Mcnamara's Relationship With Vietnam

Robert McNamara directed a disastrous, failed war that was very costly. He visioned an “active management” approcah. He wanted a Pentagon where the secretary would have his own large staff that would provide civilian advice. This advice would only allow the secretary to be the only one able to assess alternatives. This would also allow him to be the only one making choices when it comes to defining budgets, foreign policy, military strategy, and integrating forces and weapons. Budgets in the 50s were done by services instead of missions and used estimates that had an unclear validity. There was no way that duplication nor functional gaps could be identified. Concerns arose from discrepancies about the defense posture on whether it had rational basis for the allocation of resources. McNamara also proposed a system analysis that calculated the defense needs, but it had its limits. The military was caught off guard with this and programs that he did not agree with were seen as not to be cost-effective. McNamara’s agenda also included acquisition reforms. This

There are numerous competing theories and perspectives that strive to unravel the mystery that surround one of the most notorious assassinations in the history of United States; President, John F. Kennedy (Waldron 2). Many scholars have described the premature demise of JFK as one of the biggest blows to democracy and peace in the United States. The war in Vietnam is reported to have escalated after JFK assassination, a feature that has been used to back the underlying notion that United States military imperialism and aggression significantly increased after 1963 (Stone, Zachary, Garrison & Marrs 4). Even though perceptions on the

In her book The Vietnam Wars, 1945-1990, author Marilyn Young examines the series of political and military struggles between the United States and Vietnam, a nation that has been distinctively separated as the South and the North. Young chooses to express the daily, weekly, monthly progresses of the affairs collectively called the Vietnam Wars, focusing on the American interventions in the foreign soil. She seeks to provide an answer to a question that has haunted the world for years: What was the reason behind the United States interfering in the internal affairs of a foreign country in which it had no claims at all? Young discloses the overt as well as covert actions undertaken by the U.S. government officials regarding the foreign affairs with Vietnam and the true nature of the multifaceted objectives of each and every person that’s involved had.

The war of attrition waged by William Westmoreland from 1965-1968 was not the most effective way to defeat the Vietcong insurgents. The policy of the “war of attrition” was supposed to be counterinsurgency and pacification, but it was truly a “search and destroy” (Class notes, March 1st). The “search and destroy” started with STARLIGHT and the results would end in many destroyed villages, simply since the goals were to fight the Vietcong. The operations were “designed to find, fix in place, fight and destroy…enemy forces and their base areas and supply caches” (Young 162-163). Westmoreland led himself to believe this was the most effective way to defeat the Vietcong and all the destruction that came along with the operations were seen as brilliant victories; the Vietcong did not back down. However, McNamara recognized the issue of Westmoreland’s “war of attrition”, McNamara realized the lack of support and the absence of permanent security. Even though, McNamara encouraged compromise with decreased deployment or the increased bombing of the North, he appeared to recognize the success rate of U.S. victory as low (Hunt, 91).

The central topic in the essay, Return to Saigon is about the actions of the Vietnamese communist, also known as Viet Cong, during the historical Vietnam War. The essay begins with an introduction of the city the author resides, with a specific description of his hotel room. The author then expresses the actions of combat, where 19-man Vietcong team blew a hole in the wall near the embassy. This led to the US being determined to challenge, leading to the evacuation of many civilians in Vietnam. The article is specifically laid out in a timeline format, where certain events are displayed in chronological order leading to the rebuild of the New Vietnam. The author is writing from a first person point of view for a major part of the article. Third

In the film Fog of War, former U.S Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara discusses and illustrates his observation of human nature of modern warfare base on his experience during the times of Cold War as well as the Vietnam War. Based on watching and looking at the film as historical movie reviewer, I feel that McNamara did a good job in telling the historical accuracies of the Cold War and Vietnam War. Additionally, I feel that McNamara perspective gives another telling in the way to look at these historical events in a different type of view which I believe the points made in the film came across the audience very well.

The Vietnam War was the longest deployment of U.S. forces in hostile action in the history of the American republic. Although there is no formal declaration of war from which to date U.S. entry, President John F. Kennedy's decision to send over 2,000 military advisers to South Vietnam in 1961 marked the beginning of twelve years of American military combat. U.S. unit combat began in 1965 (Anderson, 1999). During this time there were many significant lessons that were learned and still affect the way that war’s are fought today. I will discuss the most significant lessons as it relates to diplomatic negotiations, presidential leadership, and cultural/social contexts. I believe that the single most significant lesson that I have learned

The documentary is structured around the eleven lessons learned throughout WWII and the Vietnam War. Although they were obvious to McNamara after the fact, the lessons were not so clear in the midst of fog. Failing to apply the majority of the lessons learned set the United States up for a total disaster and one that would haunt the American people for years. One particular lesson that was not applied was: Empathize with your enemy. Vietnamese and American cultures and motives could not be more different; and at the time could not have been more misunderstood, by both sides. In the Vietnamese eyes’, the Americans were trying to pick up where the French

The Vietnam War started in 1959 and ended in 1975, this was the only war that America could not win. They tried everything, but the Vietnamese guerrilla warfare, in addition the foreign environment cause the stronger and bigger American Army to pull out. Allowing North Vietnam to Annex the south, and bring communism into Vietnam. At the same time Vietnam was fighting a war in their homeland, United States was fighting one of their own in there. This war was a little different; this was a fight over basic human rights and equality among the people. This war was a civil rights movement, for African Americans to have equality. Even with the inequality toward them, African

At its core, Vietnamization was a way to “de-Americanize” (Willbanks, 2004) Vietnam and win the war and peace. The goals of Vietnamization were to improve and strengthen South Vietnamese armed forces, help establish a strong leader, and shift the combat from the U.S. troops to the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) while “slowly withdrawing the U.S. troops out of Vietnam” (Nixon, 1971). Ending the war was the ultimate goal, but was impossible to achieve due to North Vietnamese combat groups performing series of attacks on the South. This resulted in Nixon allowing bombings to occur in the Cambodian base camps where the North Vietnamese kept their weapons and supplies in 1970. When the bombings became public, Nixon argued that they were necessary “to keep pressure on the enemy until the Vietnamization strategy took root” (History.com, 2010) and for “victory on the battlefield” (Kimball, 2014). Both the Cambodian bombings

Throughout the 1960s and 1970s Americans became uneasy not only about the troubled position of the United States in world affairs, but also about the disorder wrought at home byforeign entanglements. Vietnam, either because of the searing war experience itself or because of the lessons Americans later drew from the experience, drastically altered society during the1960s and 1970s. The belief in the right to influence the internal affairs of other countries led todisaster in Southeast Asia. This disaster would forever be known as the longest war in thenation 's history (lasted 25 years), in which the world 's most powerful military (United States)spent itself in a futile attempt to conquer the peasant population. Vietnam became an additional opponent in the containment of communism for America. Overlooking the native roots of the revolutionand the tenacity of the people fighting for their own land, American leaders are going to makethe mistake of looking at Vietnam from a globalist point-of-view, and the events through a ColdWar lens. Robert F. Kennedy in 1968, came to recognize this as their flaw in the war, he statedthat the United States had "misconceived the nature of the war" (Doc. E). Ultimately, theVietnam War would come to heighten tensions in the social, political, and economic aspects of the United States during the mid-1960s and early 1970s.

President John F. Kennedy 's started off the Vietnam War by sending over 2,000 military advisers to South Vietnam in 1961 to mark the beginning of twelve years of American military combat.” U.S. unit combat began in 1965. The number of US. Troops steadily increased until it reached a peak of 543,400 in April 1969. The total number of Americans who served in South Vietnam was 2.7 million. Of these, more than 58,000 died or remain missing, and 300,000 others were wounded. The US. Government spent more than $140 billion on the war.” Sadly on November, 22nd, 1963 he was assassinated. Lyndon Baines Johnson stepped into office as the 36th President of the United States. On July, 20th, 1954, In Indochina there was conference that produced a set of documents known as the Geneva Accords. These agreements temporarily separated Vietnam into two zones, a northern zone to be governed by the Viet Minh, and a southern zone to be governed by the State of Vietnam.

Isaacs, Arnold. Vietnam Shadows: The War, Its Ghosts, and Its Legacy. The Johns Hopkins University Press. Baltimore 1997.

This researched book describes why and in what way the United States made its initial commitment to the Vietnam conflict beginning in the late

In 1961 President Kennedy sent a group who’s mission was to report on conditions in the South and assess if the United States should continue to deploy troops to Vietnam -Brigham, 1. In 1962 there was a massive increase of United States troops in Vietnam –MacDonald, 626. The numbers grew so large that they almost tripled. This led for the South Vietnamese to be instructed by advisors, who were attachments in the field -MacDonald, 627. Army recruits in the Special Forces were brought in to train the tribesman in the highlands. They also assisted the South Vietnamese in some of the more remote regions of the country -MacDonald, 627. The Civilian Irregular Defense Groups accompanied the Special Forces advisors, and they were able to disrupt the flow of the North Vietnamese from the country of Laos into South Vietnam -MacDonald, 627. These men were in charge of most parts of the operation, in a country where leadership had never been encouraged -MacDonald, 628. The United States troops also had many problems directing the civilians because of the language barrier. At the same time the Special Force troops were frustrated in directing their tactics -MacDonald, 628.