Discuss American experience in Vietnam Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Discuss American experience in Vietnam - Essay Example Similarly, John F. Kennedy illustrated this by saying that "The energy, the faith, the devotion which we bring this endeavor [defending freedom] will light our country and all who serve it- and the glow from that fire can truly light the world"5, and this became one of the reasons why America found itself duty-bound to intervene into Vietnam. When we look at the region in which the war took place, the war encompassed a bigger conflict of the region including the adjacent countries of Laos and Cambodia, which was also known as the Second Indochina War. Vietnamese remember this combat as the American War (Vietnamese Chin Tranh Chng My Cu Nc, which when translated into English is "War against the Americans and to Save the Nation"). A look at the past wars in the region reveals that, the First Indochina War was the French Indochina War in which the French, in order to maintain their control of their colony located in Indochina, had to come to blows in this region against an uprising independence movement which was headed by a Communist Leader Ho Chi Minh. The Vietnam War was a succession of this confrontation. According to many the Vietnam War has not gone down in to history the way it truly occurred, for example according to Richard M. Nixon "No event in American history is more misunderstood than the Vietnam War. It was misreported then, and it is misremembered now."2 There are diverse views on whether America lost the war or not but, Henry Kissinger said on one occasion that, "The Vietnam War required us to emphasize the national interest rather than abstract principles. What President Nixon and I tried to do was unnatural. And that is why we didn't make it."3 This can also be taken as a lesson, that in all situations abstract principles, need to be stressed upon more than, just national interest. Another lesson is never to take undemocratic moves before going to war. America was long before at war, before the American public realized it. This move of Lyndon B. Johnson, the 36th President of the United States, was undemocratic. Lyndon B. Johnson heightened the involvement of America in the Vietnam War from increasing the number of American soldiers from 16,000 in 1963 to 500,000 in early 1968. Keeping the masses in deception is not a good policy also. It is not so wise to call the bombing of some other country anything else than war. But Lyndon Johnson and McNamara formed a false impression that the attacks which were being made on North Vietnam were alternatives to war, instead of war itself. Since bombs cause destruction and death so they can not be called 'communication', especially for those who become the victim of those bombs. After the U.S was truly at war with Vietnam, Pentagon had predicted