The Vietnam War Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 1

The Vietnam War - Essay ExampleIt was an expensive war in limits of men, material, and armaments, with consequent undestroyable damage to the environment due to the use of defoliants to deprive the competitor of forest cover which was well-suited in guerrilla war. This was the only war that America lost. This paper is a re-examination of perhaps one of the reasons why America lost in Vietnam due to the ROE and grossly inflated body counts (Moss, 2010, p. 383). Discussion The Cold War started during the term of Pres. Dwight Eisenhower as a competition of two contrasting ideologies democracy (and capitalism) against communism (and central planning). American involvement in Vietnam was initially kept secret and utilize military advisers with give away any direct fighting by American soldiers. However, things soon got out of hand and escalated to the point that thousands of American soldiers were eventually involved and fighting a war many had thought is not Americas war but a war b etween the Vietnamese people themselves. Former Pres. John F. Kennedy was against direct American involvement, but when his successor, Lyndon B. Johnson, became the president, the full-scale war began. Assumptions one of the most controversial aspects of the Vietnam War was a concept known as rules of engagement (ROE). This particular set of rules lay several constraints on many soldiers fighting the enemy it is like fighting a boxing match with one hand tied behind the back. In essence, the ROE required American soldiers to observe rules of conduct when fighting in order to comply with international humanitarian laws pertaining to combat. This includes the idea of avoiding collateral damage or, in plain language, civilian casualties. When this is enforced, it is a difficult job of fighting the Vietcong because these guerrilla warriors hide among the people. It frustrated a lot of American soldiers that they cannot go after their enemy hiding in the populace. Individual soldier (i nfantry in the field) the ROE prevents him from pursuing enemies in the heat of battle, enemies who retreat and hide in the village. This was one source of enceinte frustration in which an enemy could have been neutralized or captured but the ROE does not allow it. This same enemy survives for another day and could perhaps be able to kill him tomorrow. The ROE put unnecessary limits when prosecuting a war that was unconventional in its nature. Battalion commander his primary concern is carrying out his orders, which are almost always mission-specific in terms of objectives for example, attacking an identified enemy area. This ROE ensured that discipline is always maintained despite the chaos on the battleground and kept in touch with the higher-ups in the chain of command. ROE focused the battalion commander on his mission order and nothing to a greater extent than that there was hardly any room for discretion. Division commander the ROE reminded the commander of the larger ob jectives of its war in Vietnam, especially of the political aspects of the effect of warfare on the local populace. It put him on the defensive at times, because the Vietnamese people could be offended. Gen. William Westmoreland as the direct overall commander of the entire sign of a war, it was incumbent on him to ensure victory. However, despite superiority in war materials, it was a war that was bound to be lost,