Military Engagement
Military involvement takes different forms for different wars. The most common engagement is where the military is involved in direct compact to protect their borders from invasion. Also, the military may be required to launch revenge missions or recover missions. However, another aspect occurs when the military force of a country undertakes duties to intervene in crises affecting foreign countries. The issue of foreign military intervention is, however, received with different perceptions by different individuals. Developed countries have always intervened in foreign crises by sending military assistance, although some of the assistance has been termed as acts of selfishness with the countries attempting to create more divisions for economic benefits. The Vietnamese war, the Korean War, and the Iraq war portrayed massive military interventions that changed the perception of the world towards the effectiveness of military intervention both in local and international crises.
Military conflicts always do not end in peace, and sometimes the consequences are severe. The Vietnamese war presented one of the severest military conflicts that began in an unexpected origin. The Vietnamese war started as a military conflict that existed for a long time after the Vietnamese staged an anti-colonial conquest against the French (Tran, 2017). However, the conquest did not go as expected since a cold way emerged, placing Vietnam deeper into crisis amongst its citizens. The conflict saw Vietnam divided into two blocs allied to communism and free-market democracy, which later led to the emergence of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DOV) and the Republic of Vietnam (ROV). The divisions were worsened b the military conflict, and a war began. The development of the Vietnam conflict grew significantly due to international military interventions. For example, the Democratic Republic of Vietnam in the North received support from the Soviet Union and China, while the US supported the Republic of Vietnam in the South. Moreover, the source of conflict that would later emanate into war has been associated with international military interventions.
The Vietnam conflict is dated to a few years after the Second World War. Vietnam was under French rule, and the Vietnamese had struggled to regain their independence. The struggle led to the emergence of several liberation movements, and nationalism came out strongly when Ho Chi Minh decided to employ a Marxist-Leninist ideology to come up with an opposing power that would liberate Vietnam (Thompson, 2018). American involvement in Vietnam further motivated Ho Chi Minh activities, which did not value capitalism and the real picture of the efforts came out during the Geneva peace negotiations. The negotiations in Geneva led to the conclusion that Vietnam was to be divided into two blocs, with the North remaining under communism while the South would be allowed to remain under non-communism. When civil war erupted with the North attempting to control the South and introduce communism, the US intervened to protect the South from communism, which was against the American capitalist ideologies. Military support was given to the South, with the US investing heavily on military advice. Generally, the difference in ideologies between the two warring parties was worsened by the involvement of the Soviet Union and the Peoples’ Republic of China in the North and America in the South. Therefore, international military intervention worsens conflicts in most cases. Moreover, the Vietnam War brought out the role of military intervention in the protection of ideologies.
Capitalism and communism have been warring ideologies for several years. Communists value communal ownership and development of property while capitalism advocates for freedom. The ideologies came out in the Vietnam War, with America extending their protection for capitalist ideologies. Also, Canada appeared to be involved in the war, although indirectly. The Canadian Government sold military materials to the Americans and thus was on the capitalists’ side. Mexico however did not get involved in the Vietnam War since they were struggling with their search for independence. Vietnam happened to fall in the middle of a conflict between the two leading ideologies. Generally, the communist powers did not want to lose Vietnam, whereas America, on the other side, was determined to pay every available effort to make Vietnam a capitalist nation. Moreover, military interventions are carried out to maintain the reputation of a nation.
The Vietnam War was a perfect avenue for the US to showcase the authenticity of their military reputation. The year 1965, for example, witnessed a series of events that risked the reputation of America due to the failures in the Vietnam territory. Communism was strong, and the South was gradually surrendering to the strength of the North despite support from the US. American leaders were aware that additional military involvement would worsen the situation and that the war would be difficult to address. However, the risk associated with the disengagement proposal that came from people who saw the efforts as irrelevant forced the American government to invest further into the war. The American government feared that disengaging from the war would give communism advantage and the strength to spread to neighboring countries. Therefore, the Americans decided to employ more military resources in a bid to have the North stop their pursuance of southern Vietnam. Besides, America was a superpower, and the North would prefer to end the pursuance of the South to risking a war with the superpower. The military engagement was not only felt in the Vietnam War but also the Korean War.
Foreign military intervention is aimed at avoiding a conflict where the host nation has failed in avoiding conflicts. The Korean War presents a case of an impact of the withdrawal of foreign military support. The impacts of the Cold War were felt in different parts of the world, and Korea was no exception. After the Second World War, different powers were quick to impose their economic ideologies across various nations in the world (Carson, 2016). The main campaigners were the Soviet Union, with communism, while America advocated for capitalism. The campaigns caused significant rifts in the nations where both ideologies were imposed since the ideologies could not coexist. In Korea, America and Russia’s concerns over spheres of influence were intensive and eventually led to the partition of Korea into North and South Korea. North Korea was alienated from the Russian communist agenda, while America backed South Korea to maintain a capitalist ideology. Generally, the presence of military forces from Russia and America ensured continued stability both in North and South Korea. The withdrawal of the Russian and American military forces from Korea, however, had severe impacts, and war occurred almost immediately.
The year 1949 marked a time when Russia and America agreed to withdraw their military forces from Korea. The move was initially thought to be in favor of a peaceful Korean republic, but the agreement only served for hardly a year (Metz, 2015). In 1950, an offensive attack was launched by North Korea on South Korea, leading to a war that would take three years and cost the nation lives of several Koreans and military officers. America decided to send back military forces to South Korea to work in support of the UN military forces, which included Canadian military troops and had been sent to counter the attacks from North Korea. The attack by North Korea created a further conflict between Russia and America. The Americans believed Russia had played them and backed the North to attack the South in a bid to spread communism after tricking the Americans to withdraw their troops from Korea. America responded by sending back military troops to South Korea to counter the attempts by the North although the damage had already been done on most parts of South Korea. Also, the North Korean forces were strong and had laid down efficient strategies that kept them above their enemies. Therefore, the war was not easily decided, and the damages have remained relevant to date. Mexico was however not involved in the Korean War as they decided to remain neutral in a war were ideologies fought for establishment.
The American foreign policy allows for the intervention of foreign conflicts where the interests of the Americans are at risk. The main reason for the involvement of American troops in the Korean conflict may not have been to protect the interests of the Americans. However, the reputation of America has always been based on the efforts to spread capitalist ideologies. Staying away from the Korean crisis would mean that America had given in to the demands of communism to let the ideologies spread. Therefore, the American government under President Truman had to make some difficult decisions of engaging in a war that did not have significant benefits to the Americans. Besides, the war was costly to all the parties that took part in, and the economic conditions of the participating countries were severely worsened. Also, the world was recovering from the impacts of the World wars, and a war would not be tolerated hence the intervention of several international military forces in a bid to calm the situation before it escalated further. The impact of military intervention was crucial in ensuring that the conflict did not impact international peace was not threatened, although rifts continued to emerge between communists and capitalists. Military engagement on wars was further seen in the Iraq war that has remained in history for the suffering that was felt by the Iraqi and the economic impact on the various participating parties.
America and Iraq had been in a state of disagreement several years after the Gulf War of the 1990s. America and Iraq had happened to be enemies during the war, with the then president George Bush Senior going after the Iraqi dictator immediately after the US managed to oust the Iraqi forces from Kuwait. The rivalry between the US and Iraq worsened after the US suffered a terror attack from Al-Qaeda militants in 2001 at the World Trade Center. The attention of the US was drawn to the involvement of Iraq in supporting terrorist groups such as the Al-Qaeda and Taliban at a time when the world was suffering from frequent terrorist attacks. Generally, the US had been targeted by most of the terrorist attacks, with most US embassies being on the target hence calling for intervention. The main argument that supported the involvement of the US in the Iraq war was that Americans had fallen victims of terrorism, and efforts were needed to counter the responsible culprits as well as the supporters. Therefore, the Americans were supportive of the efforts to engage in military interventions for foreign conflict. Moreover, the attention of the American government was drawn towards Saddam Hussein, the Iraqi leader who was believed to be engaging in the production of dangerous weapons in contrast to the international laws.
The world had been struggling to address the terrorism issue that was rising at an alarming rate across the world. The main idea behind the restrictions on the type of weapons that countries were allowed to develop was that terrorist groups would fall in possession of deadly weapons that might destroy large parts of the world. Therefore, President George Bush initiated a plan to stop Saddam Hussein from engaging in the development of the weaponry against the international standards. Also, the US received backing from Canada and other United Nations members, and a war was declared against Iraq. However, the attempts to persuade Mexico into participating in the Iraq War bore no fruits as Mexico decided to maintain the diplomatic relations that had existed with Iraq. Saddam Hussein was, however, not ready to surrender to any international threat, and his armies decided to engage in a war against the foreign armies. Besides, the logistics for the war were a bit complicated for the western countries since they had to receive back from their respective parliaments, unlike Iraq, that was ready for the battle. Moreover, America imposed an expiry period for Saddam Hussein to leave Iraq deliberately, after which America initiated an offensive attack on Iraq to force the leader into surrender.
America had imposed a period limit within which Saddam Hussein was expected to live Iraq. The request was, however, not respected, and instead, Saddam Hussein decided to engage the US and allied forces in military conquest. The American and British forces used extreme force to force to hinder Iraq from responding to the attacks (Pillar, 2018). However, the resistance from the Iraq forces was minimal, and the war appeared to be a one-sided affair. Most of the Iraqi forces were overthrown from their bases, and Saddam Hussein relied on his forces whose primary roles were to combat internal resistance. Therefore, the Iraqi forces were no match for the American and British troops, and Iraq was much destroyed. Also, Saddam Hussein was reluctant to leave the throne, and he forced the American and British troops to continue with their ruthless activities in a bid to overthrow the Iraqi capital. After several attempts to have the Iraq leader overthrown, the mission was successful later in 2006, and Saddam Hussein was executed. The military intervention, however, left Iraq in a state of crisis with the new government struggling to recover from the damages caused by the war.
In sum, military engagements in international crises have been leading to both positive and negative outcomes. The American foreign policy allows the American troops explicitly to intervene in foreign crises when the interests of Americans are at stake. The Vietnamese war, the Korean War, and the Iraq war portrayed huge military interventions that changed the perception of the world towards the effectiveness of military intervention both in local and international crises. Military interventions are sometimes led by the need to assist countries that are unable to solve their internal crises, although the desire to spread economic ideologies may force the move.
References
Carson, A. (2016). Facing off and saving face: covert intervention and escalation management in the Korean War. International Organization, 70(1), 103-131. https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/international-organization/article/facing- off-and-saving-face-covert-intervention-and-escalation-management-in-the- korean-war/2C2A0D804CD6EAC5DB675A9FEEC876DA
Metz, S. (2015). Has the United States lost the ability to fight a major war?. Parameters, 45(2), 7. http://search.proquest.com/openview/b86356403a55fd88f1f6fcd119b5b88a/1?pq -origsite=gscholar&cbl=32439
Pillar, P. R. (2018). Intelligence, policy, and the war in Iraq. In Intelligence and national security policymaking on Iraq. Manchester University Press. https://www.manchesterhive.com/view/9781526130969/9781526130969.00022.x ml
Thompson, R. (2018). Kenneth Payne, The Psychology of Strategy: Exploring Rationality in the Vietnam War. British Journal for Military History, 4(2). http://176.58.119.121/index.php/bjmh/article/download/225/190
Tran, E. (2017). Lessons from the Village: The Vietnam War and American Counterinsurgency Tactics. Armstrong Undergraduate Journal of History, 7(2), 103-114. https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/aujh/vol7/iss2/8/