“Refighting the last war” ensured U.S. defeat. In the original version of the article, we misstated “French West Africa”. Battle of Ap Bac - In January 1963, American advisors launched a battle after they pressured reluctant South Vietnamese officers to use American air mobility assets to destroy the Viet Cong. In the end, these defeats cost many American lives, but the American people always remember their fallen and never relent in the face of prevailing danger. 1. Custer’s overconfidence and his decision to ignore his scout’s advice were the main reasons for this humiliating US defeat. During the Second World War, the Philippines were a US overseas territory with a large contingent of US military personnel stationed on the islands. That is the historical truth. The intensity of the fighting during Tet, brought into America’s living rooms by the television networks, caused a backlash against the war. More than 58,000 men made the final sacrifices; hundreds of billions of dollars spent on the conflict in an attempt to “contain” Communism, yet the U.S. had failed abjectly. It was administered by revolutionary peasants abroad, and by an astonishing movement of protest at home.”3. Sometimes even hubris came to the fore when the arrogance of men was the cause of ignominious defeat. The Battle of Singapore in February 1942 to two Japanese divisions was the largest surrender of Commonwealth troops in history and destroyed the linchpin of the American-British-Dutch-Australian Command. The Korean War is an example of the limits to victory that result from the micromanagement of combat by political bureaucrats. The accusations of U.S. imperialism and colonialism are exceptionally absurd. During the Vietnam War left wing radicals associated with groups like Students for a Democratic Society frequently planted bombs in and/or committed acts of arson against campus ROTC buildings. From Give Me Liberty: “The only war the United States has ever lost, Vietnam was a military, political, and social disaster.”1 (Italics added), From Nation of Nations: “By any real measure of military success the Vietcong peasant guerrillas and their lightly armed North Vietnamese allies had held off, and in that sense defeated, the world’s greatest military power.”2, From A People’s History of the United States: “It was the first clear defeat to the global American empire formed after World War II. “From 1964 to 1972, the wealthiest and most powerful nation in the history of the world made a maximum military effort, with everything short of atomic bombs, to defeat a nationalist revolutionary movement in a tiny, peasant country – and failed. Unable to point to a single case of Communist forces actually winning a battle against American troops, left-leaning scholars do what they can to portray the America war effort in a negative light. That is, 683x larger. Even more dishonest is the statement about Communist forces having “held off” American military power. Even though this was a chastening defeat for the Americans, General MacArthur vowed he would return. Despite the USA’s vast military strength it could not stop the spread of communism . It has the most modern weapons, the best-equipped troops, and an unrivaled navy. This is a very difficult question to explain comprehensively why it is difficult to defeat Vietnam. National greatness is defined not only by a nation’s failures but also (perhaps even more so) by its ability to accept defeat and rise to fight another day. A Self-Made Nation tells the story of 18th and 19th century entrepreneurs who started out with nothing and created success for themselves while building a great nation. The Vietnam War was one of the most divisive wars in military history. ISBN-13: 978-0714681917. The result was devastating. -. Unfortunately, three million soldiers were killed during the war. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. For many people, the Vietnam War is a black mark on American history. US Defeat in Vietnam: How Is This Possible Given the Resource Mismatch? ACTION FOR SOUTH VIETNAM. The United States had a tally of 58,220 fatalities and had to evacuate the last embassy officials in Saigon by helicopters on April 30, 1975. Although the Japanese invasion force was ⅓ of the size of the defending force, Japanese … Battle of Van Tuong. Meanwhile, the surviving American soldiers were subjected to some of the most inhuman treatment of POWs during the war. He did so in 1944 and eventually retook the islands, thus restoring US honor. I’ve been researching the Vietnam war on the web and it’s stacked with politically correct info. When the United States fought in Vietnam, … Within moments, his force was surrounded by the tribes’ war cries. The American commanding general, Douglas MacArthur, and what was left of his command withdrew to Australia. Sure, the British were a formidable force and so were the Soviets, but the first became a staunch ally, and the latter collapsed mostly thanks to US dominance. Vietnam's half-century of disaster. US aims: 70%—To avoid a humiliating US defeat (to our reputation as a guarantor). Gordon Duff, Senior Editor. This attack, the supposed purpose of which was to protect Christian missionaries operating in the area, quickly turned into a war of conquest… Within a month, the Imperial Japanese Army had overrun most of Luzon, the northern Philippines. Following are a few representative quotes from widely used freshman history textbooks. The Myth of Inevitable US Defeat in Vietnam (Strategy and History) 1st Edition by Dale Walton (Author) 4.7 out of 5 stars 7 ratings. The brutal tactics used by US troops often drove more Vietnamese civilians to support the Vietcong. Your email address will not be published. No matter the cause of the war, it was one of the rare moments in US history when a foreign power waged war freely on her soil. spectacular military defeat or the sudden political collapse of the South Vietnamese government. It was the Communists who started the war by sending troops into South Vietnam. Most people have heard of the Battle of Little Big Horn either from high school history class or the classic movie Little Big Manstarring Dustin Hoffman. Read another story from us: The Battle of Little Big Horn: Custers Ultimate Humiliation. The engagement took place between combined forces of the Lakota, Northern Cheyenne, and Arapaho tribes and the 7th Cavalry Regiment of the United States Army led by Lieutenant Colonel Armstrong Custer. Furthermore, the Japanese had advanced their timetable and attacked Borneo and Indonesia instead of immediately continuing with the conquest of the Philippines. Many historians even claim that it was the worst military defeat in US history. Photographs went around the world, acting as symbols of US defeat. Internet research turns up these 112 lost battles of the Vietnam war: 1. 2Davidson, Gienapp, Heyrman, Lytle, & Stoff; Nation of Nations, McGraw Hill 2006 edition, p. 912 Following the successful defense of Pusan, and the stunning victory on … The sight of the once proud US militia running through the streets of Washington DC and the ensuing flight of the US cabinet was the inspiration for the famous poem The Bladensburg Races. At first, the Americans held firm. From a military standpoint, however, the Tet Offensive was a disaster for the Communists. The steadily increasing losses were the main reason why they withdrew from there eventually. Your email address will not be published. In Vietnam, the US military possessed a lack of foresight, neglected fundamental intelligence-gathering principles, and suffered from an absence of strategy and direction. The history professors and other leftists who take such pleasure in describing our soldiers as losers are telling us more about their own prejudices than they are about actual history. Across the Partition, 1950. This “political victory” for the Communists is the closest thing to a victory that their apologists in academia can point to. They were wrong. The report instead foresaw that the United States would offer concessions during prolonged negotiations leading to a political settlement. Conversely, most belligerents defeated by our armed forces end up freer and more prosperous than they before engaging us. On a fundamental level, US military intelligence was unable to gauge the level of communist infiltration in the South of the country. It would prove to be a fatal mistake. Washington , March 10, 1965. It resulted in what President Ronald Reagan called the “Vietnam Syndrome,” an American unwillingness to intervene overseas. ISBN-10 ... Top reviews from the United States There was a problem filtering reviews right now. They were sent on fatal marches through the jungle or transported back to Japan on so-called “Hell Ships” to work in mines and factories. When the United States fought in Vietnam, it was organized modern technology versus organized human beings, and the human beings won.” Professor Howard Zinn. Vietnam, combined with the Watergate Scandal, dented US confidence throughout the 1970s. It was the second worst US defeat during the Second World War after the Battle of the Philippines. The correct place is “French North Africa”. The aftermath of the battle resulted in the burning of the White House and many other government buildings. It would be many years until the Americans would again intercede in a military manner on the world stage. Consider the following highly insightful quotation. Rommel decided to face the new threat in the west before again devoting his attention on the British in the east. Yet that hardly begins to tell the whole story. 3Howard Zinn, A People’s History of the United States, Harper Perennial 2005 edition, p. 501. I recommend these websites: For all intents and purposes the Viet Cong ceased to exist as an organized military force after being ravaged by American forces during Tet; all it could manage for the rest of the war was isolated guerilla actions. http://www.realclearhistory.com/2017/06/09/the_lost_battles_of_vietnam_war_2564.html, http://www.invent-the-future.org/2015/04/fight-to-win-how-the-vietnamese-people-rose-up-and-defeated-imperialism/, https://www.thedailybeast.com/general-giap-and-the-myth-of-american-invincibility, https://www.lewrockwell.com/2015/05/eric-margolis/the-american-invaders-were-defeated/. This false impression is as widespread as it is largely because the left wing extremists who make up most college history faculties, and write most of the mainstream history books, insist on portraying the soldiers who served in that war as losers. In battle after battle US troops defeated and drove back the North Vietnamese Army (NVA) and their Viet Cong allies, always imposing disproportionate casualties. In a survey conducted in 1964, 58% Celebrations in the streets of Aleppo at the news that the city has been liberated. Despite massive numbers, a good working knowledge of … The USA is a paragon of that ideal. Against Hitler’s orders, he launched “Operation Morgenluft” or “Operation Morning Air.”. The roots of much of this hostility go back to the 1960’s, when male students eager to avoid or evade the draft frequently tried to take the moral high ground by denouncing their peers who served in Vietnam as war criminals, or as ignorant dupes being sent into harm’s way by the “military industrial complex.” Many of those draft protesters of yesteryear are the college professors of today. From the first major encounter between American GI’s and Communist forces at the Battle of Ia Drang until the Nixon administration pulled American forces out of the country, American troops won every significant battle they fought. The British claimed it was the Americans’ fault and the Americans claimed it was the British. This makes it very hard to understand the US defeat in Vietnam. At the end of the war, it began to be manufactured in large-scale. Supporters of the American empire think the U.S. military is invincible. Most textbooks focus instead on the fact that public support for the war effort waned during this period. In reality the Vietnam War was only a “military disaster” for the North Vietnamese troops who invaded South Vietnam, and had to face American troops in combat. However, it was not always like this. The historical role of U.S. military action is as defender and liberator. Despite the defeats as mentioned above, US military dominance has never been seriously challenged for most of the country’s history. This brief lull in hostilities gave the US and her local forces time to establish a highly defensible position. More than 10 years of U.S. chemical warfare in Vietnam exposed an estimated 2.1 to 4.8 million Vietnamese people to … The horrendous atrocities committed by the North Vietnamese against the South Vietnamese, including untold thousands killed in 1975 when they overran the country, have no place in history. Since the beginning of the World War II, television gradually became familiar to the public. When the US landed its forces in French North Africa, they assumed that the Nazis were a spent force after the German defeat by the British at El Alamein at the beginning of November 1942. There were a number of problems facing US forces when fighting the war in Vietnam. Or moments when the terrain or the nature of the opposing force negated the US military’s superiority. Ultimately, the conflict turned into what many deem the worst military defeat in US history. Most people have heard of the Battle of Little Big Horn either from high school history class or the classic movie Little Big Man starring Dustin Hoffman. The government of South Vietnam invited the Americans in to help them hold off the invading Communists, which the American GI’s did with great success for eight years. The antiwar movement was mainly grassroots and the predominate support for the US involvement was mostly positive until after the Tet offensive. The role of the United States in the Vietnam War began after World War II and escalated into full commitment during the Vietnam War from 1955 to 1973. As US imperialism prepares to go to war against Iraq, Jonathan Clyne (of the editorial Board of the Swedish Marxist journal, Socialisten) looks back at the Vietnam War. The two biggest issues, but not the only ones, were the anti-war effort undermining that will and the fact that the government of South Vietnam was corrupt as hell. This essay will evaluate the following question; what are the main reasons for the United States (US) defeat in the Vietnam War? Despite hardly any air support and fewer tanks, 50 American tanks were destroyed during the initial hours of the engagement. Posted on November 14, 2010. Consequences of the US 'defeat' in Vietnam The policy of containment had failed militarily. It is generally considered the largest defeat in US history, with over 100,000 Allied troops captured. In 1950s, there were only 9% of American home who owned a television, but this figure rose dramatically to 93% in 19661. It was Custer’s Last Stand, resulting in his demise and that of five companies of the 7th Cavalry Regiment. The statement: “United States soldiers won every significant battle they fought during the entire Vietnam War” just bases on the myths. This investigation seeks how the U.S. failed in the Vietnam War. The Vietnam War became a major Cold War conflict in the 1960s period. December 13, 2016. So, Vietnam was political, psychological and military failure for the United States of America. The combined forces of the Viet Cong and the North Vietnamese Army attacked dozens of cities in the South, and could not hold a single one. On April 30, 1975, Saigon, capital of the U.S.-backed Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam), fell to the invading military forces of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (communist North Vietnam), two years after the withdrawal of American troops in the wake of the January 1973 Paris Peace Accords. Right after the bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, the Imperial Japanese expanded their efforts into the creation of a large pan-Asian empire. The GDP of North Vietnam in 1965 was $6.0bn in 2015 dollars. About 23,000 US military personnel either fell or were captured. In more recent years many universities banned or obstructed armed service recruiters on campus, causing a confrontation with Congress and the Defense Department that went all the way to the United States Supreme Court, which decided unanimously in favor of the military. It is a little known fact that United States soldiers won every significant battle they fought during the entire Vietnam War. http://www.realclearhistory.com/2017/06/09/the_lost_battles_of_vietnam_war_2564.html, Vietnam War, Part V – How History Books Slander our Soldiers. The war pitted the communist government of North Vietnam against South Vietnam and its ally, the United States. This article is hilarious. Also called Operation Starlite, this was the first purely American assault on the … Mainstream history textbooks are pretty uniform in how they present the military dynamics of the Vietnam War. Please try again later. Today, the US military is the most powerful force in the world. …by Gordon Duff, Senior Editor and Ian Greenhalgh, Managing Editor. Thirty such attacks damaged ROTC buildings in 1970 alone. They were regular National Guard, constabulary, and newly formed Commonwealth units. The impact on American pride was immense. There is no historical support for the assertion that The U.S. invades to occupy and subjugate other sovereign nations. The U. S. soldiers are not undefeated army. Bombardier’s Bracelet is Found in The Ash Pit of a Concentration Camp, 74 Years After he Was Executed, Disappeared Nuns, Victims of the Red Army, Discovered in Cemetery, Missing Indonesian Sub Wreckage Found: Crew Considered Lost, Brilliant Images of the Enormous German Flak Towers, Woody Harrelson to Star as Doctor Who Saved the Lives of Jews in WWII, Wreckage Found in 1963 Might Hold Answers about the Lost Patrol Which Disappeared in the Bermuda Triangle in 1945, Dive Locates the USS Johnston, the Deepest Shipwreck Ever Found. Thirty years after the end of the Vietnam War, its political lessons remain decisive in the struggle to end the US occupation of Iraq and defeat American militarism internationally. The battle took place during a war between the British and Americans that had started in 1812 and lasted until 1815 because of numerous reasons. Based on the assumption that the native American village mainly housed women and children and contained very few warriors, he gave the order to charge. ... History will eventually tell us that, as an example to the whole Global South, this will remain the ultimate game-changer. 3794. https://www.historyhit.com/major-battles-of-the-vietnam-war These are the US Army’s five biggest military blunders that left a mark on the annals of history. On April 30, 1975, the last of the US forces retired from South Vietnam’s capital, Saigon. The United States Military is not very popular among the political left, and nowhere is this anti-military bias more apparent than on college campuses. 8. Very well-written and informative. Spectacular military defeat or the nature of the opposing force negated the US and her local time. 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