Cons of the Vietnam War free essay sample

The Vietnam War, a war whose beginnings and causes were questionable. Some say it was necessary for the US to intervene others say that there was no need to shed innocent blood over something that could have been solved using words. As I researched this war I couldn’t help but to stop and really think about the reasons we entered the war. The beginning of the war started during World War Two, when Japanese forces invaded Vietnam forcing out the French influence. After the war Japanese forces refused to vacate Vietnam, therefore causing Vietnam’s future leader Ho Chi Mien to request foreign help. Ho Chi Mien requested help from both the US and China, and was successfully able to expel all Japanese influence. But this freedom would not last because after the US cleared the south of all Japanese soldiers, it returned control of South Vietnam to France. While this was happening, the north part of Vietnam was also relived of Japanese control and turned over to Ho Chi Mien. We will write a custom essay sample on Cons of the Vietnam War or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Mien had strong communist views and turned the northern part of Vietnam into the USSR of Vietnam, where as the south remained the State of Vietnam. This is where the conflict began. The people of Vietnam only wanted unification, whether it would be under communist rule or democratic society. Mien used this to his advantage convincing the people of the south that communism would be the answer to their cries for unification. Now the US government could not allow this small country to fall to communism like that, thus starting one of the longest and most devastating wars in history. The US got directly involved in this conflict in 1956, after the French failed at diplomatically solving the problems with the northern part of Vietnam. The US sent soldiers to help train southern Vietnamese troops. A year later North Vietnam attacked the south and the conflict officially turned into a war. After two years of fighting a new aid to the communist part of Vietnam emerged, the Viet Kong. The Viet Kong were a group of guerrilla fighters that fought against the south and US forces in hopes of reuniting Vietnam. The Viet Kong saw the US as another foreign invader and were determined to do their best to evict them. The US was now fighting two enemies, one that was in plain sight and another that struck from within. This was because of the fact that the Viet Kong originated from the South part of Vietnam. This meant that those who the US thought were on their side were, secretly against them. Yet even after learning that they were not wanted the US refused to leave and further complicated things. The US deployed more and more troops in hopes that their structured military would b able to handle a far weaker army and a group of rebels. They were sadly disappointed when they realized that their soldiers had more than two enemies out in Vietnam. American Soldiers did not only have to worry about the NV or VK but also faced a number of other threats. The first major threat was the environment. Soldiers had an extremely hard time adapting to the terrain of this foreign land. Most soldiers were not use to the constant change in climate and the immense amount of mosquitoes all of which carried hundreds of infections. If a soldier was able to survive the terrain and wild life of Vietnam, he next had to overcome the stress of not being able to see your enemy and the fear of imminent death. Most soldiers turned to drug use to ease up the nightmare they had been put into. This was facilitated be the great availability of marihuana and cocaine in their new Vietnamese environment. The use of drugs was in most cases abuse to the point were soldiers overdosed or were unable to function correctly causing more unnecessary deaths. The last part that really took a toll on the soldiers was the lack of support from their own nation. US citizens greatly opposed the war and any one that was involved with it. Constantly protesting the war, US citizens that were called to arms would forge medical documents to be exempt from having to serve in the war. Others would openly burn their draft cards as another form of protest. All this was still not enough to force the US government to leave the war that they could not win. Instead the US turned to massive bombing attacks which were called operation â€Å"Rolling Thunder†. This operations main goal was to obliterate all signs of communist rule in North Vietnam. The US would use tons and tons of explosives on a daily basis, destroying everything but their enemies. These bomb raids continued for years costing not only innocent lives but also billions and billions of dollars. It wasn’t until fifteen years of innocent bloodshed and expensive failed military operations that the US decided to pull out of the Vietnam War. For the US military 58,236 soldiers were KIA, 153, 452 wounded, 1,711 MIA. Vietnam casualties exceeded 3,000,000. The war also cost the US about a total of 133 billion dollars. Some say we succeeded in stopping the spread of communism and that the war was necessary to accomplish it. At first I too believed we did the right thing, but now after seeing the cost and how we were not able to compete our intended mission I no longer believe it was worth it.