The Strategy Followed by the USA in the Vietnam War

What is war strategy and what does it mean?

War strategy is the art and science of planning and waging a war. It is a high-level concept that covers the general goals of a war, the resources to be used to achieve these goals, and how these resources will be used.

War strategy is generally examined at two levels: grand strategy and operational strategy.

Grand strategy is the overall plan for a war and typically involves the use of all a country's resources, including military, economic, and political resources.

Operational strategy is a plan for a specific battle and typically involves the use of military forces.

What was the United States' Vietnam War Strategy?

The United States' Vietnam War strategy has evolved and changed over time. In this context, the tactical practices determined for the use of air power, the use of F-4-like warplanes as well as the use of many and different types of helicopters on the battlefield were seen as a part of the Vietnam War Strategy implemented by the USA in general terms. When viewed under this heading, land and air operations were carried out in integrity. Psychological operations were also part of this strategy. While trying to win over the South Vietnamese, operations to alienate the North Vietnamese were not neglected. I would like to briefly mention some definitions and concepts used in line with this strategy:

Air power:

The United States used its air power to attack North Vietnam's infrastructure, military forces, and supply lines. This was intended to weaken the North Vietnamese war effort and force them to negotiate a peace treaty.

Search and destroy operations: These were ground operations designed to find and destroy Viet Cong and North Vietnamese forces. The aim was to wear down the enemy and prevent them from launching large-scale attacks.

Pacification: This was an effort to win the hearts and minds of the South Vietnamese people. The United States believed that if the people of South Vietnam supported the government, they would be more likely to resist the Viet Cong.

The United States also used a number of other strategies in the Vietnam War, including the following.

Escalation: This involved increasing America's level of involvement in the war, including the number of troops deployed and the number of attacks carried out.

De-escalation: This involved reducing the level of American involvement in the war, including the number of troops deployed and the number of attacks carried out.

Vietnamization: This was a plan to gradually withdraw American troops from Vietnam and turn the war over to South Vietnamese forces.

Was the USA's Vietnam Strategy Successful?

The United States' Vietnam War Strategy ultimately failed. North Vietnamese and Viet Cong forces responded strongly and resisted the American army's action and managed to maintain control over large parts of South Vietnam. The Vietnam War ended in 1975 with the victory of the North Vietnamese and the reunification of the two divided Vietnams under communist rule.

According to experts, there are several reasons why the US's Vietnam War Strategy failed. Some of these reasons were:

• The United States did not understand the nature of war. The Vietnam War was a guerrilla war, and the United States was not equipped for this type of warfare. Technological superiority could not win the war.

• The United States did not have a clear goal for the war. Was the goal to defeat the North Vietnamese? To unite Vietnam? To prevent the spread of communism? The United States has never been able to provide a clear answer to this question.

• The United States did not have the support of the South Vietnamese people. The South Vietnamese government was corrupt. Corruption increased in the country and the concept of justice was eliminated. Civilians were being detained, tortured and imprisoned on the grounds that they had ties to the Viet Cong. The number of civilians missing and unaccounted for was very high. By the way, it would be unfair for us to say that Viet Cong is innocent and innocent. They were also forcing ordinary civilians to join them. They declared those who did not participate as traitors and US collaborators. Those who were not executed were forced to join them or were executed as a lesson.

• The people of South Vietnam did not have a strong desire to fight on the US side. He had no reason or purpose for war. They just wanted to live.

• They were also aware that they would not survive long by joining one of the sides of the war. Would they give their lives for more corruption?

• Moreover, in most incidents involving US soldiers, some of the US soldiers act as if they were inhumane.

rdu. Children, women, men and the elderly who had nothing to do with the Viet Cong were being killed.

• There were cases of rape of South Vietnamese girls and women by American soldiers. During the Vietnam War, it was not even possible to determine the exact number of women raped by US soldiers in Vietnam. Villages were raided, burned and destroyed by the soldiers. If the villagers managed to survive, they had to migrate. The villagers' crops were burned and destroyed in their fields or warehouses so that the Viet Cong would not benefit from them. Rice fields were sprayed with defoliants and herbicides.

• The surviving villagers were making great efforts not to starve. Even in cases where South Vietnamese civilians who had nothing to do with the war were harmed, the US Army not only did not punish but also covered up its inhumane practices, which included high-ranking or low-ranking US Army soldiers.

• Due to the tolerance of the US Army, the South Vietnamese Army was also participating in the inhumane practices I mentioned above. Committing all kinds of war crimes had become commonplace in Vietnam. Things got out of hand in South Vietnam when they acted as if a special effort was being made to get civilians, especially South Vietnamese villagers, to join the Viet Cong.

At photo; In February 1965, US soldiers load captured Viet Cong guerrillas onto a UH-1A helicopter that landed in a rice field flooded during the Vietnam War. Prisoners sit handcuffed in the water. (Photo: Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

At photo; A father holds the body of his child as South Vietnamese Army soldiers look down from an armored vehicle on March 19, 1964. The boy was killed while the South Vietnamese Army was chasing Viet Cong into a village near the Cambodian border. (AP Photo/Horst Faas)

Conclusion

The US strategy was to prevent the communist administration from dominating the country in Vietnam and to ensure that South Vietnam remained a country acting in cooperation with the US. Thousands of American and South Vietnamese soldiers died for this cause. Many villages, lands, houses and factories were burned and destroyed in North Vietnam. However, when the war ended in 1975, there was no trace left of South Vietnam and the American presence in this country. In short, the USA and its ally South Vietnam were defeated, but the good news was that Vietnam was united again as a single nation under a single flag. In other words, a Korean division did not occur in Vietnam. If there is a Vietnamese country and its people living peacefully and together today, this is actually a result of the war won by North Vietnam against the USA.