Vietnam Strategic Culture the Conflict in Vietnam

Vietnam Strategic Culture

The conflict in Vietnam was part of a larger global strategy on the part of the United States and the Communist nations of the Soviet Union and China. The Communist's sought to spread the ideology of Communism through their support for likeminded revolutionaries throughout the world. On the other hand, the Free World, led by the United States, instituted a policy of containment and actively supported those nations fighting Communist uprisings. The most famous of these conflicts was the war in Vietnam, where the United States supported the South Vietnamese while the Communists supported the North Vietnamese. Vietnam was an example of the strategic culture of both the United States and the Communist Bloc played out in the real world.

In the aftermath of the Second World War the Soviet Union, followed in 1948 by Communist China, sought to spread Communist ideology by actively encouraging Communist revolutions around the globe. One place where this strategic plan was initiated was southeast Asia, particularly French Indo-China (Vietnam) and Malaysia. These conflicts were "characterized by Communist exploitation as the Soviet Union and China sought to challenge the U.S.A. indirectly by encouraging supporters to attack U.S. allies." (Black 2005, 58) After the French were defeated at Dien Bien Phu and sought to withdraw from Vietnam, the Geneva agreements of 1954 stipulated that Vietnam was to be unified and democratic elections were to be held. However, the U.S. believed that elections would favor the Communists and go on to have a "domino effect;" leading "to all the countries of South East Asia falling one after the other into communist hands." (Carver 1990, 172) The United States supported Ngo Dinh Diem, who assumed the role of Prime Minister in the South, while the Communists supported Ho Chi Minh, leader in the North. The nation was thus divided at the 17th parallel forcing a conflict between the two.

On the ground the war itself was mainly fought in the South by insurgents called the Viet Cong backed by the Communist North, itself backed by China and the Soviet Union, and the South Vietnamese and their American allies. As the North used the Communist playbook and sought to destabilize the South through support for insurgents, the Americans increasingly supported the South with their military forces. In response to the American military juggernaut, the Viet Cong did not seek to defeat the Americans but to inflict seemingly limitless casualties in the hope of tiring them and sapping their will to fight. The Americans were not prepared for this type of war and many have claimed that "the conventional organization and culture of the armed forces, especially the army, severely hindered the use of those forces in counter guerrilla operations." (Moyar 2009, 160) In the end the American insistence on fighting a traditional war against non-traditional opponents led to their defeat and withdrawal.