Vietnam War Should Not Be Considered a Victory, but Rather a Loss

The Vietnam war of the 1960s was one of history’s greatest military conflicts, as well as one of the most controversial which ushered in a wave of extreme anti-war protestors. The Vietnam war was a direct result of the war waged between Vietnam and France from 1945 to 1954. The Vietnamese had been trying to declare independence from the French and after the peace conference in Geneva, Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam had all gained their freedom and split Vietnam into North communist and South anti-communist regimes. When South Vietnam, who was backed by the United States had refused to hold unification elections after the specified two years following the Geneva Accords, the vietcong, or communist guerillas, began to assemble and invade South Vietnam. In defense, America sent in their troops and the proxy war with the Soviet Union escalated from there. Though many know the war as a victory for the United States because of the North Vietnamese surrender to the South Vietnamese, the victory is highly debatable. The United States had underestimated the commitment and duration to this war, and by the time the U.S. had recognized their mistake, they refused to publicly acknowledge it. The Vietnam war should therefore not be considered a victory, but rather as a loss.
The purpose of the intervention in Vietnam in the first place, as stated by the American government at the time of the war to justify the invasion, was to prevent communism from taking over the region. The U.S. believed that by standing on the sidelines and not helping prevent the spread of communism, the domino theory would come into practice. They believed that if Vietnam fell to communism then the countries around it such as Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, and the rest of Southeast Asia would also fall and communism would spread even further. These idea was particularly important in the intervention in Vietnam because it was the driving force behind America’s decision to send troops and reflected the policy of...