Preview

Desert Storm and Vietnam War Essay Example

Satisfactory Essays
Open Document
Open Document
608 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Desert Storm and Vietnam War Essay Example
Phase 4 DB
January 30, 2013
Hist 101: Professor Mauzey

Difference between Desert Storm and Vietnam War and Impact I order to fully understand the difference desert Storm and the Vietnam War, you must understand the lessons learned by the U.S. after Vietnam. Vietnam soldiers were not adequately trained to handle the obstacles on the ground. The limitations of air power were very apparent as well. In Vietnam, the high cost of substituting machines for people in combat didn’t pan out and results were not visible. With that said, I believe the biggest difference between Desert Storm and Vietnam was the gain of experience. The now accepted and revolutionized technology allows robots and remote controlled airplanes to affectively replace people. The biggest and most significant difference was the strategic planning coordinated to allow, the Air Force to successfully drop bombs at the start of Desert Storm (Morrocoo, 1992).
Impact
The impact on public perception was very different between the wars. Vietnam public perception was very harsh (History, 2013). My uncle always tells me of the story about his return home from Vietnam. He stresses that people did not come and shake your hand and say “thank you for serving”. People would spit on him and call him a “baby killer”. The public perception after the largest success after Vietnam, Desert Storm was a lot more welcoming. When Desert Storm ended, President Bush promptly declared that the "new world order had begun" (US History, 2012). Americans now feel confident in the technology used by the military, as well as confident in the military members and their families.
Difference Between Desert Storm and 9-11 The “forgotten war”, Desert Storm won by the use of sophisticated aircraft. Americans believed they were the best of the best. This all changed when the not so forgotten war of 9-11 happened. America was caught off guard when Iraqi used American planes to attack the twin towers.
Were False

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    An American soldier, fighting in Iraq from 2003 to 2004, has written to his friends and family back home about his unpleasant time while serving his country. Through out his email he gives examples of what its like to live like a soldier and creates a vivid visual for his audience. He adopts a grim tone about his situation in order to give his audience the true experience of being an American soldier on the front lines. He creates this tone through his use of rhetorical strategies like figurative language, syntax and ethos.…

    • 586 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In both cases public opinion of the president and of the military engagement went down. Polls of American society…

    • 834 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    There were many different political and social outcomes that came from the war in Vietnam. Some of them hit home pretty hard. Examples of some of the social outcomes are listed here. The number of troops that were going to Vietnam kept increasing. There were close to three million Americans that served in Vietnam before the war ended. This was not good. As the number of troops that were serving in Vietnam kept rose, the United States kept getting farther and farther into debt. Because there was such a big financial burden on the United States, President Lyndon Johnson had to raise taxes. From 1965 all the way to 1973 the United States had spent close to, if not over one hundred and twenty billion dollars, just on the Vietnam War alone. Davidson, (2002) stated that “after 1973 the economy went into a big recession that made Americans recognize that they had entered an era of limits both at home and abroad.” Some of the political outcomes that came from the Vietnam War are listed too. “The decision to escalate the United States involvement with Vietnam eventually destroyed the political consensus that had unified Americans since the late 1940s.” (Davidson, 2002). When Vietnam died liberal dreams died too. These are just a few of the examples that show what the political and social outcomes were like after the war in Vietnam ended. The war…

    • 606 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    For three years US airstrikes hit Vietcong bases and convoys. Airstrikes were accompanied by ground assaults in to enemy villages and defenses. Operation rolling thunder had four main goals first, was to boost the united stated moral and public opinion at home. The Vietnam War was very unpopular at home, because American citizens didn’t understand why we were involved in a country that many Americans had never even heard of. Second, was to end South Vietnamese civilian support for the Vietcong.…

    • 1197 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Wednesday Wars is a coming to age historical fiction story about a seventh grader named Holling Hoodhood. Holling is the only Presbyterian student at his school, and he is the only student left there on Wednesday afternoons. He has a father who is never really there for him, and I believe that plays a big part to the story and how it all plays out. Holling starts the year believing that his teacher hates him, but as the year goes on they form a great teacher/student relationship. I believe this is a great book because of the powerful father/son dilemma, the war issues facing them, and the issues Holling faces throughout the book based on his religion.…

    • 814 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    I am sitting by the fireplace and just thinking about life in general when memories from elementary school come flooding back. I am writing this letter to you, because I feel very guilty when thoughts of your son cross my mind. To this day I wish I knew better and stood up for your son when I needed to, because I could have saved an innocent life. Not trying to make excuses, but when I was in elementary school I knew nothing better, except the fact that, you go with the flow or else you become an outcast. I could still clearly remember the first day Matthew started going to my elementary school, and just because he looked different all of us decided he did not belong. He would come to the kids and ask them in such a nice and polite way if they wanted to play with him, and in response kids would say something nasty, no elementary kid should ever say. I remember boys throwing rocks at him during recess, and a bunch of girls standing by and laughing. Yes, I also did stand by and watched, but I never encouraged the boys on or laughed, because I was thought better by my parents. My parents tell me all the time no matter how the person you come in contact with acts, you show your best side to them, because at the end of the day were all the same and no one person is better than another. One day in particular, I remember Matthew needed to go to the bathroom during recess, and the immature boys decided to take advantage of this situation. They ran to the bathroom, and blocked him from going in. He begged so much, I can still hear his voice so clearly in my head to let him go. Not being able to hold it in any longer he did it his pants, and the situation became even worse. There…

    • 640 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    War of 1812 Essay Example

    • 1793 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Throughout the 19th century, America transformed from a small, developing country into a world power. It was able to earn some credibility with other countries after it worked so hard to gain its independence in 1776. The United States also made many enemies after its monumental success. Acquisitions of land due to events such as The Louisiana Purchase, the Mexican Cession and the addition of Alaska, Florida, Oregon, and Texas tripled the size of the United States from 890,000 sq. miles to 2.73 million sq. miles in less than 100 years. One of the events that catalyzed this expansion was the War of 1812. The war is sometimes called “America’s second war for independence” because Great Britain was still interfering with American affairs though it had gained independence from them less than forty years preceding the next war (Feicht). It was a war that should never have had to be fought if Britain had just understood that it was tied to the fact that they had liberated the United States from their rule. It was outlandishly unwarranted that the British feel the need to have to interfere once again with American affairs. The Americans were forced to fight a war that was already fought (Feicht). One definite cause of the war cannot be pinpointed because there were many factors that contributed to the severity of the war and the intensity of the issues at hand; they can be narrowed down to three main concerns which are maritime and trade issues, the economic issues, seriously deteriorating…

    • 1793 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    War of 1812 Essay Example

    • 1546 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Several forces led Americans to declare war on Britain in 1812. France and Britain, Europe’s two most powerful nations, had battled almost continuously since the late 1700s. Hostilities began during the French Revolution, and then continued as Britain led the efforts to stop French expansion under Napoleon I. In 1803, the continuing tension in Europe escalated into a full-scale conflict, the Napoleonic Wars. As fighting between the British and French increased, each side took steps to prevent the United States from trading with the other. “The great causes of complaint against Great Britain, your committee need only say, that the United States, as a sovereign and independent Power, claim the right to use the ocean, which is the common and acknowledged highway of nations, for the purposes of transporting, in their own vessels, the products of their own soil and the acquisitions of their own industry....” (Document 1). European warfare directly affected American trade and the economy. American presidents from Jefferson to Madison tried to keep the United States impartial during these conflicts, but both France and Britain completely disregarded the rights of neutral countries. Another conflict occurred in North America itself, which was clashing with a native population committed to protecting its lands from intruders. In both the North and South, the threatened tribes united to resist white infringement. They began as well to build connections with British forces in Canada and Spanish forces in Florida. Therefore, the Indian conflict on land became intertwined with the European conflict on the seas, and ultimately helped cause the War of 1812.…

    • 1546 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Bibliography: 1. Mc mahon, Robert j; Major problems in the history of the Vietnam War. Toronto 1990.…

    • 2462 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    I would argue that it was the media’s coverage of the Tet Offensive that changed the minds of the public and had them view it as a defeat in America. Though the government had lied to the public about many things that were taking place, which was exposed, I think it was, with the help of the media that focused on the initial phase of the attack, at this point where the public change their minds on the war. I think the media’s confusion and such statements like Walter Cronkite’s in which he said, “I thought we were winning the war!” helped to persuade the American public that the United States had been defeat in the offensive (Herring, 241). I believe the idea of defeat because of the media’s broadcasts were even shown in Washington as Johnson,…

    • 180 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Controversy: The Vietnam War

    • 2366 Words
    • 10 Pages

    forces in Vietnam, was a fear that President Kennedy had right before he had died. His comparison of requesting more troops was compared to having another drink of alcohol. “The effect wears off then you have to take another.”(Henretta, 837) Other than mass amounts of troops being deployed in Vietnam, another type of escalation was in full swing. Operation rolling thunder was a bombing campaign against North Vietnam. The Hoi Chi Minth trail was an elaborate series of trails, bridges and shelters that stretched from North Vietnam, to Cambodia, all the way over to Laos in South Vietnam. This trail was a specific bombing target in operation rolling thunder. “800 tons a day for three and a half years.” (Henretta, 837) By 1968, a million tons had fallen on the North Vietnamese! Around twice that was dropped in the south trying to drive out the Vietcong…

    • 2366 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Vietnam War

    • 699 Words
    • 2 Pages

    War affects millions of people in different ways everyday. The United States government involvement in the Vietnam War only led to millions more deaths of american and vietamese people. The United States started sending military around 1957 to assist the south vietemese army known as the Army of the Republic of Vietnam. By the time the United States government withdrew there men they left vietnamin an even worse condition then when they arrived. The United States government should have never intervened in the affairs of another countrys problems.…

    • 699 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    People believe that there is no benefit to war. Others believe that there is benefits to war. War is necessary and beneficial for many reasons, those reasons are; to maintain alliances, to make new allies, and to provide jobs.…

    • 112 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    Public opinion did have an impact on the Vietnam War to an extent. The Vietnam War was fought between 1959 and 1975, between the communist government of North Vietnam and the democratic government of South Vietnam and its allies, the most actively involved of these being the USA. At the end of the conflict, neither side were defeated, however, it is considered a military failure and is seen as a very controversial conflict. There were a number of reasons for America’s involvement, and it was essentially a combination of North Vietnamese aggression and America’s desire to continue with their policy of containment. The war was particularly significant in the fact that it was the first major conflict to be televised. The fact that the broadcasts were not censored as they had been previously allowed the American public and indeed the whole world to see the true brutality of the war. This exposure led caused great unrest in the US, with many shocked and horrified at what they had seen while others were in support of the war regardless. It sparked mass protests across the nation. Although it is unclear as to how much impact public opinion had, it certainly put significant pressure on the government throughout the war.…

    • 1380 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    Best War Ever Book Review

    • 1187 Words
    • 5 Pages

    It was a golden era when all Americans set aside their differences and united for a common cause which everyone put above all other priorities. The United States Army was thought of as more advanced in fighting ability, weapons, and supposedly held to a higher standard of ethics on the front. As former World War II Admiral Gene LaRocque stated: “You see only an antiseptic, clean, neat way to die gloriously” (100). Soldiers weren’t blown apart into pieces, they died honorably and nobly. Many factors had to be in place for such a distorted myth to come about. The central one being that the entire war was fought on foreign land with the exception of the bombing of Pearl Harbor.…

    • 1187 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays