The American lack of success in the Vietnam War Essay Example for Free

The American lack of success in the Vietnam War Essay To what extent can it be argued that the use of guerilla warfare tactics by the Vietcong against the US military was the key factor in explaining the American lack of success in the Vietnam War? The Vietnam War has been regarded with much controversy both during the War, and after its conclusion in 1973. This was not only due to the humiliating defeat that America suffered but also because of the contentious hidden reasons for Americas presence there. America came under heavy criticism because it seemed to the world that their presence in Vietnam was purely strategic and economical rather than for the protection of Vietnams people as America had first claimed. From the wars outset there was worldwide outrage caused by this controversy, this outrage grew and grew as the war progressed leading to an absolute worldwide lack of support for Americas seemingly selfish war effort. This worldwide lack of support included many protestors at home in America. This was devastating for the morale of the hundreds of thousands of young grunts, most of whom had never experienced the true horror of the battlefield. Throughout the war American losses, both financial and military were astounding. Never before had a country with Americas degree of power and worldwide influence been so unsuccessful when combating an economically underdeveloped country such as Vietnam. Admittedly North Vietnam did receive aid from both the Soviet Union and China but despite this, Vietnam has to be seen as a Third World country defending their homeland from the worlds biggest super power. The aim of this essay is to investigate the main reason for Americas defeat. Possible reasons for failure apart from the effectiveness of the Vietcong guerrilla tactics would include: lack of morale of US troops, inappropriate US military tactics, the shocking images shown in the media coverage, US motives for engaging in this war, their lack of consideration for and understanding of the Vietnamese people, worldwide lack of support for the US war effort, the collapse of support on the home front. All these factors will be considered and compared to the guerilla tactics in order to arrive at a conclusion as to whether guerilla tactics really was the major cause of Americas humiliating retreat. To fully understand why America was so unsuccessful it is necessary to understand why they involved themselves in a conflict on the other side of the globe in first place. Ever since the war began the true reason or reasons for American involvement has been heatedly debated. The American government and their spin-doctors1 justified themselves by claiming that they were there to free the people from the oppressing evil communist from the north Ho Chi Minh. Ho, a national hero to many in Vietnam was a patriotic fighter2 for Vietnams independence. Ho spent much of his young life travelling in places where communism was actively working, places that had inspired him into his communist beliefs, beliefs that would later propel America into a full war with his people, places such as Russia and China. At first America had supported Minh and admired his courageous Vietminh troops. When Minh made a speech declaring Vietnam independence, he began by quoting from the American Declaration of Independence. He once said of revolting against their French oppressors It was patriotism and not communism that originally inspired me3. It was not Minhs patriotism that brought Americas hate for him but rather the way in which he supported Communism so whole-heartedly and the fear that it would spread. The fear of Communism spreading was a great one indeed for America. There is a theory called the domino theory, which has often been regarded as one of the most prominent reasons for Americas involvement. The basic idea of the domino theory is that if one country in a close grouping like South Asia fell to communism then the surrounding countries would follow suit. America feared that spreading communism threatened the free trade and democratic ideals, which were so important to American well-being and security. America could not afford to lose these things that were such a way of the American lifestyle. The American government was prepared to go to war to protect these ideals, on occasions this represented an idealism on their part but on others represented a determination to import their capitalist system regardless of the needs of the country concerned. It is therefore clear as a country should not go to war on their own, unsupported, concerning Vietnam in can be argued that American motives can be seen as unjustified as they were clearly trying to suppress others rights to govern themselves. This fact is supported by the poor state that the Southern government run by Diem and propped up by the Americans was in. Diem held very prejudice religious beliefs in a country made up mainly of Buddhist and was very unpopular for this and other reasons4. This totally goes against the democratic ideals that America holds so dear. With this evidence America appears to have been acting utterly hypocritically and for their own personal gain. The factor that can be regarded as the most important in Americas defeat was the Vietcong and their use of guerrilla warfare tactics. Guerilla warfare tactics are very effective in certain situations and when used against the American forces they seemed unstoppable. The guerilla tactics that the VC used were based on those of the Chinese guerrillas who fought in the Chinese Communist takeover5. The main idea of guerilla warfare tactics is that of hit and run; this method proved most effective when fighting the US troops. Many of the VCs orders came from the vast underground network of tunnels such as those of Cu Chi. Underground facilities such as this one provided the VC with an almost impenetrable fortress. These cities could house thousands of VC troops and their families as well as conference rooms, training areas and in some cases arms factories and hospitals. Through the use of tunnels the VC had the ability to dig right under US troops noses and spring surprise attacks and then disappear back down the tunnels as quickly as they had emerged. Another advantage that the Vietcong had over the Americans was the support of the people. This invaluable commodity gave the VC the ability to move across large areas of lands undetected, as they were able to hide in villages. The VC was also famous for the excruciating booby traps, specially designed so that they could not be removed without tearing even more flesh from the victim. The constant threat of the VC was extremely disheartening for the troops that lived in continuous fear of a VC raid. The skilful use of guerrilla tactics by the VC completely prevented the US from using their technical superiority effectively. The VC would always try and avoid conventional battles with US troops; rather they favoured picking off stragglers or as mentioned before springing surprise attacks and then disappearing. The troops could not see their enemy and could therefore not use their weapons to destroy them. It is these factors that lead me to believe that Guerilla tactics played such a big role in the US defeat. It appears that many of the other reasons for US defeat were caused, partly of wholly by the relentless use of guerilla tactics. I have already mentioned the way the troops felt battling an unseen enemy, but the importance of American morale or lack thereof cannot be overlooked as a reason for the US defeat. It is hard for one who has not experienced war to understand life in a soldiers boots, especially that of a grunt in Vietnam. Never before had American troops had to endure as harsh conditions as those experienced on the battlefields of Vietnam. These unbelievably harsh conditions led to low morale in all of the troops. Many things led to this crushing lack of morale; guerilla tactics, inexperienced and young troops (the average age of a soldier in Vietnam was just 19), inability to communicate with or understand the people they were trying to defend and the looks of hatred in the very same peoples eyes. The troops were used to easy living at first with long RR breaks and short tours, involved more as a precautionary measure rather than to actually enter battle but because the superior firepower was totally ineffective in Vietnam, the troops were put onto the front line. Lack of morale in troops is always devastating to a countries war effort. A major problem that the US military faced apart from unwilling soldiers was a rife drug problem. Marijuana was readily available in Vietnam and the majority of the grunts were users. This drug did nothing to help the morale level of troops on anything more than a temporary basis. The grunts would often go into battle high and this made combating the Vietcong even more difficult and the Vietcong used the US troops use of the drug to their full advantage. Troops quickly found out that most of the battles were hopeless and a bad attitude developed. You cannot win a war when your troops are not willing to fight and the US soldiers were very unwilling to fight. It is for this reason that one could say without a shadow of a doubt that lack of morale was the main reason for US defeat but in my judgement the main cause for the lack of morale was the use of guerilla tactics. Another of Americas major hurdles in their attempts to uphold a pro-Western government in S. Vietnam was their complete and utter lack of understanding of and consideration for the Vietnamese people. America was unable to combat their communist enemies because they were unable to win the hearts and minds of the people6. Many American civilian experts were in place in Vietnam trying to win the hearts of the people by teaching them valuable skills and setting up hospitals and schools. Civilian and military experts frequently clashed because the civilian experts did not think enough was being done to win the hearts and minds of the people, the military men believed that force was the answer, they would repeatedly be proved very wrong. The already disheartened American soldiers, or grunts as they were known found it extremely hard to fight in the conditions they were in. Very few of them knew much of the Vietnamese culture and even fewer understood any of the language. This made dealing with the people they were there to protect, let alone the people they were fighting, very difficult. On top of the festering heat, ravenous insects and hidden enemies, the inability to communicate effectively with the people frustrated the troops terribly. Eventually the young soldiers came to dislike all of the people of Vietnam, both allies and enemies, making it essentially impossible to win the war. Many of the troops saw the peasants (most of the Vietnamese population) as sub-human. As it became clear that initial American methods were ineffective for the people and their surroundings, more brutal and vicious methods of extracting information were devised, Search-and-destroy tactics resulted in many innocent civilian fatalities. Search and destroy tactics were a result of the frustration at the damage to US troops caused by guerrilla tactics used by the VC but such US tactics in turn reinforced Vietnamese support for the guerrillas. In 1968 the CIA introduced a system code-named Operation Phoenix7 whereby tens of thousands of expected VC were sought out and interrogated few of which were said to come out alive. Methods of torture included the insertion of a six-inch length of dowel into a detainees ear and then tapping it into the brain until subsequent death, also starvation and electric shock treatment to the genitals of both males and females was the norm. Another famous event that made American brutality evident was the massacre at My Lai on 16th March 1968. 347 unarmed civilians were beaten and killed because they were apparently pro-Communist and harboured VC or were VC themselves. Victims included the elderly, women, children and even babies, who were all beaten with rifle butts, shot and in some cases raped. As the success of this war could not be measured by territorial gain, it became the body count that showed success8. It became clear to all that this was going on through the ever-present media and this did nothing to help Americas popularity or support for their war effort around the world. The Vietnam War is also infamous for the massive bombing campaigns that America ran. America believed that the war could be one purely through technological superiority. In battles such as the Battle for Khe Sanh, Americas use of superior firepower played a pinnacle role. Unfortunately for the Americans, their superior firepower was useless in the conditions that Vietnam produced and this also frustrated the troops. The bombing runs were ruthless and inaccurate. Many of the most famous images to come out of the Vietnam War were ones portraying the horror of napalm attacks. One such image is the world famous photo of the young girl, Him Phuc, running down the street, skin burned by an American napalm attack. These images were a product of the massive media presence that existed in Vietnam during the war. This media presence played a big part in the way the world saw America during the war and therefore also their defeat. Photographers and journalists from around the world were sent to Vietnam to document both sides of the war. Many of the ensuing images were used for propaganda for both America and Northern forces. Some believe that the American and North Vietnamese governments put many of the photographers there for propagandistic purposes9, trying to capture images that best portrayed the brutality of the opposing force. Unluckily for the Americans more photos were taken explicitly portraying the American cruelty that that of the VC or NVA. As mentioned above the image of Kim Phuc was seen world wide and devastated Americas already precarious position in many of the worlds peoples eyes. At the time of the Vietnam war, the world was at a stage where a photographer could take a photo and it would end up on the front page of newspapers around the globe only a day or two later10. This led to even more outrage throughout the world at America, as their actions never seemed to be justified in the first place. Much of the world believed that America had lied about their intentions when they first entered Vietnam and the images seen made these beliefs seem justified. The use of guerrilla tactics once again proves it worth as they prevented a speedy US victory which allowed the worldwide anti-war media campaign to build, and in turn further destroying troop morale. Eventually the support on the home front collapsed and the American people joined in protesting their own involvement in the war. This was another factor that led to the crushingly low levels of morale in the troops. In conclusion after considering other possible causes for the US defeat, the evidence suggests that the Vietcong the use of guerilla warfare tactics was the main cause for the US lack of success in the Vietnam War. Whilst there were clearly many other contributing factors, I have found that the use of guerilla tactics played a major role in a battle that was fought on the ground, pinning down huge numbers of US troops in Vietnam. Enough damage was inflicted on the troops that eventually sufficient pressure was bought on the US government to pull their troops out. This was when the war ended, when the US government realised they couldnt win, this was because of guerrilla tactics. I considered what the outcome of the war would have been had it been fought in a different way and believe this would have made a huge difference to the outcome of the war. The fact that America was in Vietnam for their own strategic interests rather than for the Vietnamese people was a close second in the ordering of reasons. Finally the lack of morale was the third major contributing factor but I found that this was mostly caused by the fear of the unseen enemy that the troops faced caused by guerrilla tactics.

The Road Not Taken And Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening - Analysis

Robert Lee Frost (born in San Francisco, March 26, 1874 and died in Boston, January 29, 1963) was one of America's leading 20th-century poets and a four-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize. Although his verse forms are traditional, he was a pioneer in the interplay of rhythm and meter and in the poetic use of the vocabulary and inflections of everyday speech. His poetry is thus both traditional and experimental. After Frost’s father died in 1885, the family left California and settled in Massachusetts. From 1897 to 1899 he attended Harvard College as a special student, but left without a degree. Over the next ten years he wrote (but rarely published) poems, operated a farm in Derry, New Hampshire (purchased for him by his grandfather), and supplemented his income by teaching. In 1912 he sold the farm and used the proceeds to take his family to England, where he could devote himself entirely to writing. His efforts to establish himself and his work were almost immediately successful. A Boy's Will was accepted by a London publisher and brought out in 1913, followed a year later by North of Boston. In 1924 he received a Pulitzer Prize in poetry for New Hampshire (1923). He received it again for Collected Poems (1930), A Further Range (1936), and A Witness Tree (1942). Over the years he received an unprecedented number and range of literary, academic, and public honors. 1 The Road Not Taken Although I must admit that I am not a poetry fan, many of the poems of Robert Frost appeal to me, and this would have to be the one that appeals the most, in other words, it is my favorite poem. When I first read this poem, I liked it because of its free verse style (which I like) and its apparent simplicity, but, after much study, its true meaning became apparent. The obvious basic meaning is that the poem is about a person’s choices in life. The narrator describes coming to a problem with the fork in the road. He must go down one but feels he will not be able to take back his decision. He looks to see the pros and cons of each choice, and then takes the one that he says the least had traveled. He leaves the outcome up to the reader and the sigh at the end can be taken as good or bad. This leaves the reader the choice of deciding whether it is better to conform with society or rebel like Frost did and take up a less stable trade. However, there are many places to which... ..., he is far away from the city, and the city is like a synonym for life – and one of the opposites of life is death. Another closely related example of symbolism is â€Å"Between the woods and the frozen lake†. The woods are now a symbol of life – a change from the previous example – and the frozen lake, devoid of life, is a symbol of death. The final example of symbolism is an obvious one in which death is compared to sleep. Frost’s â€Å"difference† (The Road not Taken ln20) was always in him. This can be seen long before he starts his actual writing career. While he learned to read at a very late age of 14, he had already sold a poem at the age of 15. The road that Frost took was not only the â€Å"different† road and the right road for him, but also the only road that he could possibly have taken. The Road Not Taken and the often-studied Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening â€Å"exemplify Frost's ability to join the pastoral and philosophical modes in lyrics of unforgettable beauty†1. Frost's poetic and political conservatism caused him to lose favor with some literary critics, but his reputation as a major poet is secure. He unquestionably succeeded in realizing his life's ambition: to write.

Introduction To TESOL Essay

Using what you have read in this introduction to TESOL and your own knowledge, what do you consider to be the blocks which may prevent language learning? When speaking about difficulties in learning and teaching foreign language different authors use different terminology. Some of them speak about mistakes, misbehavior (Cummings, C.: 2000), sources of friction (Smith, C. J., & Laslett, R.: 2002), some – about anxiety (Nishimata, T.: 2008), troubles, difficulties and so on. For better understanding let’s summarize all this definitions into a word â€Å"block†, which means â€Å"block, that could prevent language learning†. There are two major types of blocks. The first type is teacher’s blocks. And the second one is student’s. This means that we could face with some challenges in the question of effective learning from the both sides of the process. And in each situation there are also external and internal blocks. External are blocks that are dictated with the environment. Internal ones are coming from the personality. In both cases I suppose blocks are about psychological reactions but the di fference is in a reason for that. Regarding blocks that could appear from the teacher’s side most of the authors pay attention to the following. Lack of self-discipline, fears of working with different (â€Å"non-standard†) students (Cummings, C.: 2000), managing stress, anger and other emotions (Coetzee, S. A., Wydeman, J. L., & Niekerk, E. J.: 2008). Also I could mention blocks that are connected with the previous experience, teacher’s deformation and burnout. To overcome this troubles teacher needs to be a strong-motivated person able to struggle with his/her blocks. Help of colleagues and observation feedback, realistic understanding of the own level and own abilities may be very useful. Connecting with other teachers â€Å"is a way of sharing your burdens, and your successes, with somebody else. They might feel the same and share strategies to help you overcome the burdens and rejoice in the successes† (Saumell, V.: 2014). Authors also stress that teacher should remember that the bloc ks exists from both sides, try to create a relaxing atmosphere, be respectful to students, give a positive feedback and be encouraging, give students an opportunity to redo the tests, use various teaching methods and techniques. As for the students and their blocks there is much more information to think of. In a list there are such huge themes  as age, motivation, level of knowledge, previous learning experience and influence of mother tongue. The problem of age mostly appears before adults. â€Å"I’m too old to learn English† or â€Å"The time is lost† and so on. It’s important to work upon the positive attitude of grown-up students, to show them the advantages of learning language now, when they exactly know where they will use it and what for do they need it. And do not forget to dispel a myth that it’s impossible to learn foreign language effectively after the age of 20. Teacher may use different arguments to confront with the lack of self-confidence. For example â€Å"without strongly embedded L1 syntactic structures, young children are probably more amenable to actions and activities that promote productive language skills†. (Holloway, M. K.: 2008) And for sure it’s essential for a teacher to know the basis of developmental psychology to be able to communicate effectively with the students of different ages and to consider age peculiarities. As for the motivation it’s a great clue to solve the problems with other blocks. Strong motivation to learning allows student to overcome all other difficulties. Speaking about children it’s a rare situation when a teacher faces with the highly motivated class. So it is one of the great challenges – to motivate students, to show them the positive attitude, to encourage for search and discovering new world. â€Å"As with all learning skills, pupils will be more motivated when they are interested in what they are thinking about or see a real purpose for their thinking† (Wilson, J., & Murdoch, K.: 2008). It’s far not all the blocks and not all the ways of overcoming them but I think that student’s blocks and the blocks of a teacher are deeply connected. And if a teacher has strong blocks in teaching sure s/he will face with the lack of motivation and self-confidence from his/her students and vice versa. As the main responsibility lies on the teacher’s shoulders it’s meaningful to know the blocks and not to avoid but face them and work at them.

The Jewish faith consists of founding principles that are...

The Jewish faith consists of founding principles that are quoted in the Tenak and Talmud. It is through the principle beliefs that Jewish adherents are conscious of God’s monotheism, The Covenant and the importance of divinely inspired moral law. Variants across Judaism including Hasidic and the Reform Jewish Movement, uphold differing interpretations of these beliefs which are reflected through their practices of faith everyday. The monotheistic belief of Judaism recognises that God is omnipotent, omnipresent and pure spirit. The concept of the oneness of God, is expressed through the Shema which is an affirmation of faith Jews proclaim, commencing with â€Å"Hear O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is one.†- Deuteronomy 6:4. This†¦show more content†¦However, many Jews have adapted to the contemporary innovation of Reform Judaism, which rejects the belief of God sending an individual as the Messiah as opposed to an age. Reformers argued that the traditional messianic notion wasn’t necessary, as a Messiah essentially did not guide human beings instead, they would be directed by their own intellect and thereby humans would be able to achieve redemption. Consequently, many Reform Jews have incorporated the messianic initiative in their participation in community service and the continuation of Tikkun Olam (repair of the world), whereby humans are involved in bringing God’s wor k of Creation to full completion. It encourages humans to uphold their duties in ensuring the restoration of the world by performing their required Mitzvot. Further, the Covenant is central for understanding Judaism as it covers all beliefs in relation to the expectations of Jewish life. In the Covenant that God established with Abraham, God blessed him and promised to make him â€Å"the father of a multitude of nations.†- Genesis 17:4 in which Abraham was to remain loyal and serve to the rest of the world through God’s blessings. Later, God made the Covenant of Circumcision with Abraham conveyed in the sacred text of the Torah, â€Å"Here is my covenant that you are to observe, between me and you and your descendants: Every male among you is to be circumcised.†- Genesis 17:10. Hassidic Jews carry out this practice and believe it is customary that