns, as there was a strong likelihood that an undeterred Vietnam would lead to Communist expansion in Southeast Asia. The highly exertive combat environment that America created and sustained in Vietnam for over 10 years was geared towards sending the message that a Communist expansionist agenda would prove to be costly for like minded nations in Southeast Asia militarily, economically and diplomatically. It is imperative that we note that a successful RSI initiative does not require a conventional theatre related victory as much as it requires sustained combat exertion in a given theatre. In the case of the Vietnam War, this exertion allowed America to contain Communism to within the borders of Vietnam while decisively removing the enemys ability to exacerbate their Communist ideology to other nations in the region militarily and economically.
Global Specific Interests- GSI
The success or failures of Region Specific Interests initiatives clearly have global implications and necessitate the need for America?s Vietnam War plan to have a Global Specific Interests aspect to it. The global aspects of the Vietnam War strategy was geared towards preventing a possible domino effect from occurring where Vietnam acted as the catalyst for the regional expansion of Communism in Southeast Asia, therefore making a multi regional and ultimately global expansion of Communism highly probable due to a scenario where America would have failed to decisively deter the theory and practice of such an agenda. America?s long term commitment to the Vietnam War provided the kind of precision based exertion that was necessary to prevent this worst case scenario from happening.
Casualty Aversion
While it is a seemingly hard sell to suggest that the Vietnam War was part of a larger casualty aversion initiative that was region specific and global in nature, the facts clearly validate this assertion:
A.The decisive manner in which America implemented its military operations in Vietnam (500,000 |
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