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The Vietnam War

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Lessons learned from the Vietnam War

Summary:

The Vietnam War taught several critical lessons: the limits of military power in achieving political goals, the importance of understanding local cultures and political dynamics, and the necessity of clear objectives and public support for military interventions. It also highlighted the impact of media on public opinion and the importance of transparent government communication during wartime.

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What lessons can we learn from the Vietnam War?

Don't fight protracted insurgencies in distant countries, when you understand little of the language or culture, and there is a nationalist tendency in the population.  Don't spend massive resources in countries with an imperial history that will only resent your presence in the long run, and that are very difficult to change, or perhaps not interested in democracy at all.

Those are some easy lessons, but quite obviously, we haven't taken them to heart.

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I don't think we learned our lesson, but we should have.  The most important lesson for me is that a war that is unpopular with both Americans and the world is a losing propsition.  When we end up relying on our moral high ground to justify our actions, we are doomed.  In reality, we find out we don't have one.

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One of the lessons of the Vietnam War is that democratic power unguarded turns to authoritarian tyranny. Such is the case with the secret escalations of the conflict in Vietnam--perhaps that unbridled power has never yet been reigned fully back in as is perhaps witnessed by the bitter partisanship that characterizes contemporary politics and governance.

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Another lesson, in my opinion, is that no leader should ever enter into a war without an exit strategy. The Vietnam war waged on for so long, because nobody really knew what the end goal was. If people don't know what goal they are heading for, they will never know if they reach it.

The second lesson for me is, that even if you don't support war, you must support the warrior. So many Vietnam vets gave so much for their country, but they came home to a country that forgot them. This caused so much psychological stress that many of our heroes struggled with mental illness, depression, and even homelessness. Not a very good commentary on a country that asked so much of these men, but gave back so little.

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I would largely agree with #2. The biggest lesson from Vietnam to me seems to be the way in which we have to be incredibly careful before becoming involved in military action in another country. As recent history has shown, if we are not completely clear about our motives and that our reasons can be justified clearly, then perhaps we should not get involved in the first place. Military intervention in another country is a massive deal and should not be embarked upon lightly.

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I would argue that the most important lesson to learn from the Vietnam War is that we cannot impose our ways and our values on other people, particularly not by the use of military force.  We cannot make other countries be like us or be our allies through military power.

In Vietnam, the only real way to win was by winning the "hearts and minds" of the Vietnamese people.  But this is very difficult to do.  There is no easy way to make a nation of people like and/or agree with you.  We thought that we could make this happen largely by using military force.  We were wrong.  We seem to be (you might argue) making the same mistake again in both Iraq and Afghanistan.

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What lessons can we learn from the Vietnam War?

One lesson from the Vietnam war is that media coverage has a huge impact. Reporters have always covered wars, but Vietnam occurred at a critical juncture of technology. Reporters were given cameras now. They broadcasted nightly into American living rooms, and while it wasn't live it most certainly was in color. I'd say the media element is going to be crucial for every war in the future, and it all stems from Vietnam.
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To come at this from a very basic point of view, I would say the lesson is simple:  we can't win 'em all.  This war brought America down a few pegs (in our own eyes!) on quite a few levels.  I'll simply discuss to three of them.  First, it damaged our pride in that we learned the United States of America could actually lose to a force (North Vietnam) we considered to be evil.  Second, it showed us that our leader (the president of The United States) could be capable of corruption where military action is concerned.  Third, it exposed the effect on the war effort of the media being more involved.

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One lesson from the Vietnam War is that government perpetrated deception adversely affects the safety of American citizens and our republican democracy while also endangering people and nations in other parts of the world. Case in point, the cloak and dagger escalation of war that preceded the Tet Offensive, while Washington was declaring deescalation, put our citizens on active duty at heightened risk, sabotaged trust in our government, and caused manifold suffering to other peoples--if the war legitimately needed escalation, Washington had the duty, obligation and moral responsibility to be forthcoming about it.

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As a former Army Wife, and as a current Army employee, the biggest lesson that I hope people learn is to treat war veterans with respect and not the way they were treated once all Vietnam vets came back. I can imagine how horrible those poor kids- because they were kids!- felt coming back from a war that they did not understand only to have people spit in their faces, and the government forget about them.

I am very pro-military but, even if I weren't, it enrages me to think that someone is capable of disrespecting a soldier who has signed up, in the interest of our freedom, to do a job that I would never dare to do. I hope we remember Viet Nam and never repeat the horrors of the Viet Nam veterans ever again.

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I'm reminded of a line from the film The Princess Bride. According to Vizzini,

"Ha ha! You fool! You fell victim to one of the classic blunders--the most famous of which is "never get involved in a land war in Asia."

Sadly, our leaders have not followed Vizzini's advice, adding Iraq and Afghanistan to our foolish blunders following the debacle in Vietnam.

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Insurgencies are difficult to defeat, especially if they have strong sources of financial and military foreign aid, and especially if they are nationalist movements.  Insurgencies take a long time to control, a lesson that would have served us well in Afghanistan or Iraq, and long term occupation is cripplingly expensive.  Lastly, and this lesson we seem to have taken more to heart, the generation of veterans returning home with emotional and mental health issues need a support system for recovery.  So far, we seem to be investing in, and paying attention to, that reality.

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Perhaps the lesson here is to mind our own business?  It seems that wherever our politicians tread the problem becomes bigger than it was before our meddling.  Thomas Jefferson and I are among those who believe in a bit more isolationist policy.  Of course, the world is getting "smaller" by the minute with our mixed economies, technology, and interdependent workings through government and business.  It will be much more difficult to live and let live.

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I think the meaning for us is clear: hold those who would send our young men to die in foreign lands to the HIGHEST STANDARD of necessity, and then watch them every step of the way.  In fact, I think we should ask the people who send our soldiers into battle to LEAD them at the front.

I confess to this because I was a young college student during the War, and was taken in with the domino theory.  Today we have soldiers fighing 2 or 3 (or none, by definition) wars which do not seem to have an exit strategy and which is/are justified, in part, by the idea that it's better to fight them there than here.  Whenever I am presented with 2 alternatives, I wonder why only two ... there are almost always other alternatives, sometimes much better ones.

So I would say, be skeptical about entering ANY war and hold our elective officials to the highest standard of proof (in everything they do).  As said above, some may disagree with this, but it's my meditation on my experience a long time ago ....

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Another lesson that some might see in the Vietnam War is that politicians should be forced to enunciate clear goals for wars and clear methods for knowing when a war has been won and can, therefore, be ended.  In Vietnam, our goals were not really all that clear and it was hard to determine what victory would look like.  This led to something of a quagmire where we floundered around without a clear goal or plan for achieving that goal.

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There is a double irony to U.S. involvement in Vietnam. First, the U.S. under its policy of containment was determined to stop communism in its tracks, and hopefully bring it to an end. Not only did containment not work in Vietnam (or anywhere else in Southeast Asia), but communism as an economic and governmental system collapsed under its own weight. No action by the United States contributed to its collapse.  A second irony is that the people of Vietnam were doing nothing more than that which the people of the United States had done in 1776; demanding freedom from a government which they felt did not protect their interests. Yet the U.S. was so determined to stop communism, it did not consider the rights of the people of Vietnam. In essence, we wished to impose our own values on a nation which did not share them. Double standard might be a better phrase than irony.

There are many who may disagree with my assessment; however this is the lesson of Vietnam which I see.

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What leadership lessons can be learned from the Vietnam War?

There are a number of possible lessons to be learned.  Among them are:

  • Do not overcommit the US to an unclear mission.  Presidents Kennedy and Johnson in particular essentially promised open-ended support to South Vietnam.  They did so at a time when it was very hard to see what victory would look like and what steps the US would need to take to accomplish it.  This led to the "mission creep" that was such a negative aspect of US involvment in this war.
  • Do not micromanage the military.  President Johnson was notorious for going so far as to pick bombing targets himself.  This is better left to professionals.  The military should be given clear objectives and then left on its own to pursue them in what it sees as the most effective way.
  • Do not mislead the American people.  Johnson's desire to make the people feel that all was going well helped lead to failure.  When it became clear that all was not well, people lost faith in the government and in the war.
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I think that President Johnson becomes the ultimate cautionary tale and most relevant lesson on how presidential leadership is so important during any conflict.  Every President since Johnson has had to wrestle with this.  Of the many lessons learned, in my mind the most lasting one is that the President must grasp the full implications and complex, nuanced nature of fighting a war when convincing the American people of its need.  President Johnson's failures stem from his inability or unwillingness to be able to provide a clear and focused vision for American success in Vietnam.  The metrics that Johnson used or were forced to use were too complex to be able to be fully absorbed by the changing social dynamic of the American people.  By the time 1968 had rolled around, Johnson realized that he could no longer control the war and its impression amongst the American public.  Rather, it controlled him, crippling his administration's domestic goals and its political capital.  His decision to not run for reelection stems from this.  President Johnson lost control of the message about the war and could no longer convince the public of its success or its mere presence in terms of why America should continue to fight it.  I think that it is here where the ultimate lesson of Presidential leadership becomes evident from the Vietnam War.  Its proof is that no president since Johnson has taken office without being mindful of "another Vietnam," a state of being that strikes fear in every post- Johnson American President

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