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In 1975 the Communists took over South Vietnam and the Vietnam war ended as a failure for the United
States. But how could this have happened, the US had done everything right? It had
meticulously studied the previous war in Korea and had accordingly built up its strategy in Vietnam.
Yet the wars in Vietnam and Korea were too different for the same strategies to work in
both. Like the war in Vietnam all other US foreign wars were to some extent conducted based on the
conclusions made from the previous conflict. Sometimes these conclusions were correct. But
other times they were not. Join us, as we will look into 5 US foreign wars and
examine how lessons learned from earlier conflicts influenced the later ones.
The US had designed a foolproof war plan during the Second World War. Say on a different continent
a powerful dictator is on a rampage. With the US navy in control of the oceans America has no
problem sending troops to invade the enemy. The enemy may attempt to resist with determination,
but the Americans have something on their side that no other nation can match - money. The US
is the richest country in the world and it can afford more of the best military gear
than any other nation. Whatever the course of the particular war, the US superiority in arms,
tanks and planes will eventually grind the enemy down and make him surrender.
After victory in World War two, the US began opposing the spread of Communism in the Cold war.
In 1950 Communist North Korea launched an invasion of South Korea. The US came to
South Korea's aid. As expected, North Korea’s army was far less capable than the US military
and most of it was quickly destroyed and the US forces carried the war into North Korea. Not
wanting to see North Korea defeated Communist China sent its army against the US forces.
The Chinese ambushed the US troops and pushed them back into South Korea.
The US was now faced with Communist China backed by the Soviet Union.
The Korean peninsula was packed with troops to such an extent that it was very hard to go on
an offensive there. The US could use its superior air force and navy to swing the war in its favor.
In order to do that, they had to attack targets in China
or the Soviet Union. But this had the danger of quickly turning the Korean war
into a World War and the US did not risk that. The war on the peninsula itself lasted for two
more years without bringing advantage to either side. Eventually it was decided to end the war
and accept the division of Korea into two, which lasts up to this day.
Korean War was over, but soon another conflict flared up in the region. The North Vietnamese
Communists launched a guerilla campaign against the Capitalist government of South Vietnam.
Soon the situation in South Vietnam had grown so dire the US had to send its forces to intervene.
The problem was that the policies of the South Vietnamise government were unpopular
among its people and they began to look for North Vietnamese Communists to take over.
The US military, due to not being the South Vietnamese government, was unable to change these
policies and get the people to change their minds. So the only option left was to take them out.
The situations in Korea and Vietnam were somewhat similar.
The Vietnamese Communist Guerrillas would probably not be a match for the US forces.
But the main danger lay in the Communist China feeling threatened and sending its military into
South Vietnam. Just as in Korea it would once again turn the war into a bloody stalemate.
The US felt it could not go immediately all in in Vietnam, otherwise China might become suspicious.
It deployed its forces in a limited manner and gradually escalated from weaker tactics
to much stronger ones to stay under China's radar. With the threat of the Chinese invasion taken care
of, the US was opposed only by the Vietnamese Communists. On paper they were much weaker than
the US forces. But was this really the case? The US army had much more advanced equipment,
but it was not made to fight in the jungle and its efficiency was limited.
The US army was trained for a conventional war, not for fighting a counterinsurgency
campaign and this further lessened its prowess. Thirdly as the US slowly escalated the war,
the Vietnamese Communists had the time to learn the US tactics and come up with
effective countermeasures. The strength difference between the two forces ended up not so large.
As a result the US was unable to destroy the Communist guerillas
as quickly as it hoped. The war dragged on and on.
The US government had originally promised to the people of the United States that the war
would be a short one, but this had not happened. The people became suspicious.
Soon the US government's policy in Vietnam was more and more disapproved.
As the approval of US politicians began to suffer they ordered to pull US troops out of Vietnam.
Some years later South Vietnam fell to the Communists.
If only the US government had seen Richard Baums video course “The Fall and Rise of China” from the
Great Courses Plus, they might have done much better in Vietnam. Of course, they would have
needed a time machine to see it, but we don’t. This year I want to produce more content and
to help with that I took a course by Tilar J. Mazzeo on “Writing Creative Nonfiction”.
With no formal education in writing, I had difficulties making scripts. But the
fundamentals gained from the course has sped up my writing, which will result in more videos.
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Now back to the video.
After Vietnam the US was much more careful and its most famous foreign intervention
from the following decade was sending John Rambo on a secret mission to Afghanistan.
However in 1990 another conflict sprang up in the Middle East.
Iraqs dictator Saddam Hussein ordered his troops to occupy a small, but oil rich country of Kuwait.
It was necessary to liberate the people of Kuwait… and their considerable oil deposits.
Before engaging in the conflict, the US had to make sure it would avoid the mistakes made in
Vietnam. The Iraqi army was a conventional force, just what the US forces were prepared to fight.
The battlefield was a desert, an ideal terrain for the US air force to destroy the enemies army.
At that time the Cold War was about to end. The Soviet Union was flooded with its own problems
and was unwilling to intervene in Iraq. So the US abandoned the cautious approach. There would
be no delays and long negotiations and the US would drop everything it had on the enemy
from the start. The Gulf War could proceed! The US air force crippled the Iraqi military
from the air and following that the US ground forces easily secured Kuwait.
With Saddam's forces defeated, the Iraqi people rose up against him.
The US could seize the opportunity and send its forces to depose Saddam. However, there
was another lesson they had learned from Vietnam. The US military was good at destroying things,
but it was less good at tasks such as uniting the people of a country under one government.
If it would intervene in Iraq, there was the danger that its forces could end up in the same
quagmire they once had in Vietnam. The US troops went home and Saddam's regime in Iraq survived.
In 2001 the US was attacked by the islamic radicals and the country declared war on terror.
But how do you fight an abstract concept, like threats of violent action for political purposes?
By attacking the ideology behind it. You see, after the end of the Cold War
many of the countries freed from Communist dictatorship had turned into prosperous
democracies and US’s allies. Perhaps the same scenario could be repeated in the Middle East.
Saddams dictatorship still ruled Iraq. If the US would topple him, Iraq would become democratic.
With US’s help it would become an example of freedom and prosperity, which would guide the
people of the Middle East away from radicalism and authoritarianism. This would expand democracy and
greatly reduce the appeal of terrorism. And so the US set out to bring freedom to Iraq
...and also Afganistan. But in this video we will only concentrate on the war in Iraq.
Initially all went well. The Iraqi forces were easily defeated. The US took down Saddam's
government and the people rejoiced. But then, instead of building a harmonious democratic state,
the Iraqi people divided themselves into factions and started fighting for power.
Soon the country descended into a civil war, with the US troops caught in the middle.
In the chaos, the Islamic radicals began to grow their influence. The US could not pull out the
troops. If it did, Iraq would have collapsed into complete chaos and in the worst case,
the radicals could take over large parts of the country and launch further attacks on the US.
From year to year America had to spend much to have its military keep Iraq in a stable state.
The costs moved up, as the US forces concentrated on extinguishing the civil war. This was met with
success and in the following years they were able to scale down their presence in Iraq
until most of the US troops had left the country. The US ended up spending huge amounts of resources
on the Iraq war and gained very little from it. But the Iraq saga was far from over.
In 2011 Iraq's neighbour Syria imploded into a Civil War. The Islamic radicals gained influence
and established a faction known as the Islamic State.
Soon they captured large territories in Iraq and Syria. Once again, the US had to return to Iraq.
If the US would repeat the strategy of the last war, that is sweeping in with its military
and trying again to build democracy in the liberated areas,
then it could very well end up in another trillion dollar mission to stabilize Iraq.
This time the freedom manuals were left home and another strategy was chosen.
The islamic State was surrounded by factions that were hostile to it, but they were too weak
to go on the offensive on their own. The US army would train the local troops into
a good fighting force and supply them with weapons. At the same time the US
air force would support the offensive against the Islamic State from the air.
The US would give support only to those factions that were on its friend list. So after the Islamic
State was defeated, the region would end up under the control of the US’s allies.
The strategy worked. Although it took several years,
the local forces went on an offensive, pushed the Islamic state back
and took over all of its territory. And the US army gave them only mostly indirect support.
But you know, who got more than just indirect support? The US opponents in Syria.
America's rivals Russia and Iran had sent their troops to help the Syrian government.
They were able to overpower the US allies in Syria and all of Syria and Iraq did not end
up controlled by the US allies. So this too did not turn out to be a perfect approach.
But this is where the video ends. In the next one we will see how the US defeated Germany in
World War Two. If you like what you see, you can join the supporters of this channel on Patreon
or check out the Great Courses Plus trial via the link in the description. See you next time.