One of the very instrumental aspects of American domination on the global scale has been its foreign policy and the subsequent consequences the policies they have had. In an effort to comprehensively evaluate America’s foreign policy and understand its effectiveness, the focus of this investigation is in analyzing and assessing the degree of effectiveness that the American foreign policy had in Vietnam.
It focuses on evaluating the effectiveness of President Nixon’s Vietnamization policy. The investigation will delve into the analysis of the goals of Vietnamization and the subsequent effects that did accrue from the implementation of the policy. The final decisions of Nixon alongside his advisors will also be considered in tandem with the final stages of the Vietnamization policy.
B- Summary of Evidence
Nixon’s election into office was as a result of his various speeches that promised to fix America. However, most notable was his resolve to end the Vietnamese War and find lasting peace (Reeves 33). By the time of his inauguration, up to half a million Americans were fighting in Vietnam. These conditions became the pretext of the formation of the Vietnamization policy (Gitlin 62). The strategy was aimed at ending the war and keeping his promise to American people, but most importantly to gain credibility.
The Vietnamization strategy was designed to reduce the number of Americans in the Vietnam War while still pursuing peace (Green 37). The goals of the program were to ensure that the South Vietnam forces were improved and modernized, to come up with a strong leader for the South Vietnamese people, to shift the daily combat to the ARVN from the United States troops and to withdraw from Vietnam slowly (Nguyen and Schecter 97).
With the onset of gradual withdrawal of American troops, the National Security Advisor (Henry Kissinger) looked for a means of negotiating for peace with the communists. Ending the war immediately was out of the question, owing to the fact that North Vietnam had carried out bomb attacks in the south and thus peace deals were seemingly impossible (Drachman, Edward and Alan 89).
For politicians in Vietnam, the withdrawal of the American troops and the implementation of the Vietnamization policy would only aid in prolonging the war. They argued that it would take a considerable amount of time for the south to gain strength to fight. The reduction of the American troops in Vietnam did result in an increase in the aggression of the North who had the one agenda of frustrating the implementation of the Vietnamization policy. As 1971 drew to a close, the number of American soldiers’ in Vietnam stood at a mere two hundred thousand. The logistical system of the South Vietnamese Army was inadequate and ill-organized; its strength was immediately minimized, and the north could only increase their attacks.
C- Evaluation of Sources
No Peace, No Honor by Larry Berman is the source evaluation in this analysis. Berman was a director at the University of California and wrote three books on Vietnam. The book focuses on the analysis of the era of Nixon and its relation to the Vietnam War. In his book, he supports the ideology of peace that Nixon and Kissinger came up with.
The book highlights his view on the matter and goes on to support it through quotes that were made by major politicians in Vietnam and the United States. The resultant impact of the book was that it got Berman featured in a number of documentaries regarding the war. The valid support of quotes of politicians from both political divides greatly enhances the credibility of the book and its arguments. However, most importantly, the book highlights the betrayal of the American people by the dishonesty of Nixon and his administration.
Martin Gitlin, in his book U.S Involvement In Vietnam delves into the historical events and facts regarding Vietnam and how they ended up defining the technology, politics, and society in Vietnam (Berman 66). With a staggering twelve educational books and over forty awards as a newspaper reporter, Gitlin does present a concise depiction of the Vietnamese story in his book.
The book provides factual information regarding the war in Vietnam and the resultant influence it had on America and Vietnam. The targeted audience of the book includes individuals interested in understanding the Vietnamese war (Duong 91). The book comprises of photos that provide additional information and the happenings in Vietnam. No opinion of the author is expressed in the book thus adding to its credibility as a learning guide on matters Vietnam (Karnow 71).
D- Analysis
In his campaign trail, Nixon’s promise was that he would quickly end the war in Vietnam and pull out the troops; however, upon entry into office, the resorted to the use of a strategy that had been used by the previous administration (Nguyen and Schecter 322). Secondly, in the process of testing the plan, the United States was pulling out its troops, a procedure that seemed to be way ahead of its time.
The resultant impact to the south was that the ARVN forces became insufficiently equipped. The withdrawal plan by the American people depicted huge flaws ranging from the urgency with which they were being removed and also to the vagueness of how the process was to go on. According to Karnow, the testing of the Vietnamization plan elicited Nixon’s comment that “the operation, conceived in doubt and assailed by skepticism, proceeded in confusion” (Nguyen and Schecter 234).
This statement did highlight the very weaknesses of implementing the plan. It was shrouded in contradiction and thus it was bound to fail from the very onset (Wells, Tom, and Todd 144). Looking at the time the plan was also launched, one can begin to understand why it ended up as a failure (Jentleson 111). The plan was launched in the same year that America was launching an attack on Cambodia. This further alleviated the chances of failure as it was spreading the troops and the budget thin.
The goals that had been set by the Vietnamization policy were unrealistic, and this meant that attaining them would be relatively challenging. For one, the ARVN soldiers were ill-equipped and underfunded. This meant that withdrawal of the American troops would leave them vulnerable to their enemies. In the goal of establishing a stable leader, the assassination of Diem had practically thwarted that option. Thus, the United States was forced to continue using pacification methods and bombing to try and quell the war.
Works Cited
Berman, Larry. No peace, no honor: Nixon, Kissinger, and betrayal in Vietnam. Simon and Schuster, 2001.
Drachman, Edward R, and Alan Shank. Presidents and Foreign Policy: Countdown to Ten Controversial Decisions. Albany, NY: State Univ. of New York Press, 1997. Print.
Duong, Van N. The Tragedy of the Vietnam War: A South Vietnamese Officer's Analysis. , 2008. Internet resource.
Gitlin, Marty. U.s. Involvement in Vietnam. Edina, Minn: ABDO Pub, 2010. Internet resource.
Green, Jen. Vietnam. Washington, D.C: National Geographic, 2008. Print.
Hall, Mitchell K. Vietnam War Era: People and Perspectives. Santa Barbara, Calif: ABC-CLIO, 2009. Print.
Jentleson, Bruce W. American Foreign Policy: The Dynamics of Choice in the 21st Century. New York: W.W. Norton & Co, 2010. Print.
Karnow, Stanley. Vietnam: A History. New York, N.Y., U.S.A: Penguin Books, 1984. Print.
Nguyen, Gregory T. H, and Jerrold L. Schecter. The Palace File. New York: Perennial Library, 1989. Print.
Reeves, Richard. President Nixon: Alone in the White House. Simon and Schuster, 2001.
Wells, Tom, and Todd Gitlin. The War Within: America's Battle Over Vietnam. Lincoln, NE: iUniverse, 2005. Print.
