Good Example Of US Military Involvement In The Vietnam War Essay

Question No. 1 [200 words]

North Korea crossed the 38th Parallel – an imaginary line separating North Korea from South Korea - on June 25, 1950. In September 1950, UN forces composed of three military forces from Japan and one from the US positioned in the port of Pusan to repel the advancing North Korean People’s Army. The UN forces under General McArthur successfully invaded Inchon on September 15 and retook Seoul in two weeks. The US forces or EUSAK under Commander Walker, which lacked men and weapons, succeeded in forcing the NKPA from withdrawing from the 38th Parallel after it was joined by reinforcements from the 5th US Infantry, the 2nd Infantry Division and 1st Marine Brigade. By October, UN and US forces crossed the 38th Parallel to run after the NKPA and reunite Korea under UN supervision. However, the NKPA repelled them, and with the help of the Chinese, forced them to withdraw. With the appointment of a new commander, EUSAK was able to rebound and stabilize the 38th Parallel. More reinforcements from other countries, such as Britain, allowed the forces to repel night attacks by the NKPA and in April-May 1951, the united forces defeated definitively the enemy (Millett et al 2012, pp. 453-460).

Question No. 2 [150 words]

Operation Rolling Thunder is the first sustained bombing operation conducted by the US against North Vietnam. It began on March 2, 1965 and ended three years later. It was conducted in three overlapping phases. The first phase was interdiction to obstruct the flow of men and supplies from the North to the South. This failed because the Vietnamese used civilians to repair damaged roads and other infrastructures, used bicycles to limit vulnerability, and relied on food crops grown in the South. The second phase sought to eliminate the North’s oil supply to decrease its capability to get into the South. Although the US destroyed 80% of its oil depots, China and the Soviets came intervened to help the North. Finally, the US attacked North Vietnam’s industry and electric power to decrease its ability to conduct war against the South. Similarly, China and the Soviets provided generators to the North (Millett et al 2012, pp. 517-519).

Question No. 3 [200 words]

Ho Chi Minh and the Communists believed that it was not impossible or improbable to defeat the United States despite the fact that the latter has exhibited military superiority over North Vietnam. This was because the Vietnamese believed that the US had no compelling national interest in fighting Vietnam. The North Vietnamese were fighting for their homeland, but the Americans were fighting for strangers. The absence of such national interest would easily break the spirit of the Americans once they suffer losses. Rather than sustain more losses, the Americans would likely opt to give up its campaign in Vietnam and cut its losses. On the basis of this point-of-view, all the Vietnamese had to do was to inflict sustained losses against the Americans. These losses need not be huge or massive, but simply sustained and consistent and just enough to weaken the morale of the Americans. The Vietnamese had fought superior military forces before in the own turf – the French, the Chinese and the Mongols – and succeeded in repelling them. The US would not be different. Thus, the Vietnamese decided that the right strategy would be to match the US in its escalated limited war and engaged it in a protracted conflict employing its military, guerilla and militia forces at various points (Millett et al 2012, pp. 517-519).

Reference

Millett, A., Maslowski, P. and Feis, W. B. (2012). For the common defense: A Military History of the United States from 1607 to 2012. New York, NY: Free Press.