Unit 5 Essay: The Legacy of Vietnam

Unit Essay: The Legacy of Vietnam

In order to receive credit for this project, you will need to write a well-developed essay on the following topic:

The Legacy of Vietnam

On April 30, 1975, the North Vietnamese Army accepted the surrender of what was left of the South Vietnamese government, officially ending the Vietnam War. At that point, the US had invested 15 billion dollars. spent 10 years and lost 58,000 men trying to prop up the South Vietnamese government yet had ultimately failed. The victory of the North Vietnamese forces represented the first defeat the US military had suffered and did immense damage to our reputation internationally and our society internally. As the years following the Vietnam conflict gradually pass by and now that Vietnam has taken its place among reputable nations, our involvement in Vietnam is now generally considered a mistake, but no one can predict the future in the present. Now that you have spent a semester studying the Vietnam War and the US involvement in this conflict, use your knowledge to write an essay of 600 words or more explaining the mistakes we made in this war or the lessons that can be learned from the Vietnam Conflict.

Consider the following as you write your essay:

How successful was the US policy of containment globally?

How willing and able were the South Vietnamese government and army?What were the principal differences (in goals, resources, and motivation) of the North and South Vietnamese?

What price did we pay as a nation for our involvement in Vietnam and were we willing to bear this price?

This is actually an easy topic to write on: Why did we lose this war or what can we learn from it? The answer to this becomes your thesis. Next, come up with 3-4 mistakes or lessons and build your body paras around these.