The Fog Of War : Twelve Lessons From The Life Of Robert S. Mcnamara And The Trial Of Henry Kissinger Essay

Overall, the United States should have never taken part in the Vietnam War. We lost many heroic men in this war and really didn't gain a single thing as a result. The United States aims in Vietnam were meant to be a defensive campaign, but eventually turned very offensive indeed. Running around a jungle and continually losing men because of booby traps is completely ridiculous. The United States should have stayed out of this war from the beginning and let the Vietnamese fight there own war. Caputo's frame of reference is beyond reliable as he documents a first-hand experience in the Vietnam War with great detail. The Rumor of War is an excellent book that really helps capture the true essence of the Vietnam war and as stated by Caputo, "This book does not pretend to be history" (xiii). What Caputo means by this is that history books only cover a small part of what the Vietnam War was all about; his book leaves nothing out and captures the reader with the true reality of what really happens in the war atmosphere. Caputo's frame of reference is deeply portrayed to those people out there who want the real truth behind the war. The Rumor of War helps to create a thorough understanding of 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.

Many people felt that this was a war of money that the U.S. didn’t need to interfere in and was being fought by North and South Vietnam, therefore we had no business getting in the middle of it. The United States should've thought of themselves and done what was best for them as a country. When Dwight D. Eisenhower left office, a new President came in with the name John F. Kennedy. JFK warns the American public about “Military Industrial Complex”. This affected Americans because we didn’t want all of Vietnam to become communist. From the beginning, the United States was not aware of what they were getting themselves into. Furthermore, they didn’t understand the nature of the war on who and why they were fighting.

The investigation assesses the level of success President Richard Nixon’s Vietnamization policy attained during the Vietnam War to end U.S. involvement in the war. In the strive to evaluate the level of success this policy demonstrated, the investigation evaluates the ability of the policy to equip, expand, and train Southern Vietnamese forces and allocate them to a substantial combat position, all while simultaneously reducing the quantity of U.S. combat troops in a steady manner. The Vietnamization policy is investigated and analyzed by both its causes and effects. The motivation that led to Nixon’s creation of this

The most important question I feel was asked in this film was the one that Peter Davis asked in one of his interviews to Walt Rostow the Aide to Presidents Kennedy and Johnson. The question was "why did they need us there?" In other words why did we have to join into this war in Vietnam, what sort of gain was in it for our country getting into another time and economic consuming war. An answer was given through a short clip of Lyndon Johnson stating "the answer is simple there is none else who can do

However, to condemn those in positions of power for their actions is to misinterpret the volatile climate of the Cold War Era in which they operated. The polarized political thought and the turbulent domestic events that shadowed everyday life had a profound impact on American thought and culture and the lives of public figures who dominate the story. To truly understand the impact of these characters and the climate of the American Cold War theatre, the complexity of the dynamics within society must be understood from the point of view and the

The politics of the ultratight resonated deeply with Richard Nixon. Nixon had cut his political teeth as a young Red-hunting member of the House Un-American Activities Committee in the 1950s. His home district in Orange Country, California, was widely known as a Birch Society stronghold. The Los Angeles-area Birch Society claimed the membership of several political and economic elites, including members of the Chandler family, which owned and published the Los Angeles Times. According to the writer David Halberstam (1979, 118) the Times, which was once described as “the most rabid Labor-bating, Red-hating paper in the United States,” virtually created Richard Nixon.

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

During Errol Morris 's documentary, The Fog of War, Eleven Lessons by Robert S. McNamara former Secretary of Defense McNamara, one of the most infamous figures of the Vietnam era, proves to be a greatly compelling figure, someone who can be self-critical and reflective about the decisions he made to

“Teaching the Vietnam War makes one realize how the shape of a narrative determines, and is determined by, its content” (Franklin 246). The Vietnam War was one of America’s most controversial wars. Many of its aspects are still plagued with great uncertainty. Those aspects of the Vietnam War are argued and debated about, they were argued during the time of the war and the arguing has continued. The Vietnam War was indeed a time of confusion. Why did the war start? What was the United States’ real reason for getting involved? What was the objective of the war? What were the American soldiers really fighting, or in reality, dying for? How do you explain a war to someone who has not experienced firsthand, especially if you were not

“In August of 1964, in response to the American and GVN espionage along its coast, the DRV launched a local and controlled attack against C. Turner Joy and the U.S.S. Maddox , two American ships on call in the Gulf of Tonkin” (Brigham 2). This resulted in the United States government giving Lyndon Johnson the ability to make war under the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution. President Johnson then gave orders to perform air raids on Northern Vietnam pushing the United States further into the war. Compared to 1962 when only 9,000 soldiers supported the South Vietnamese, by June 1965 82,000 soldiers occupied the country. The number only continued to rise exponentially, and by 1966 370,000 soldiers had been sent in to prop their South Vietnam allies. President Richard Nixon withdrew American soldiers from Vietnam and as part of the “vietnamization” of the war. Over and 60,000 American soldiers had been lost in a war to preserve the status quo, not to win.

After a disastrous battle in 1963, in which the U.S. had lost numerous helicopters and their aboard crew, the press identified strategic blunder and saw “reluctant Vietnamese infantrymen” as the reason for the failed mission. The U.S. government tried to depict the mission as successful, indicating a major point of divide between the government and the media, the media turned to “the word of angry South Vietnamese officials, angry U.S advisors, and hostile American pilots who risked their lives daily without recognition” as their basis of evidence regarding the incident and incidents to come. Another question was left to be raised, where were these televised materials coming from? In accordance with the actual content; much of what was recorded was done by the US Army photographic agency beginning after much controversy caused by the filming of burning the village of Cam Ne by American troops.

“You could never tell who was the enemy was … therefore you treated everyone with suspicion”- Thomas Giltner, US Soldier “Contested Spaces”The foreign US soldiers had no knowledge of the geography of Vietnam (jungles, mountains, rainforests, and climate) but the VC did, and used it to their advantage. The US, by engaging in massive firepower, killing many non-combatants, destroyed the US credibility in the minds of the people. The VC sympathised with the people’s hardships and this was effective as they won the people over. The VC had extensive knowledge of guerrilla warfare, it was their war, and the US fought tractional conventional warfare which did have some effected, but eventually the US ran out of will. The military operations were

The Vietnam War was a conflict, which the United States involved itself in unnecessarily and ultimately lost. The basis of the conflict was simple enough: Communism vs. Capitalism, yet the conduct of the Vietnam War was complex and strategic, and brought repercussions which had never been seen before. The struggle between North and South had an almost inevitable outcome, yet the Americans entered the War optimistic that they could aid the falling South and sustain democracy. The American intentions for entering the Vietnam conflict were good, yet when the conflict went horribly wrong, and the resilient North Vietnamese forces, or ‘Viet Cong' as they were known, refused to yield, the United States saw they were fighting a losing battle.

George Herring 's article " The legacy of Vietnam" talks about the military clash between the communist North Vietnam, backed by its allies and the government of South Vietnam, backed by the United States and other countries that are anti-communist that happened in Vietnam during Richard Nixon 's presidency. The Vietnam War was a terrible war, especially for Vietnamese because a millions of them died during the war. The author not just describes the war itself; he also analyzes the killing and the attack that occurred during the war. In general the Vietnam War was the most costly war contrast to other wars and it was the most shocking eras in American history. The Vietnam War had an impact in American history. It brought fear from the war