The Errors of Vietnam.

There is no possible way to pinpoint what went wrong in Vietnam. The Vietnam War pushed on for almost three decades. It lasted through the terms of five American Presidents and more than and handful of countries participated in the conflict. Not to mention that it was shrouded in confusion and politics. A seemingly endless list of errors, bad political decisions, and military blunders has also contributed to the confusion of what went wrong in Vietnam. The beginning of the problems of the Vietnam War began when the United States ignored the unknown, Ho Chi Minh.

Ho Chi Minh was a charismatic patriot, determined revolutionary and Communist, founded the Vietminh political organization and brought forth the strategy to drive the French out of Vietnam. By utilizing Vietnamese nationalism and learning from past uprisings Ho Chi Minh organized a revolution. By the spring of 1945 Minh had mass support from North Vietnam and had raised a small army of 5,000 men.

Jacob Van Staaveren: Interdiction in Southern Laos...

Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum, Hanoi, Vietnam

Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum, Vietnam, group of war veter...

As chance would have it the Japanese moved into Vietnam beat the French and removed them from their control of Vietnam after more than fifty years of Colonial rule. Taking advantage of the circumstances that World War II had provided, the Vietminh mounted a guerrilla war against the occupying forces of the Japanese. The Vietminh did have some minor assistance of a US Intelligence officer and were given approximately five thousand weapons to be used against the Japanese. Within a few weeks the Japanese city of Hiroshima was destroyed by an Atomic bomb and along with it the Japanese military. Shortly after the fall of the Japanese, the French puppet emperor of Vietnam, Bao Dai, renounced his throne, and fled to his mansion in the French Riviera. Ho Chi Minh, organized, ready and armed, seized the opportunity and...