Vietnam War and America
Introduction
The Vietnam War is one of the most defining moments of modern history. It was the first war of the 20th century when the leading super power of the world was humiliated at the hands of an obscure Asian country. Since the defeat of the British in Afghanistan during the middle of the 19th century, no major superpower including the Soviet Union was defeated when it was at the peak of its power. Most of the ideals used by American to support the war were developed during the later colonial period or the early cold war period (Berger 2003). The war has even forced America to change its During the cold war, even though the USA and Soviet Union never confronted each other directly, the Vietnam War was the closest they came to fighting. Many analysts give many reasons for America’s persistent involvement in the Vietnam War. One of the popular opinions given by the analysts regarding the reason behind the Vietnam War was to stop the spread of communism around the world. Some other analysts see the Vietnam War as a popular uprising against a military-landlord oligarchic system that was depended upon military support from major foreign powers of the time like USSR (Huntington 1968).
However, the main reason behind the Vietnam War was the American desire to modernize the modern world by leading it towards democracy and capitalism.
America’s Involvement in the Vietnam War
An Unpredictable War
By the 1950s, the global political war was totally divided between the two opposite factions who were advocating their own economic and political systems that should be adopted by the developing world in order to grow to be prosperous. While Soviet Union was keen on spreading socialism in all the developing world, USA was interested in stopping the influence of USSR and other capitalist countries. According to America, the spread of capitalism and the rule of law was the only way to prosperity for the third-world countries. However, as USSR started to spread its influence in eastern Germany and far-eastern countries, American policy makers faced an unprecedented crisis (Jonson 1985).Moreover, many American policy makers too have started to believe in the concept of threat from the communist world to its security and trading interests around the world. As a result, America decided to start a bloody war which resulted in the death of millions of Vietnamese citizens.
Dealing with the Post Imperial World
An important feature of the world politics in the middle of the twentieth century was the gradual decline of Imperialism. European powers like UK and Netherlands had to forsake their colonies as colonialism became outdated. However, some colonial powers like France still wanted to retain their colonies. It had brutally crushed the Vietnamese revolution by force. It started a war in 1946 that did not end even by the year 1975 (Herring 1991). Some revolutionary elements put up a stiff resistance to the French imperialism under the leadership of the legendary father of the Vietnamese revolution, Ho Chi Min. Ho Chi Min got support from the communist powers of the day like USSR. America felt that any success of the revolution can have disastrous consequences for the interests of the capitalist countries that were led by USA. American policy makers thought of preventing the success of the Vietnamese revolution to prevent a communist takeover of the Fareast Asia. Hence, they invested a lot of money and other resources to crush the Vietnamese revolution and modernize the third world countries.
Desire to Spread the Markets
Since the modern western civilization is mostly based on capitalism, the growth and vibrancy of its economies mostly depended on the manufacture and sale of goods to other countries. During the colonial times, many major western powers controlled many other countries as colonies in order to serve as closed markets for the goods produced by them. Wealth generated by selling their cheaper goods in colonies helped in the rapid industrialization of western powers. According to the former prime minister of India Jawaharlal Nehru, the plunder of Bengal (a province of India), helped England to get hold of the resources that were needed to fund its industrial revolution. But the end of colonialism made it difficult for western powers to have their own closed markets in the form of colonies. Many countries which got independence from colonial powers have also started resisting the free flow of western goods into their markets. In order to overcome the problem, western powers decided that the only way to have access to the global markets without any resistance is to attract eastern countries towards the western style modernization and consumerism. According to Shariati (2007), western powers realised that by tempting the inhabitants of the East towards modernization, they could make them to forget their culture and heritage and move towards western styled consumerism. In this endeavour, America decided to set an example by invading a country that was undergoing through a communist revolution against colonial powers. The invasion was expected by America to set an example to other developing countries and adopt western living habits.
Lending a Helping Hand to its Allies
After the end of the Second World War, America had a number of allies in the region like Japan. Japan started to rebuild itself after the end of the war with some help from USA. The then president of USA, Truman opined that supporting the non-Communist regions of the Asia Pacific region would shore up demand for the capitalist ideals of the western world. The fate of the recovery of a number of American allies was linked to the region surrounding Vietnam staying away from becoming communist. Democracy and free world dominion would give Japan access to the local Asian markets. England, which had a colony in Malaya, too pinned its hoped on the involvement of America for the revival of rubber and tin trades. American hoped that the Vietnam War would help its allies in rebuilding themselves after the end of Second World War.
Domino Theory
In their fight against communism, the political and military strategists in USA have come out with a theory called Domino Theory. According the advocates of the Domino theory, the American government along with its other European and Asian neighbours do their best efforts from any free country to get converted itself into communism. The opinion of USA on communism hardened after the Korean War which resulted in the breakup of Korea into two parts. Another which had a drastic impact of American opinion regarding communism was the People ’s Republic of China. In order to prevent non-communist countries from embracing socialism, USA had expended a lot of resources in assisting the French in the Vietnam War. As the government of Vietnam feared that America might crush the rebellion against the imperial France, it sought help from the communist countries like Soviet Republic and China. In effect what started off as a rebellion against colonial oppression converted into a cold-war standoff between communism and democracy.
Capitalism Wins
Despite America losing the Vietnam War due to its inability to understand the opposition that it might face from the Vietnamese government, many analysts reckon that capitalism ultimately won the War. Three decades after the end of the war in Vietnam, many Vietnamese people no longer harbour any hatred towards America (The Economist 2005). They embraced capitalism as a means of increasing the standard of living of Vietnamese citizens. Vietnam emerged as an important trading partner of USA and its government actively started supporting free enterprises to flourish in Vietnam. In fact, Vietnam hates other communist countries like China and Russia more it hates USA. Vietnam fought a war with China in the year 1979 over territorial disputes. Disputes with the western capitalist powers like USA are not mostly limited to issues like tariffs on the goods and services exported by Vietnam to USA rather than on issues like Vietnam War in which millions of Vietnamese citizens perished.
When the Soviet collapsed many of the developing countries in the South East Asia started to embrace capitalism. America’s succeeded in modernizing the third world countries through the Vietnamese War by making it a role model for other countries to emulate.
Conclusion
Vietnam War shattered the peace that was prevalent since the end of the World War II and made the world wonder whether peace can prevail in the long term (Guevara 1967). For all its enthusiasm, America could not understand the will of Vietnamese citizens in not allowing any foreign powers to rule them. Infact, it was assumed that the Vietnamese soldiers would not be able to face the onslaught of the military might of America. America hoped that Vietnam might surrender itself quickly leading to an early victory. As a result, American had to face a humiliating withdrawal from Vietnam. America’s war experiment is Vietnam is similar to its more recent military adventure in the middle-east where it invaded Iraq with the objective of spreading democracy in the Arab world which was traditionally ruled by strong military dictators. Despite America’s humiliating withdrawal from the Vietnam War without any clear military victory, it succeeded in sending a clear message to the developing world that the only towards growth and prosperity is through a well-developed capitalist system where the rule of law is upheld. The war also succeeded in stopping the spread of communism in many other developing countries like India.
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References
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