Operation Rolling Essay

Relating to Appy’s claim, as escalation grew after the Tonkin Gulf, America began to wage an unmoral war that was not supported by the Americans and Vietnamese or understood by American soldiers. Agreeing with Appy’s claim, the prime issue of an immoral and unjust war is one that America must realize and understand the full consequences that this has had on the nation if it is to learn any lessons from Vietnam. Originally told that the war was fought to contain communism, bombing campaigns as Operation Rolling Thunder annihilated many villages and the countryside where it was believed that the Viet Cong were stationed. Proven more often than not to be unsuccessful, only to produce the numbers of unidentified Vietnamese bodies and remains that

The military had invented many strategies on the North, but that this time President Johnson had anxiety that the public would not give appeal to the expansion. Early that month the U.S troops (Navy) reported that the North Vietnamese gunboats had barraged them and was unstoppable. The public had become to be outraged and uncontrollable. Congress had voted opposed to the resolution and made a decision to declare war. Others had thought that Johnson was very tremble to be seen as a leader. On the other hand, forces were stable when it came to the control over half South Vietnam. Johnson had gotten bash because the war had become destructive. Johnson had sent an order for bombing on the North Vietnamese but the incident had already

Our warriors were progressively being murdered by falling into pits, executed, injuring. The whole ordeal didn 't create the impression that our endeavors were achieving anything, it was painful. Since the Vietnam War were extended, secretary, Marshall Green, refer to the American policy at this time as “Widening down the war” This was for refusal of the political and popular to acknowledge resistance in America mounted, the organization spent increasingly of its political capital in this one territory.

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 Vietnam War was largely considered a failure, a waste of resources, time and precious lives. It was simply a war that did not need to be fought. But in order to combat the ever prevailing communist forces; the capitalists and in particular, America, decided that Vietnam would be the land where these differences would be disputed. Men were sent in to fight in this war and they came back with very different experiences. As seen in both perspectives held in “A Rumor of War” by Philip Caputo and in “We were soldiers once... and young” by Hal Moore and Joseph Galloway; they explore the varying perspectives and experienced seen and learnt within war. Whereas in “A Rumor of War”, it tackles the consequences of being sent into such harsh warfare, only because Philip Caputo saw the harsh reality firsthand as he was a soldier in the war. The former, “We were soldiers once... and young” tackles the glorification of war because it’s not solely a soldier’s account. A journalist was in company of these men and as such details get skewed for the public’s perception. Regardless, both these books share a telling tale of the war in Vietnam through their radically different views.

We Were Soldiers Once…And Young: Ia Drang-The Battle That Changed The War In Vietnam, by Lt. Gen. Harold G. Moore (Ret.) and Joseph Galloway, published 20 October 1992. This book is the account of the fighting in the Ia Drang Valley in November of 1965, focusing on the First and Second Battalions of the 7th Cavalry Regiment. This book is not only an account of war through the eyes of those in the field, but an account of then Lt. Col. Moore’s leadership leading up to and during combat. I chose this book because the story is not only a gripping recollection of American war history, but an account of the love for your comrade that inspires leadership at all levels.

With the free hand recently provided by Congress, Johnson presumed that escalation would help to protect his soldiers. He ordered the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Navy to begin an intense series of air strikes called “Operation Rolling Thunder”. He hoped that the bombing campaign would demonstrate to the South Vietnamese the U.S. commitment to their cause, and its resolve to halt the spread of Communism. Ironically, the air raids seemed only to increase the number of Viet Cong and North Vietnamese Army attacks.

The USA was extremely vain when going to war in Vietnam. They had extreme firepower. With a few weeks notice at the time, had the power to turn Vietnam into a region of radioactive glass. The US’s strategy of search and destroy conflicted directly with the Vietnamese’s strategy of hanging onto their belts (caplan,2012). Unlike previous American victories against

Many ordinary Americans saw from the start that we could not possibly win Vietnam for the South Vietnamese. It was regarded as a "no-winner" (Encarta IV, C). Even so, we supported South Vietnam with containment, which was the Cold War policy of keeping Communism within its borders, instead of trying to get rid of it. Unlike the Korean War, we fought to keep South Vietnam, but we did not fight to gain control of North Vietnam.

The first objective was to achieve strategic persuasion. The second objective was to increase the morale of the military and key political figures in South Vietnam. Finally the third objective and the only real tactical objective of the campaign was interdiction. General Westmoreland’s main objective was to target the central body of enemy ground forces which were moving into South Vietnam and he focused the majority of his forces on the southern part of the country.3 By concentrating his forces here in the South based on his belief that this would be where most of the fighting would take place ultimately determined where and how Operation ROLLING THUNDER was

When Rolling Thunder failed to weaken the enemy’s will after the first several weeks the purpose of it began to change. Bombings then tended to be directed at the flow of men and supplies from the north (Karnow). Damaging as it was to the north, Ho Chi Minh still maintained the same course. Operation Rolling Thunder was a desperate attempt to convince the North Vietnamese to initiate negotiations and hopefully a ceasefire. This operation showed that LBJ was ineffective and ignorant. He was blind to the fact that the North Vietnamese were obviously going to retaliate because of Operation Rolling Thunder.

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.

“The failure of the United States against North Vietnam was due to their inefficient use of military machines” (Gibbons, 2014:107). These tactics used by the US soldiers included bombs that the soldiers did not use efficiently, because if they used the military advantage that they had, this would have been a victorious war for the US. However, due to their use of these military machines inefficiently, they were left in humiliation. “The US threw bombs on Vietnam and was equipped with every existing kind of weapon, engaged in the longest and most brutal war” (Buttinger, 1977:169). The US army should not have bombed strategic routes of the Viet Cong because they wanted to get back at them, but they should have attacked with bombs and weapons on the battle once the Viet Cong had started attacking. Their lack when to use their tactics led to their failure. “One of the US’s mistakes which led to their defeat was the bombing of Laos when they launched the defoliant Agent Orange which destroyed homes” (Kaiser, 1973:412). Due to this action, the US lost not only the support of Laos citizens but also the rest of the Vietnamese people, because this was evidence that the only important factor for the US soldiers was to win the war against the Viet Cong and not the lives of the Vietnamese

These attacks were not has accuracy as they hope it could be by dropping napalm on the entire area hoping to hit your targets. Many innocent civilians died during these attacks, which only helped to increase the resentment towards the military officers. Military strategies like Operation Rolling Thunder were implemented to try to limit the impact of guerilla warfare, where they bomb the region but at same time seriously limiting the United States chancing of win the war because it look like the United States was aggression and conquest nation. Its look like United States was more concerned with fighting the rebels than protecting the South Vietnamese people. Who they claimed to protect but at the same time three million people were killed and

March 2nd, 1965 – November 1st, 1968, was the time that an aerial bombardment was unleashed upon North Vietnam. The American bombing campaign was code named, "Operation Rolling Thunder." During this time over 7 million tons of bombs were dropped in Vietnam. These air strikes that lasted for little over 3 years has caused over 90,000 casualties with at least 72,000 being civilians of Vietnam. And due to operational circumstances, over 900 U.S aircrafts were lost and 745 crewmen were shot down.