Operational Art and U.S counterinsurgency in Vietnam

Operational Art and U.S counterinsurgency in Vietnam

Introduction

Operational Art is a term used to denote the practice of applying wartime tactics in terms of military, economy and psychology in order to achieve strategic objectives. The particular practice is different from the tactics used in a conventional war because it involves a number of complex transitions to overcome the physical and ideological strength of the enemy. The counterinsurgency, as a subject of operational art, is seen as some kind of montage in which political, diplomatic, military and economic forces are deployed to fight the enemy. The theoretical part of the counterinsurgency as an operational art field is simple but on the battlefield it really gives a hard time to the military heads. The paper will discuss the U.S counterinsurgency tactics in the Vietnam War and how it suffered the worst failures in the wartime history.

Discussion

The counterinsurgency is done in order to defeat the insurgency in a country. Before discussing the counterinsurgency tactics, it is important to understand insurgency. Insurgency is a politico-military attempt by a group of people in order to gain power by destabilizing the government. The nature of insurgency differs because of the nature of objectives that are to be achieved. Usually, it is guerilla warfare that insurgents would use to induce distress in a country. The societal disorder is the aim so that the government of the country could be overpowered. One of the benefits of guerilla warfare for insurgents is that they can easily control the power flow into their hands. Insurgents operate through a strategic vision in which four tactics are predominantly used to achieve their objectives.

The first tactic is to provoke the government to take an unwanted action, providing them with an opportunity to exploit the situation. The next tactic is to inflict fear in the hearts of the government officials, usually intimidating them with scare tactics. The third tactic is that of protraction, which helps to extend the effects of the previous tactics. The last tactic is to overcome all the counter efforts that are made to defeat the insurgency. This is the collapse tactic that helps the insurgents to stay put and not get trodden. These tactics are not new, and have been used back in primitive times. One of the very daunting challenges for military establishments today is to overpower the military structure which the insurgents can form easily to destabilize a government within no time. Probably, the only strength that these insurgents possess is that of having an ideology and cause. The counterinsurgency efforts are not so fruitful unless they are carried out to completely eliminate the insurgents, their thoughts and ideology out of the country.

The defeat by insurgents in Vietnam War has arguably taught more lessons to the U.S military than any other war in the history. One of the most important reasons behind the U.S failure in Vietnam was a misunderstanding that existed between the government and the military of the United ...