Legacy of Vietnam essay
The article under consideration by George Herring is entitled “The Legacy of Vietnam” and deals with the military conflict in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia that started in the fiftieth of the twentieth century and concerns the consequences that followed and brought the irreversible changes and losses for the US. The article not only describes the war itself and the offensives step-by-step, it also concerns the moral and historical discussion it unfolds.
The article starts with the statistical data on the victims of the war. Herring informs that though the US suffered less than Vietnam, the damage is still enormous. The war fueled the inflation and though Nixon tried to hold the peace with honor, the US still emerged from the war with its image discolored. Due to Vietnam Nixon’s presidency was brought to a premature end and though the peace agreements were signed in 1973 and America was no longer directly participating in the war, North Vietnam urged unification and South Vietnam strived to be an independent nation. Under the tension of the commitments Nixon had made to the president of South Vietnam Thieu, the former had to resign in August of 1974. The major offensive North Vietnam made in 1975 led to South Vietnam’s rapid collapse and US frustration and bewilderment. It was difficult for the US to arrange the return of the war prisoners and finally American troops were withdrawn. However, none of the Vietnamese combatants gave up their course but the attempts to effect a cease-fire were quite vain. The US went on persisting in its commitment to Thieu and Nixon together with Kissinger by all means tried to strengthen the South Vietnam president’s government. The US troops were totally withdrawn from Vietnam by the end of March of 1973, but America kept on fighting in Cambodia and left its naval and air power in the Gulf of Tonkin, Thailand and Guam. North Vietnam did not react to US warnings and by the end of the year Nixon remained powerless after Watergate. Congress passed over War Powers Act, a response to the exercise of president’s power in Vietnam. Thieu proclaimed the “Third Indochina War” and launched a number of land-grabbing operations, while the North Vietnamese counterattacked. As the US abandoned South Vietnam and cut its aid, North Vietnam began to have a privilege. In winter of 1974 North Vietnamese attacked north-east of Saigon, they killed and captured 3, 000 South Vietnamese troops. The Central Highlands were taken within two days and generally due to unwise Thieu’s orders the result was evident. The North Vietnamese cut the major roads and refugees had nothing to do but flee with the departing soldiers. South Vietnam was gradually retreating as it could not defend the coastal cities as well. In 1975 the conquest of all of South Vietnam was already planned to be attained. The US was shocked by the abrupt fall of the highlands and definitely overestimated South Vietnam’s capacity to resist. The war in Vietnam seemed to cause nothing but an economic recession at home and the strategy appeared to be “wasteful and inefficient” (Herring). In May of 1975 the Vietnam War was proclaimed finished as Vietcong soldiers ran up the flag over Saigon. As America reduced its involvement in the war, South Vietnam as a state actually collapsed, each and every citizen acted in his or her own interests. Nixon was blamed for having waged the war he was not able to win.
Herring claims that as the US withdrew from South Vietnam the government had definitely no chance of survival. The thirty years war left the country “in shambles”, it truly exhausted both sides and those who left in Vietnam got poverty, forced labor, oppression as well as frustration, anger and disillusionment (Herring). They say, in the war there are no winners, only losers, and the survivors that live to talk about it all. Herring notices that Vietnam goes on resisting intervention today that is an obstacle to its consolidation, and adds: “historic differences between north and south were sharpened during the war, and even the brutal and heavy-handed methods employed by the Hanoi regime have not forced the south into a northern-made mold” (Herring).
What the war brought was the legacy of disappointed dreams, pain and sacrifice. Different critics see various reasons in the irreparable failure, some of them approve of the intervention, others call it extremely risky for the United States. The legacy of Vietnam speaks for itself and by pointing at those who are responsible for the fundamental mistake one will never restore the victims to life. The only thing that can be done is to learn from mistakes. The “senseless tragedy” in the nation’s history, the traumatic experience of Vietnam, reordered America’s national priorities showing that the country’s power too had limits and taught it a good lesson of morality and wisdom of intervention.
