Duncan Farquharson

12/19/18
The War That Should Have Never Happened

The Vietnam war was a not justified and both sides that fought it lost so much and gained
little to none. The actions that were taken by America and Vietnam for both sides were impulsive
and unjust.The whole war could have been avoided if America would have seen the signs of
possible resolution. The unjust ramifications that America forced onto both South Vietnam and
North Vietnam should have never happened. The atrocities that both sides committed could have
to lead to a clearer picture of what they both wanted, but instead just scrambled it up, even more,
making that only option to blunt force an answer out whether it was good or bad. Many people
had sacrificed their lives and/or livelihoods for the war even though they were not fighting for it
and this only crippled the governments of both sides fighting the war which was the opposite of
intent all along. The Vietnam war should never have happened and it was a worthless effort from
both America and Vietnam and nothing was ever truly gained from it, there was only loss.

Leading into the start of the Vietnam war there were many signs of America’s
involvement to be justified. In 1945, France had ruled Vietnam and they wanted independence,
but America ignored them and Vietnam then had to outsource to communist states like China
and Russia for help. 1 This was the first action that they had taken in becoming an enemy of the
global superpower, America, but it could have easily been avoided. These actions taken by
America to become involved in 1965 were preemptive and if they had just looked more in-depth
and slightly into the future to look for a better outcome. There was suppose to be a general
election in 1956 for a new president for South Vietnam. If the South Vietnamese president had
been reassigned at the 1956 general election then South and North Vietnam would have had
come to a consensus and joined together as one whole nation. America had almost broken the
1954 Geneva Convention held 2 years earlier which was supposed to prevent escalation of
foreign military units in other countries. Going into 1956 America had 342 missionaries in South
Vietnam which were acceptable under the Geneva convention, but on February 9th the number
was increased to nearly 700 missionaries. This, in turn, lead later into the president of South
Vietnam to allow the Missionaries to train the South Vietnamese army (ARVN). This lead to
further escalation from the North Vietnamese and then the South almost back and forth all the
while breaking the Geneva accord that was set in place to prevent this from happening.

There had also been an atrocity that North Vietnam was apologizing for calling the “land
reform” which was a mission set by the Northern Vietnamese government in pursuit of
Communism. The mission had killed thousands of large landlords and created very big tension
between Capitalism and Communism within Vietnam. Even though they had apologized for this
terrible action America had put aside this as just another reason to go into war against North
Vietnam. Also in America, the president had the ability to declare war against another country
with needing to consult the Congress and this lead to a change in 1973 called the war powers
resolution which made it so that the President had to have congressional approval before
declaring war. These small details had been overlooked and preemptively acted upon by the
presidents of America and South Vietnam when deciding whether or not to go to war against
North Vietnam.

Throughout the war there had been millions of fatalities on both sides from countless
forms of cruel and horrible forms of weaponry. Chemicals including napalm and agent orange to
name a couple that were used mostly by the Americans to kill all the Viet Cong hiding in hidden
tunnels or in treetops. These chemicals were both dangerous and had long-lasting effects on the
people and land exposed to it. Agent Orange was first used in 1961 to basically remove all the
leaves from the trees, but this is not saying that it only did that. America had purposefully
created varying kinds of agent orange to produce worse effects on whatever it had happened to
hit. As said in an article, “It is universally known to be a carcinogen (a cancer-causing agent).”2
The chemical also causes “Short-term exposure to dioxin can cause darkening of the skin, liver
problems and a severe acne-like skin disease called chloracne. Additionally, dioxin is linked to
type 2 diabetes, immune system dysfunction, nerve disorders, muscular dysfunction, hormone
disruption, and heart disease.” The chemical also had long-lasting effects on all the land around
it and destroyed over 1 million hectares of farmland.3 Overall this chemical was horrible and an
unjust way of fighting the way, but that is not saying that North Vietnam’s tactics were any
different. North Vietnam had set up thousands of traps, landmines, booby traps, and tunnels to
give them as much advantage as possible. They had also dressed Vietcong up as South
Vietnamese civilians which lead to mass confusion in the South on whether who was the enemy
eventually leading to many civilian deaths.

The war from both sides had many young individuals going to support their country
under the thought of Dulce et Decorum est Pro Patria Mori.4 This means that everyone matters
towards their country no matter how little or how much they end up doing. This one statement
had been misused by both sides as a way of getting people to enroll or just have the knowledge
that they are doing something for the greater good. Firstly, this war could have been prevented
all together thus negating all lives lost in the first place. Secondly, the war was not fought
standing on front lines right in front of the enemy, not even 98% of the American military
actually saw time-fighting on the front lines of the war trying to gain control.5 The war was
fought with artillery, chemicals, air raids, and ambushes. Very little parts of this war were what
the people thought there were fighting for. There were 1.1 million casualties for North Vietnam
and 200,000 to 250,000 casualties for South Vietnam during the war. A total of $168 billion
went directly towards funding the war, but it was said that the total should be $250 billion since
there were the costs of veterans benefits and interest, which is equivalent to over $1.35 trillion
today.6 Of the American soldiers lost in the Vietnam war, a total of 18.3% of the deaths over
there were either on accident, not in combat, or traitors. As results of these horrible living
conditions there had been a total of 55,000 total suicides of veterans. The number was greatest
during and right after the war and it was evident that many people never wanted to be there in the
first place. The war effort for the war was greater than what America was getting out of it and
there just was not enough reason to continue fighting.

America had originally gone into the war for fighting communism and have a stop to that
type of society. The escalation that America had in Vietnam was not ever necessary, but a way to
show that America was not the weakling in the fight. Them trying to escalate the war and trying
to completely crush North Vietnam was a statement towards the other Communist states like
China and Russia. This escalation in the war had only created more tension back in America and
slowly fewer people were actually rooting for the war. By 1969, 50% of the people were against
the war and only 35% were for it. President Nixon had started to withdraw at this point from the
war, but it should have happened a long time ago before half a million soldiers were fighting a
war that no one wanted to fight in another country. The tension between the population of
American and the government had gotten so bad that multiple riots had formed in Washington,
DC and at Universities where students in some cases were shot and killed. For example, on May
1970 at Kent State University there had been rioting going on when the national guard was
ordered to suppress the riots which in turn unrightfully ended up killing 4 students. These
students were unarmed are were peacefully protesting and the government thought that they were
more of a problem to deal with that several other national problems that were currently going on
like the Vietnam War.

Many of the actions carried out from America and Vietnam were preemptive and
impulsive, like not thinking of the general election and military escalation which lead into the
Vietnam war. In the future countries should look more into the problems before making any dire
actions and these actions should voted upon by multiple elective instead of just one head of state.
There needs to be a process in which these actions go through before being realized and acted
upon so mistakes and mishaps do not leak through which might lead into war or other bad
ramifications. Today, there already has been reforms to the government to prevent things like
this from happening in the future by creating the war power resolution by the congress which
disallowed the president of America to declare war without consulting the congress and without
a vote by other party electives. Other countries should follow this rule as well since it will lead to
more rational decision making in the future from more than just one source and creating less
mistakes that would create wars.
 Endnotes

1. "Was American Involvement in the Vietnam War Justified?," The Vietnam War Info, last
modified May 6, 2014, accessed December 19, 2018, https://thevietnamwar.info/american-
involvement-vietnam-war-justified/.

2. History.com Editors, "Agent Orange," HISTORY, last modified August 2, 2011, accessed
December 19, 2018, https://www.history.com/topics/vietnam-war/agent-orange-1.

3. Alan Rohn, "What Was the Impact of the Vietnam War," The Vietnam War Info, last modified
June 8, 2013, accessed December 19, 2018, https://thevietnamwar.info/vietnam-war-impact/.

4. U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, "Vietnam War U.S. Military Fatal Casualty
Statistics," Military Records, last modified January 11, 2018, accessed December 17, 2018,
https://www.archives.gov/research/military/vietnam-war/casualty-statistics.

5. Senior, Elliot. Interview by Duncan Farquharson. New Haven, CT. December 1,

2018.

6. Alan Rohn, "How Much Did the Vietnam War Cost?," The Vietnam War, last modified January
22, 2014, accessed January 4, 2019, https://thevietnamwar.info/how-much-vietnam-war-cost/.

Annotated Bibliography

Editors, History.com, ed. "Vietnam War Timeline." HISTORY. Last modified

September 13, 2017. Accessed December 6, 2018. https://www.history.com/
topics/vietnam-war/vietnam-war-timeline.
 A detailed timeline from before the Vietnam war, what lead up to the war
starting and various attacks and other instances until the US
withdrew from Vietnam in 1975.
History.com Editors. "Agent Orange." HISTORY. Last modified August 2, 2011.
Accessed December 19, 2018. https://www.history.com/topics/vietnam-war/
agent-orange-1.
A web page about the short term and long term effects of a chemical agent
called agent orange that was used in the Vietnam War
Rohn, Alan. "How Much Did the Vietnam War Cost?" The Vietnam War. Last modified
January 22, 2014. Accessed January 4, 2019. https://thevietnamwar.info/
how-much-vietnam-war-cost/.
A source that lists the casualties and cost of the Vietnam war in-depth.
It creates a good understanding of what was truly lost in the Vietnam War
from a quantitative point of view.
Rohn, Alan. "What Was the Impact of the Vietnam War." The Vietnam War Info. Last
modified June 8, 2013. Accessed December 19, 2018.
https://thevietnamwar.info/vietnam-war-impact/.
It is a web page that talks about the aftermath effect of the Vietnam War
mostly on the South Vietnamese population.
Senior, Elliot. Interview by Duncan Farquharson. New Haven, CT. December 1,
2018.
U.S. National Archives and Records Administration. "Vietnam War U.S. Military
Fatal Casualty Statistics." Military Records. Last modified January 11,
2018. Accessed December 17, 2018. https://www.archives.gov/research/
military/vietnam-war/casualty-statistics.
It is a web page/database showing statistics of all possible fatalities and
other statistics from the American side of the Vietnam War
"Was American Involvement in the Vietnam War Justified?" The Vietnam War Info.
Last modified May 6, 2014. Accessed December 19, 2018.
https://thevietnamwar.info/american-involvement-vietnam-war-justified/.
It is a website which shows an in-depth timeline of events that justified
or didn't justify the Vietnam War.