The Legacy Of The Vietnam War Essay - 1246 Words

Robert S. McNamara served as the Secretary of Defense from 1961 to 1968 under Presidents Kennedy and Johnson. While historians place considerable focus on his role in the Vietnam War, McNamara also helped shape the U.S.’s greater Cold War strategy. A large component of this included the relatively new field of nuclear politics. He understood the significance of nuclear weapons as a strategic tool for bargaining. Through clear messaging, the weapons could create gains while never actually being fired. However, he also proposed that nuclear war could be limited, and not inevitably lead to global extinction. His contemporaries often dismissed this view, and indeed it remains controversial. After 1968, the former Secretary continued to advise nuclear policy through published papers, adding considerable fodder for our discussion of his positions on the topic. In Arms and Influence Thomas Schelling spends significant passages describing McNamara’s concept of limited nuclear war. He quotes a speech from 1961 in which McNamara insists, â€Å"principle military objectives†¦should be the destruction of the enemy’s military forces, not of his civilian population.† With traditional weapons, the enemy army generally has to fight its way through the defending army before accessing civilians. Nuclear missiles eliminate this intermediate step, allowing a hostile body to quickly destroy a great amount of civilian life without engaging the other army. McNamara advocated a kind of limited war thatShow MoreRelatedThe Legacy of the Vietnam War2297 Words   |  10 PagesThe Legacy of the Vietnam War The Legacy of the Vietnam War University of Phoenix The Legacy of the Vietnam War The Vietnam War (1965-1975) was fought between the North and South Vietnam. The North was called Democratic Republic of Vietnam and the South was the Republic of Vietnam which was supported by the United States. The Vietnam War brought so many mixed emotions, fear from communism, and many lost lives. The Vietnam War was also very costly the war had spending over $140 billion dollarsRead MoreThe Legacy Of The Vietnam War1113 Words   |  5 PagesThe Vietnam War, similar to the past wars broke down, had an enduring financial legacy because of the expanded levels of government consumption which was financed by expansions in tax collection from 1968 to 1970. The victory in spending plan deficiencies was driven by both military and non-military expenses in mix with an expansionary financial arrangement that prompted quickly rising swelling in the mid-1970s. Figure six demonstrates the expansion in government spending which crested in 1968. UtilizationRead MoreThe Legacy Of The Vietnam W ar1832 Words   |  8 PagesThe Vietnam War is widely regarded as the lowest point in the history of U.S. foreign affairs. It mercilessly dragged an unwilling country on a fatal ride for twenty years, all while receiving low approval ratings and high funding. The Vietnam conflict served as an optimum environment for the virus of controversy. No one has more experience with controversy than Heinz Alfred Kissinger. He is the ultimate pragmatist, as embodying his philosophy of realpolitik, a diplomatic ideology based on utilitarianismRead MoreThe Legacy Of The Vietnam War934 Words   |  4 Pages Upon reflecting on the three main generations that comprise the workplace today, a few differences emerge. â€Å"Baby Boomers† grew up in a time when movements were prominent, the Vietnam War occurred, key figures were assassinated, the Watergate Scandal occurred, and television was introduced (Twenge et al., 2010; Schullery, 2013). Overall, â€Å"Baby Boomers† seem to exhibit a distrust of authority, value hard work, and want to enjoy their achievements (Robbins Judge, 2015; Twenge et al., 2010). As suchRead MoreThe Legacy Of The Vietnam War865 Words   |  4 Pages As a society, we are gradually losing faith in our political system. We live in a country casted by a shadowed of dark cloud, clouds of lie and arrogance. The Vietnam War, a war in which we are set up to believe is a war against communist, a war in which the United States felt they could have won, yet didn t. We brainwash our children to believe that the Indians and the pilgrims enjoyed a festive celebration yet we don t acknowledge that we wiped out almost their entire population and take overRead MoreThe Legacy Of The Vietnam War1517 Words   |  7 Pagesthe United States of America. First of all the Vietnam War was taking place during this time. It was a war that took place during the years that followed World War 2. These years were characteristic of the cold war era where political and military tension was still at an all time high between the United States of America and its NATO allies and the eastern allies of the Soviet Union. Therefore when war broke out between North Vietnam and South Vietnam the United States with its very anticommunistRead MoreThe Legacy Of The Vietnam War967 Words   |  4 Pagesyears afterwards. The Vietnam War had been going on for nine years up to this point, and the events that would occur during 1968 would help solidify anti-war sentiments. One of these events is the Tet Offensive, which occurred on January 30th, a campaign that targeted strategically important cites, all major US bases, and the Saigon embassy. While the losses were much heavier on the enemy side, the effects on the ARVN and the US army were more severe, with the realities of the war being exposed (RoarkRead MoreThe Legacy Of The Vietnam War1691 Words   |  7 Pages1942, in the throes of World War II and the lingering aftershocks of the Great Depression, the movement of social and technological change that Brenhofer experienced was more than a quantitative list of advancements and historical events, but the melding of the two into a continual and formative span of life. The upheavals that Brenhofer would come face to face with in his time were indescribable, whether they be the lasting effects of the Vietnam War and every war that followed, or the events thatRead MoreThe Vietnam War : Nixon s Policy And Legacy Essay1540 Words   |  7 PagesThe Vietnam War: Nixon’s Policy and Legacy The true history of the Vietnam War does not appear to be widely know, and did not begin with the Eisenhower Administration, but in fact actually dates back to 1945 and the end of WWII. The issues first began when the Japanese recognized their lost efforts during WWII and surrendered. This is now as the First Indochina War, which took place between 1946 and continued until 1954. Their surrender left Vietnam vulnerable as they were now any formal nationalRead MoreThe Failure Of Guerilla Warfare Methods During The Vietnam War1369 Words   |  6 PagesGuerilla Warfare Methods in the Vietnam War: An Analysis of the Causality of the â€Å"Counter Insurgency† Governmental Policies and the Presidential Campaign of 1968 This colloquium will define the connection between various sources related to the â€Å"counter insurgency† policies of the American government throughout the 1960s that caused a slow escalation of the Vietnam War in the fight against communist expansion in Southeast Asia. The Campaign of 1968 defines the legacy of president Kennedy â€Å"counter