Parallel Wars in History

Secretary of State John Kerry once said “I saw courage both in the Vietnam War and in the struggle to stop it. I learned that patriotism includes protest, not just military service.” The Vietnam War was a conflict that lasted from 1956-1975 which the United States participated in along with the South Vietnamese who fought against the Communist North Vietnamese. Many Americans strongly disapproved of the war which caused many protests and riots. The war lasted 25 years killing many people and eventually the North Vietnamese won. The Vietnam War was important to Americans back home because it tested the citizen’s right to free speech, effected future foreign policy, and created many issues for returning veterans.

The British military was considered the strongest in the world at the outreach of fighting between England and the American colonies in 1775. Britain had just defeated France and the Indians in the Seven Years War and had attained its prominence as a world’s superpower. Yet despite Britain’s overpowering military dominance, the British found themselves unable to subdue General Washington and the American colonies. The American’s success in achieving independence during the American Revolution was not due to General Washington’s strategic skill but by numerous British blunders. The British mistakes during

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

As the French and Indian War ended, it left the British’s main focus to being the colonies. Controlling the colonies, ruling over the colonies, and taxing the colonies. Little did they know that the colonies had plans of

The Vietnam War was a disastrous war that lasted roughly 20 years; we lost around 533,000 Americans, not to mention the 2 million civilians who were killed as well. The controversy and bitterness that arose throughout America divided us as a nation. The next steps to ensuring that history will not repeat itself would be educating students and peers more about the negative effects of war and how the government may have been misled with their decisions throughout this

The Vietnam War was the first major war American’s had suffered defeat. The Vietnam war was a war of confusion, competition and biasness. The outcome of the war was far greater than an upset American nation, but a severe breakdown of the Vietnamese culture, economy, environment and government. It also had a tremendous impact on American society even up to present day. It was unclear from the beginning of the war if the American’s should even be involved. It was a war between Northern and Southern Vietnam but the U.S saw it as an indirect way to challenge the USSR’s sphere of influence in Southern Asia and to prevent the domino effect and the further spread of communism. The Vietnam War completely changed the way the United States

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.

For many in the United States "Vietnam" is a term which conjures up visions of war, anarchy, and finally defeat and humiliation. It was a war that many felt the U.S. should never have gotten involved in, and was a waste of more than 50,000 American lives. And for many years after the war ended the prevailing wisdom remained that the U.S. had failed. But as years turn to decades, and Vietnam is fading into the recesses of history, one can begin to look at the war in an objective manner; as just one part of the larger "Cold War." When viewing Vietnam as part of the larger Cold War, one can see that the United States should not only have been there, but it was necessary as part of the overall strategy to defeat Communism world wide.

By 1763, the French and Indian War had finally ended. The peace had resulted in the removal of the French threat from North America. The American colonists were proud of their contribution to this new political order and had every reason to believe that they were about to embark on a continued successful colonial relationship with the imperial government in London. No one on either side of the Atlantic could have imagined that within little over a decade, the two sides would be engaged in all-out war. How did this seemingly most durable of political and cultural relationships deteriorate during this period? What was the cause of this imperial crisis? Historians have debated this question for well over a century.

Howard Zinn says it best when he writes that “from 1964 to 1972, the wealthiest and most powerful nation in the history of the world made a maximum military effort, with everything short of atomic bombs, to defeat a nationalist revolutionary movement in a tiny peasant country – and failed” (Zinn, 460). Zinn does not mince words when expressing his thoughts about the Vietnam War, because as Zinn says, Vietnam was basically a modern portrayal of David vs. Goliath. One could even go as far as to say that Vietnam was in essence a case of mass genocide in Vietnam. Thousands and thousands of Vietnamese and America soldiers were killed along with thousands upon thousands of innocent, Vietnamese citizens. War is an infectious disease and the Vietnam War is a perfect example of how deadly of a disease war can be. Everybody involved in the Vietnam War was affected, whether it was Vietnamese citizens, Vietnamese soldiers, American soldiers, or even American citizens back home. The disease that was the Vietnam War infected the hearts and minds of two countries half way across the world from each other.

(Davidson p.104) In the first policy changes, Pitt recalled Campbell and pledged to respect the colonial officers, he formed new alliances with the native Indian tribes. In addition, Pitt promised the colonies that London or England would bear the cost of the war. (Davidson p.104) These policies changes reenergized the war efforts and turned the tide in the war. Forming new alliances and opening diplomatic relations with native Indians was an imperative element for British victory.

The French and Indian War set the stage for future events that no one could ever have imagined. The economic practice of mercantilism, which insured profit only to the mother country was the accepted practice between England and her colonies. As long as these economic policies were met, England left much of the day to day governing of the colonies up to the colonies. It was this "salutory neglect" that ultimately led to the ideological differences between England and the colonies. England won the war, but it paid a great price for that victory. England was bankrupted, and as a result had no choice but to look to her colonies to regain financial stability. The pressures of taxation and naval restrictions imposed by the crown and Parliament,

This became the biggest downfall that the British could have had. If they wanted to stop the rebellion they should have done so and not done so many parties and galas. Fighting till the very end with every man you can is how you win not being gentlemanly cordial and nice. At the end if their is the ability you fix how the people see you but the british showed a weakness in this book and the rebels capitalized on it. They would not and did not stop until the Americas and Canada was free. It seemed that when they were fighting the Rebels the British just did not think that this was a real effort so they forgot all the things that they usually did. This seems that there was no one to really blame but themselves. When they seemed to finally understand that this was a real war it was to late for them and the French were already joining the war against the British and it was to late for the British to kick it into high gear. If the British understood that this was a battle and just crushed it instead of run around chasing things that were hard to capture. It seemed like in the end they were just chasing behind instead of trying to tactically cut off so they could win and bring the colonies back into the empire. Though they had good generals and commanders who could win battle but they did not do anything unless their regiments had everything they wanted but this was war and not everything is easy. In the end it was a lack of strategy and the want for a more gentlemanly fighting style seemed to be what made the British lose America. Though they did lose the colonies trade did start back up with them in place of the East India Trade Company which sent supplies both ways and both the colonies and Britain

For many Americans it is common knowledge to know about the Vietnam War; however, for some Americans the Vietnam War is ancient history, dishonorable, but irrelevant nonetheless. If people do not physically see the many horrors of war it is easy to forget; although maybe it is something we try to forget. However, there are some who may be able to forget there will be some, like politicians, that will not forget. The Vietnam War had a terrible impact on both the United States and Vietnam, and more importantly it would affect foreign policy for many years to come.

The lack of knowledge of other countries past political histories and socioeconomic characteristics affects our capability to understand today’s conflicts. We should share political topics and experiences of prior conflicts to prepare our future generations for the unexpected controversies, for instance, the current North Korea crisis. Next will compare and contrast the Soviet Revolution and Vietnam Revolution using DeFronzo’s five factors of a revolution that must be present for any revolution to be successful. Both revolutions were a success because all five factors were simultaneously present; the mass discontent, divided elites, unifying motivations that unite different social groups in support of the revolution, a political crisis for the existing government involving loss of legitimacy and armed forces loyalty, and a permissive world context in that other nations intervention are not effective at preventing the revolution from succeeding. The United States intervened in both revolutionary movements but was not able to stop their success. Following are the factors explaining the historical development and the success of both conflicts.