The battle of AP Bac
Outline
It was also known as the Vietnam War. It was a costly conflict that involved South Vietnam and the United States; these two countries were allies fighting against the communist government of North Vietnam (Duiker, 2018). The cold war involving the Soviet Union and the United States greatly intensified the Vietnam War. Over 3 million individuals, among them, were 58000 Americans that got killed in the Vietnam War, and the painful part of it is that it was estimated almost half of all the fatalities were Vietnamese civilians. The significant opposition to the war back in the United States greatly divided the masses President Richard Nixon ordered the withdrawal of the United States of America forces in 1973. The communist forces ended the war by seizing the control of South Vietnam in 1975; later on, Vietnam was unified as the Socialist Republic of Vietnam in 1976. However, the main purpose of this paper is to illustrate how the ends, ways, means and the risks incorporated with the real situation in the Battle of the AP Bac (Duiker, 2018).
The Ends (level 1 heading)
According to Duiker, (2018), these are conditions or objectives that are to be achieved by the military that defines mission success by friendly forces. It also shows the strategic objectives and high commands military and also supports national objectives. For instance, for the case of the Battle of AP Bac, there were many cases where most of the people were becoming communist. So the United States military got involved in the operations in Indochina with the purpose of delaying the spread of the communist and the theory of Domino. This theory stated that if one country becomes a communist state then the neighboring nations also can be converted. Immediately after Vietnam gained independence from the French they also came into view as the Communist power state. The early 1960s there was an order from President Kennedy who sent his advisors to South Vietnam that had already separated from Northern Vietnam to help in fighting guerilla warfare that was existing at that time. Secondly, The U.S. military saw the importance of helping their neighboring nation (South Vietnam) by equipping, supplying and training them to resist the entering of Communist North Vietnam. Le Espiritu, (2018) suggested that the fight action and the occupying of their neighboring state that was involved by the U.S. Military improved the ability of South Vietnam to survive and also brought down the spread of communism throughout South East Asia. With all these ends in mind, the U.S Military just wanted the ways in which they could have accomplished their intended mission (Le Espiritu, 2018).
The ways (level 1 heading)
The U.S military tactics in the Vietnam War can be combined to form the acronym ‘BEAST’ which means: Bombing, Escalation, Air and artillery, Search and destroy, and Technology. At that time the USA was under the rule of President Johnson (Le Espiritu, 2018).
(Concept) Bombing (level 2 heading)
During the war, there was a code name ‘Operation Rolling Thunder’ when the president of the USA Johnson declared the bombing of various military targets that were allocated in North Vietnam which included all attackers by the aircraft in the city, Hanoi, and the routes that were used by the Vietcong (Le Espiritu, 2018). At that time, the US military used many tonnes of bombs exceeding three million tones in Vietnam which is even more than all the bomb blast that was used in Europe during the Second World War. However, the bombing was seen as not an appropriate strategy due to the forest landscape and failure of the industrial target in North Vietnam (Le Espiritu, 2018).
(Concept) Escalation (level 2 heading).
The USA president Johnson was a man who used to predict future events. He greatly made a decision of increasing the number of American military troops on the surface in Vietnam. At around 1965, there was a shift away from military advisors to fight the troops under the order of the president, two US marine military were released to protect the military bases at Da Nang (Short, 2018).
(Concept) Air and artillery (level 2 heading)
In this case, when the American troops who operated on the ground were ordered to go on patrols they were supported by air and artillery in case they are attacked by the Vietcong. Although most of the soldiers were discouraged especially when they perceived that this activity as being used as a substance to draw out the enemy (Short, 2018).
(Concept) Search and destroy (level 2 heading)
Short, (2018) propounded that this tactic began at around 1965 when the American military came up with a policy of sending their soldiers into the jungle and villages of Vietnam to search and destroy their enemies through the fight. Actually, with this tactic, the American soldiers were easy to be attacked by the Vietcong guerrilla because Vietcong fighters were not even staying close to their homes or in the front parts of the jungle but they stayed deep inside the jungle where they cannot be I identified easily. However, many people died, properties were destroyed in villages and atrocities like the My Lai Massacre of which damaged the USA’s identity just because of the tactic of search and destroy (Short, 2018).
(Concept) technology (level 2 heading)
Bombs being the most used tool in this war, The American soldiers had a lot of confidence on high altitude bombers who could drop heavy bombs in North Vietnam. Also, they used jets especially in the areas that were suspected to be Vietnam strongholds to destroy napalm which was a very dangerous chemical that could burn the skin down to the bone (McMaster, 2018). On the other side, the jungle cover was destroyed by the use of an ultra-strong defoliant known as the Agent Orange. Additionally, Helicopters were also used to search for guerrilla fighters and destroy them. The USA used Television as the information media mainly for the purpose of reporting the casualties from the Vietcong fighters (McMaster, 2018).
The means (level 1 heading)
Although the US military was very strong than the Vietcong fighters, they were also effective even if the US were very strong in open warfare. The US had an advantage of the technology, which included very complicated weapons equipment and aircraft. The major means that the Vietcong used was the guerrilla, of which the Americans were not familiar with, they also knew the jungles of South Vietnam, and they also had a lot of resources to be used in the war and finally the favor of climate which tempered with the health of the Americans soldiers.
(Concept) Guerrilla (level 2 heading)
The guerrilla method was the most popular and effective that could be used by many fighters as their means of winning the fight. The Vietcong used this method as they already approved it since they tested it earlier before against the Japanese and the French and so they believed that it could work better even for the Americans. For instance, the Vietcong would make signals to themselves in the case where the US would make their attack so that they could not be found off guard and die in large numbers. Additionally, the Vietcong would also make their invasion in the US camps especially by attacking them at night when the Americans are not that alert. Because of the shock the Americans army receives makes them to completely respond at a very slow rate that gives the Vietcong greater advantage to make their attacks. In addition, the Vietcong also attacked their enemies when they are completely tired and weak because of fatigue and as a result, they were given a lot of pressure as well as scaring the US military to lower their morale and give up in the war which was never the case.
(Concept) Environmental Advantage (level 2 heading).
According to McMaster, (2018), the Vietcong had a full understanding of the environment they used to live inside. When the Vietcong realized that the US military was going to bomb places like the Ho Chi Minh trail or the jungles where they could hide, they came up with a new strategy of digging deep tunnels that could even go for miles in deepness. When the Idea on how they used to operate leaked, they were able to come up with booby that could trap their enemies from inside the tunnel (McMaster, 2018).
Another way in which Vietnam used their environment effectively is that they were able to wear dark clothes and make use of tree branches or leaves to cover themselves and hide inside the forest. This approach created tension among the US military since the Vietcong were unpredictable when it comes to attacking, therefore, made the US soldiers be very sensitive that they also lacked to sleep.
Lastly, despite the fact that the US had resources and were very much power, the Vietcong also had these resources and weapons that they had great confidence with them. However, the Vietcong were very much effective and clever as they could make use of guns that had no percussion caps and very silent in operations (Logevall, 2018).
(Concept) enemy (level 2 heading)
The Vietcong took large trucks of land from those individual landowners who owned them and gave it to the peasants and helps to protect them so that the Americans and the people from South Vietnamese would not be able to take the land at their own pleasure. They simple caused a lot of frustrations to the American soldier through invasion, raiding into their camps and attacking them whenever they were tired.
(Concept) peasant (level 2 heading)
During the war, the Vietcong soldiers paid their attention to the peasants in the villages with respect to the extent of even helping them with their workloads in their land. They wanted to be provided with basic needs such as food, shelter and hiding places from the peasants (Logevall, 2018).
The risk (level 1 heading)
These are the chances of failure or unacceptable consequences in performing that sequence of military actions. However, for the case of the battle of AP Bac, there have been adverse consequences that resulted after the war which include loss of life, geopolitical effects and burdening of the United States (Logevall, 2018).
(Concept) Losses level 2 heading
The high rate of death was the most immediate negative impact of the Vietnam War that resulted in massive killings of even innocent individuals. The research and statistics show that at least more than a population of 2 million Vietnamese civilians, 1.1 million North Vietnamese troops, 200,000 South Vietnamese troops, and 58,000 U.S. troops were totally killed during the war. There was also a great significant number that was reported for those who were identified as injured in the process of war. The massive bombing of North and South Vietnam really destroyed the country making it be completely ruined. Also, the use of pesticides such as the Agent Orange by the US military destroyed the environmental nature of Vietnam and also caused health problems that have lasted for many years (Logevall, 2018).
(Concept) geopolitical effect level 2 heading
After the war in 1975, it happened that the Vietnam War really caused a great loss for the Americans. Much of Indochina joined the Communist and made validations of the theory of domino that in turn brought about many psychological problems to the United States (Logevall, 2018). However, the war did not affect the United States at any point or status as a superpower, and also North Vietnam won the war and noticed that Ho Chi Minh’s lifelong dream that after the war, Vietnam would be filled with more fighting, poverty, and suffering for its people. This does not give a clear illustration in today’s life that as a capitalist nation, the communist is the majority who won the war in the year 1975.
(Concept) Prisoners of war (level 2 heading)
Logevall, (2018), suggested that after the battle of the AP Bac in the year 1975, Vietnam became the center of the opinion of top issues in the United States. Vietnam remained to be the prisoners of war of the Americans to an extent when the Americans started becoming less concerned with much of the activities that were happening in the country. However, the war had long term effect where it motivated widespread large US population that was not confident and its government that fi finally resulted to the unpopularity of their military in the short term (Logevall, 2018).
Conclusion
The battle of the AP Bac has proven the wisdom of the axiom that whenever you are close or you have an enemy force in a trap, demolish it completely without any delay. Although the enemy would have suffered a large number of deaths than the one indicated in the article his defeat wouldn’t have been as final as the one which occurred in the battle of the AP Bac. There was also a demonstration by the enemy on how he has time and how he can easily recruit another troop member. However, if the main idea of this article matters on who are irreplaceable or who can be captured or killed, the efficiency and effectiveness of this article be ambiguous.
We can also learn that the Vietcong fighters were somehow better than the Americas not only because of what they had as strong weapons, power or advanced technology but also because they developed good strategies through using their environment to the fullest. The Vietcong combats were also clever in that when the Americans had low morale they would attack them and weaken them completely. Finally, the Vietcong dug deep tunnels to protect themselves from bomb blasts. All these thoughtful methods gave Vietcong chances to win against a superpower nation such as America.
References
Duiker, W. J. (2018). The communist road to power in Vietnam. Routledge.
Le Espiritu, Y. (2018). Body Counts: The Vietnam War and Militarized Refugees. Univ of California Press.
Logevall, F. (2018). The origins of the Vietnam War. Routledge.
McMaster, H. R. (2018). Dereliction of Duty: Johnson, McNamara, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the lies that led to Vietnam. HarperCollins.
Short, A. (2018). The origins of the Vietnam War. Routledge.