The Vietnam Quagmire Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

The Vietnam Quagmire - Essay Example The war in Vietnam and the involvement of the United States (US) served to teach a very important lesson where foreign relations and policy are concerned. The Vietnam War served to teach America and the rest of the world that one cannot impose their ways and values on other people. This was acerbated by the use of military force by the Americans in an effort to coerce President Diem to adopt American style politics and systems of governance. America engaged itself in the Vietnam War without a clear exit strategy, an aspect that further complicated by the fact that the US did not have a set agenda on what was its end goal or objective in the war (Halberstam 4). These factors contributed to chronic suspicion by the Vietnamese leadership and the people, an aspect that did not improve relations between Americans and the Vietnamese. It led to the continuation of a purposeless war attributed to the loss of senseless and massive casualties for both sides an event that could have been avoide d if America had approached this issue in a different manner. During the Vietnam War the Buddhists in the South of Vietnam played a vital role that was seen as progressive in terms of what the country needed at that time. Buddhism was a popular and widespread religion before the coming of Christianity, and rise to power of a devote Roman Catholic priest saw the discrimination of Buddhist elements both in government and society (Halberstam 7).