The Vietnam War: Were the lessons learned?

The United States was involved in the Vietnam War for about twenty years and this resulted in the loss of many American as well as Vietnamese lives. There are many lessons America learned from this war and the most significant of these were in the areas of diplomatic negotiations, presidential leadership and finally, cultural relations. It is these lessons which have influenced the determination of American foreign policy since the end of the Vietnam War to the present time. Therefore, we shall discuss some of these issues in this paper.

According to Cavagnol (2007), the end of the Vietnam war saw a change in the foreign policy of the United States, which moved from an aggressive and militaristic one to one of diplomatic negotiations. The American failure and massive loss of life in Vietnam may have influenced this because of the negative public opinion that came out of the Vietnam affair. Furthermore, an anonymous article in the Tribune Business News (2010) states that the Vietnam War had made the American government very unpopular not only among the American people but also in the world because of such atrocities committed by its forces against the Vietnamese people. The shift to diplomatic negotiations was a move to help rehabilitate the image of America in the world stage in order to maintain its position of leadership. The move to diplomatic negotiations enabled the United States to achieve its foreign policy goals without the need of resorting to military aggression.

There were also changes in presidential leadership in the United States especially in matters of foreign policy. Bradford (2005) suggests that the decision to end the war in Vietnam saw a turn in presidential leadership in America from one which did not listen to public opinion to one which did. It was the first time that an administration since the beginning of the Vietnam war that had followed a policy different from the administration before concerning this war. Each president since nineteen seventy four has attempted to avoid the kind of situations that happened in Vietnam due to their disastrous effects and have instead moved towards policies which are more peaceful and have only used military action as a last resort as seen during the Gulf War and the War on Terror.

In the cultural context, the American government and people have come to accept that the American way of life is not necessarily the best way for other people in the world. Werner and Huynh (1993) state that the attempt to enforce American values and ideologies in Vietnam ended in complete failure due to the fact that America was giving its support to a very unpopular government. The American government, since the end of the Vietnam War until very recently, had pursued a policy of letting every country have its own system of government, cultural and social system without resorting to forcing them to conform to the ideals of the American way.

In conclusion, the Vietnam War taught many lessons to America, not only concerning how to handle foreign policy, but also to appreciate other people’s cultures as well as accepting the right of the people of foreign nations to self determination. Moreover, the experiences of this war saw a radical change of American policy towards other countries especially in the Third World from one of aggression to place pro-American governments in power, to one of diplomatic negotiations with regimes which it did not necessarily approve of. It is therefore an important thing for America to have learned from its Vietnam experience and to avoid making such mistakes in future.

Cited Works

Bradford, D. (2005). From people's war to people's rule: Insurgency, intervention and the lessons of Vietnam. Special Warfare,18(1), 44-45. Retrieved from http://0-search.proquest.com.alice.dvc.edu/docview/199400574?accountid=38376

Cavagnol, R. M. (2007). Lessons from vietnam. Marine Corps Gazette, 91(3), 16-19. Retrieved from http://0-search.proquest.com.alice.dvc.edu/docview/221462197?accountid=38376

Forum examines lessons from vietnam war.(2010, Mar 14). McClatchy - Tribune Business News, pp. n/a. Retrieved from http://0-search.proquest.com.alice.dvc.edu/docview/458477176?accountid=38376

Werner, J & Huynh, L D. (1993). The Vietnam War: Vietnamese and American Perspective. Armonk, New York: M.E. Sharpe Inc.