LAWLzoR

See the pun I did there? I know it's terrible, but I'm going to talk about the wars in Vietnam and Korea that happened during the Cold War. Let's start this chronologically.

The Korean war as from 1950 to 1953 and was the first proxy war the US had with the Soviet Union. During this war, General Douglass Macarthur went up against Northern Korean forces to try to turn the Korean peninsula completely capitalist and democratic. The borders between the Southern Korean people who leaned towards the First World ideas and Northern Korean people who leaned towards the Second World ideas was at the 38th parallel until the war started. At first, it seemed the US was going to win when Macarthur pushed Northern Korean forces towards Asia. But then the Northern Korean forces pushed us back to the southern coast of Southern Korea, but then we pushed back. It was essentially a game of catch. One country would be winning, then the other. In fact, by the time the war ended, the boundaries were around the 38th parallel, so the US pulled out and China and Northern Korea stopped fighting, giving us North Korea and South Korea.

My history class brushed over this a tiny bit, mainly because we don't focus on dates and facts, but those who are interested in it, I think it's more important than people remember it for. It set the stage for further conflict between the Soviet Union and the US because it showed both sides that winning won't be too easy, especially for Truman who thought that the US was going to win because we were the only country with atomic and nuclear bombs, and then Russian spies stole the secrets to make the bombs, and sent them back to the SU.

This was is also called the "Forgotten War" because it didn't play that big of a role to most of the world. It created two new nations, but other than that, almost nothing was changed. So without further ado, let's head to the more famous of the two: the Vietnam War.

I'm not going to discuss in detail the Vietnam War, but I am going to discuss several reasons why North Vietnam won, how it changed the relationship between the public and the government, and why the US wanted to win in both the Korean and Vietnam War.

The Vietnam War happened from 1956 to 1975, just under 19 years. It premiered the US's Agent Orange, or Napalm if you're so inclined. It was used to burn down the thick trees and jungle in Vietnam. It also had a side-effect of burning and peeling human flesh, causing death.

Just like most of the military involvements the US put itself in, this war was to stop the spread of communism into Vietnam. This was the main reason the US got into Korea and Vietnam. They didn't want communism to spread and possibly threaten their newest capitalist ally: Japan. Granted even with our technically two losses Japan never fell to communism, the US was still scared.

How did we lose the Vietnam War? Most historians give two big reasons: The Ho Chi Min Trail, and the reason the Vietnamese were fighting. The Ho Chi Min Trail was a genius plan made by the Vietnamese. They already had a network of dirt roads, and simply used them again during their war. The Ho Chi Min Trail traveled through Northern Vietnam, into Laos, and then into Southern Vietnam. It was very affective through the use of trucks and people. But the Ho Chi Min Trail alone couldn't win them the war. The second biggest reason is their nationalism. The US was fighting this war to stop communism, which was a pretty big reason to the US gov't and soldiers. But the Vietnamese weren't fighting for Vietnam. If they were, they wouldn't surrendered before almost 19 years. They were fighting for Vietnam. Because of this, the Vietnamese were basically willing to sacrifice 10 people where we would only sacrifice 1. Also because of this, up and down the Ho Chi Min Trail, people were willing to give their resources to help the war effort. Giving their tables and bed frames to help fix trucks. giving a part of their crop to feed the soldiers. Giving up their homes to house them. None of this would have been possible if Vietnam was only fighting for communism.

Lastly, the relationship between the US and its people changed. The Vietnam War was the first war that could be televised, and so people watched it, including the atrocities and deaths that came with it. Also, the US had some secrets up their sleeves that the Washington Post in the 70s released to the people. This meant that the trust between the people and the government was breaking, and is also why people still today don't entirely trust our government. Before Vietnam, the average US citizen trusted the government. Even if they knew that the US was doing something bad, they thought that it was for the greater good of America and the world. At least they knew what the US was doing. But after Vietnam, the paradigm of thought changed because the US was keeping secrets and keeping the whole truth from being told.

To be honest, in my opinion, I can understand why the soldiers did some things that they did. Another tactic that worked well with the Vietnamese is to dress up as civilians during the day, and dress up as soldier at night, as to confuse the enemy. It worked very well. So well, that some soldiers did kill innocent Vietnamese because they didn't know who was and who wasn't a soldier. Someone who was going to kill them in their sleep. Think of what you may about some of the soldiers' actions, but I personally think that some of it is understandable. You're going to go crazy sometime if that keeps happening.

BONUS FACT: The Gulf of Tonkin Incident
Don't know what it is? I'll give you a quick run down:
The Gulf of Tonkin is in Vietnamese territory, and where some US patrol boats and other naval vessels were stationed. Soldiers on those boats thought they saw enemy units on their radar, and thought they were being attacked, and so attacked the Vietnamese back. However there was no such attack. The Vietnamese never attacked the US patrol boats at the coast of Tonkin. The reason why it's an incident is because it didn't need to happen. The facts were a bit screwed up due to some errors.

Those are the proxy wars in Asia my friends. Please do suggest other lessons Thank you for reading.