THE VIETNAM WAR

The Vietnam War



The Vietnam War

It was a conflict that shattered one nation and divided the other in bits and pieces. Vietnam brought a new dimension to the Cold War and compelled the United States to think its goals in the world-power rivalry. In his simple straight language he conveyed in a way that has never before seen the sheer horror and absolute waste of war in general, and Vietnam in particular. Philip Caputo and his men are not the disheartened stereotypes of Hollywood movies; they were true patriots, sent away from home to fight a merciless war. The book narrates the American soldier's desperate fight of freedom against the Communist menace.

Rumor of War shows the reformation of a well-trained cohesive fighting force into the depressed organization that has come to represent American forces in Vietnam. In a sense it is a case study of the US Military's blunder into the hole.

Caputo is one of the first Marines ashore in Vietnam and is part of the initial process of upsurge that led to our enormous commitment to that country. He first guards an airbase, then makes limited patrols into the surrounding countryside to patch out snipers. In due time he is part of the first massive search and invalidate operations of the war.

Direct U.S. military involvement in The Vietnam War, the nation's longest, cost fifty-eight thousand American lives. Only the Civil War and the two world wars were deadlier for Americans. During the decade of Vietnam start in 1964, the U.S Treasury spent over $140 billion on the war, enough money to fund urban regeneration projects in every major American city. In spite of these enormous costs and their accompanying public and private disturbance for the American people, the United States failed, for the first time in its history, to attain its stated war aims. The goal was to preserve a separate, independent, non-communist government in South Vietnam, but after April 1975, the communist Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV) ruled the whole nation. (Wittman, Sandra M. "Chronology of the Vietnam War." Vietnam: Yesterday and Today Oakton Community College.

The initial reasons for U.S. involvement in Vietnam seemed rational and compelling to American leaders. Following its success in World War II, the

United States faced the future with a sense of ethical rectitude and material confidence. From Washington's perspective, the principal threat to U.S. security and world peace was monolithic, tyrannical communism emanating from the Soviet Union. Any communist anywhere, at home or abroad, was, by description, and enemy of the United States. Drawing equivalence with the unsuccessful appeasement of fascist dictators before World War II, the Truman administration believed that any sign of communist aggression must be met quickly and vehemently by the United States and its allies. This reactive policy was known as containment.

The Vietnam War proved devastating for the United States both in economic, military and social status. However, less documented have been the involvement and the relative weakness of Australian diplomacy during this ...