LEGACY: THE VIETNAM WAR

Legacy: The Vietnam War

Jeff Goddard
HUMN-303
Week-7

LEGACY: THE VIETNAM WAR

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Legacy: The Vietnam War

The legacy of the Vietnam War is an ongoing debate, some forty years after the final
combat operations concluded. Prior to the Vietnam War the U.S. had never lost a war, yet the
conflict in Vietnam was largely viewed as a U.S. defeat. The conflict which spanned nearly two
and a half decades inflicted damages onto both countries which would be felt for generations. In
1973 the Paris peace accords effectively ended the war, in the end some 58,000 U.S. soldiers
were dead, nearly 300,000 were physically wounded, and some $167 billion dollars were spent
on the war effort. The sacrifices of those whom serviced is unquestionable, it is in these
sacrifices that an eventual peace agreement is reached, ending ultimately as peace with honor.
This paper is a reflection on the most significant lessons learned by American experience in the
Vietnam War. Well specifically explore lessons learned in three different areas diplomatic
negotiations, presidential leadership, and cultural/social contexts. With some much material to
discuss, each area will focus on what I consider to be significant events that would ultimately
lead the American withdrawal from Vietnam in 1972.
The topic of diplomatic negotiations is very interesting in terms of the Vietnam War,
some 2,000 individual efforts were made to begin peace talks from mid-1965 until the end of
1967. (Moss, 2010) Yet none of them were able to bring the sides together, both side refused to
make the concessions necessary to initiate serious peace talks. As each side continued to invest
in the conflict only added further complexity for a diplomatically negotiated solution. The
United States paid a high political price for the Vietnam War. It weakened the global stature of
America not only among our enemies but also our allies. Domestically and internationally the
honesty and competency of our leaders was questioned, which ultimately lead to distrust of
authority in the wake of the war. In the end, Vietnam was a futile war that caused a great deal

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of suffering and that nobody won. (Isserman & Bowman, 2009) What the history of the
Vietnam War tells us is that a conflict will continue to propagate if the leadership of the two sides
doesnt take an active role in mutually beneficial negotiations.
The concept of limited war stands out as one of the most important presidential
leadership lessons learned during the Vietnam War. Limited warfare called for the gradual
application of economic and military assistance, diplomatic pressure, covert operations, and
military force. (Moss, 2010) The intent of this approach was to provide the right mix of
persuasion, money, aid, and force without provoking a response from Russia or China.
Americas success in war was unparalleled prior to the Vietnam War; the reason for its success
was an overwhelming combination of superior manpower and extraordinarily powerful weapons.
Moss (Moss, 2010) states that President Johnson expected a relatively quick and cheap U.S.
victory that would save South Vietnam, as history indicates the conflict was neither quick nor
cheap. What made the matter of Vietnam a significant interest of the United States? The
overwhelming doctrine predicating the war was the domino theory, the domino theory held
that the fall of Vietnam would cause the loss of all of Indochina followed by the rest of Southeast
Asia to communism. Herring (Herring, 1991) suggests that the domino theory was supplanted
by the notion of credibility, the idea that the United States must stand firm in Vietnam to
demonstrate its determination to defend vital interests across the globe. What the French war in
Vietnam should have taught America was a strong lesson in the nationalisc social and cultural
sentiment of the Vietnamese people. America underestimated the resolve of the North
Vietnamese American firepower killed and wounded huge numbers of VC and NVA soldiers,
but it could not eradicate the Vietnamese national revolution or its appeal. (Moss, 2010) North
Vietnam never lost sight of their objective for a unified Vietnam and never wavered on their

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protracted war strategy. The lesson learned is to establish a clear objective and develop a
strategy to achieve the objective, and once youve established your objective and strategy to
achieve to stay committed to both even in times of adversity.
Vietnam was not the first war to stir dissent and protest at home. The war of 1812 for
example for so unpopular that several states considered leaving the union before the war
concluded. During the Civil war riots broke out in New York as a response to the Norths draft
policy. In 1917 When President Wilson asked for congressional approval to declare war against
Germany the resolution was voted down. The 1960s began as an era of idealism in the United
States, particularly among the young. When JFK challenged Americans to ask not what your
country can do for you, but what you can do for your country young people on college
campuses across the nation felt the responsibility to make the world a better place, many felt it
was time for the United States to put the cold war behind it. The emergence of the black civil
rights movement inspired Americans, young, old, black, and white, social protest proved that it
could deliver meaningful social gains, like the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights act
of 1965. The antiwar movement drawing on the example of the Civil Rights gained momentum
over the years of the conflict by 1969 the movement mobilized some 500,000 protesters to march
in Washington D.C. To illustrate the effectiveness of the antiwar movement consider that
according to polls in 1965 the overwhelming majority of people supported the war, by 1967 for
the first time public opinion polls indicated that a majority agreed that it was a mistake to send
troops to Vietnam, and by 1971 the majority of Americans polled favored an immediate
withdrawal from Vietnam. McCoy (McCoy, 2013) offers that the anti-Vietnam War activists
opened closed systems one of the systems referred to by McCoy was the idea of a safe space
for Americans to disagree with their government regarding the war. The antiwar protest offered

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a blueprint for greater citizen participation in taking on a variety of social problems. It is this
system that provides activists around the world the foundation from which they will build their
protest to initiate social change.
To conclude the Vietnam War offers many lessons learned, none more important than the
grassroots approach that made the antiwar movement so effective. From a cultural perspective
the movement was effective in offering those who opposed the war an outlet to let their voice be
herd. It is no longer a matter of fact that when a President campaigns for support on a matter of
national importance that its just accepted. Vietnam taught us that war in the name of freedom
could just be a political ambition that the United States pushing on the agenda of global stability.
The greatest impact of the Vietnam War was the very spirit of America, it challenged Americans
traditional beliefs that nothing was beyond our reach, and raised profound questions about our
history and values. America was spared the physical destruction that devastated Vietnam. But
Americans suffered the pain and humiliation of its first military defeat. The debate about the
meaning of the Vietnam War will continue for years to come

Works Cited
Herring, G. C. (1991). America and Vietnam: The Unending War. Foreign Affairs, 104-119.
Isserman, M., & Bowman, J. S. (2009). Vietnam War. Infobase Publishing.
McCoy, E. R. (2013). Stalemate or Cultural Crossroad? Exploring U.S. "Systems" During the
Vietnam War. Humanities Education and Research Association, 30.2, 100-110.
Moss, G. (2010). Vietnam An American Ordeal. Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall.