American History

 The Vietnam War was one of the debacle  militarily and politically for the USAs policy in Asia. The collapse of South Vietnam, the US ally against the aggressive and disciplined North was possibly inevitable as the counter insurgency strategy of the US miserably failed. Former President Richard M. Nixon argued that the US was winning the war in Vietnam but we lost the war politically in the United States.  Such argument was perhaps a sort of face saving statement from politicians such Pres. Nixon.  Event in Vietnam however showed a different picture. In a report of General Westmoreland to CINCPAC dated June 13, 1965, he asserted that there is no doubt whatsoever that the insurgency in South Vietnam must eventually be defeated among the people in the hamlets and towns.  This a clear indication that the Vietnam war was a non-conventional war and that the US was engaged in two fronts.  One defending the border against a frontal assault from the North and the second which was more difficult, defending the South Vietnamese government from its people (Gettleman).
General Wetmoreland, further clarified in the report that security from the guerilla, the assassin, the terrorist and the informer could only be possible if the South Vietnam government could make real progress and succeed in securing against the identified internal threat. Further the general was cognizant that the conflict in South Vietnam is essentially a civil war within the country (Gettlemann). 
From the same report, it was apparent that the US presence has no clear mandate. Unlike in Europe where there was a clear cut military, security and political agreements for mutual protection, the US commitment in Vietnam and he noted that the US have never had a treaty commitment obliging us to the South Vietnamese people or to a South Vietnamese government. The General also noted that the North Vietnamese forces are then maneuvering large forces to provide support for its regiments complete with heavy weapons. Apparently as early as 1965, the American involvement in Vietnam was already a lost cost. The Tet Offensive, a series of surprise attacks launched in January, 1968 and coordinated by North Vietnam, though a military failure had exposed that the optimistic projections of the hawks in Washington was essentially a myth and that the South Vietnamese could never by itself be able to defend against the onslaughts from within and from without. General Westmorelands assessment after the Tet Offensive that to defeat the hostile forces of the North and its insurgency forces in the South would require an additional 200,000 American soldiers and activation of its reserve forces, the public opinion in the US homeland swayed passionately against the US presence in Vietnam (Tet Offensive).
    History thus have shown that the Vietnam War was in reality an unjustified engagement based on weak premises of preventing the spread of communism in Asia.  It cost the lives of thousands young Americans in a battlefield which they never did understood and pitted an enemy unrecognizable from the people they were told to protect. Subsequent withdrawal of forces and letting South Vietnam handle its security arrangements after the 1973 Paris Peace Accords were signed had in effect sealed the fate of Vietnam  to eventual reunification under the North (The Vietnam War).
    While engagements in a foreign soil may have been justified under a condition wherein national security of the US is for example compromised and that real threat exist, the case of American presence in Vietnam had no real justification. The justification of saving people from a perceived evil threat such as communism would ultimately crumble given the reality that the Vietnams history was muddled in the history of colonialism, first the French then the entry of the USA.
    While the strong anti-war sentiment in the US was indeed a factor in national and foreign policy of the US, it was not the main factor of the American Vietnam debacle.  The major factor remained with the disposition of the Vietnamese people and the resolution of that countrys political affairs would ultimately be decided according to internal factors.  Even the might of the American military and its political clout would have no real influenced if its used is misplace and not founded on real and valid reasons.