Reply in 50 words, need in 2 hours M8D2

1. In your opinion, what are the three most useful lessons of the US-Vietnam War? (these could be political, military, social/cultural, economic, etc.)One of the most important features regarding lessons learned from the Vietnam War is the fact that in order to intervene in a specific geographic area and become entangled in the affairs of foreign nations, we must consider the implications of an extended and protracted engagement. The United States considered itself the premier military power during the decade leading up to the initiation of hostilities in Vietnam. Our Western European allies sought our advise and counsel on various occasions regarding the creeping Soviet presence in Europe. U.S. military and the political advisors of various Presidential administrations determined that any military intervention would be traditional in that one military force would encounter another, with leveraged superiority becoming the determining factor regarding victory. One mistake we made as a nation, was to underestimate our adversary and not conduct enough intelligence gathering regarding the possibility that Southeast Asia might not afford us the best chance for victory against a determined enemy.Second, during the initial deployment of U.S. forces in 1965 and the heightened awareness of the war effort which was to expand over the ensuing years, the U.S. military began to develop a distrust of both the Johnson and Nixon administrations and their failed attempts at remaining militarily and politically strong in the face of growing discord at home. As a direct result of the political intrigue and in-fighting among the Congress and the particular Presidential administration, it became apparent that this conflict would be fought by the politicians regarding their own personal agendas. From the view of the military leadership, this conflict should have been undertaken with the express purpose of following a winning strategy which could have led to negotiations among both North and South Vietnam. Instead of following a focused plan to bring the communists to the table and deal from a position of strength, the continued involvement of the politicians led to disillusion among many U.S. service members (Module 8 Notes, 2017).Finally, The Vietnam War made us rethink our global status from a military standpoint, which discussed the fact that we cannot from a military and political standpoint, solve all of the problems which exist in the world. As a nations, we need to pick and choose our battles and act with caution. If we do not, then any decisions which might be made in haste could have a negative impact on the possibility of negotiating a peaceful settlement in many instances. Military leaders as well as politicians have now tried to grasp the concept that modern warfare and intervention is not as cut and dry as had been the case in such wars as World War I and World War II. The military interventions which are now taking place are the "dirty wars," we we do not want to discuss in an open forum. Vietnam is the conflict which opened our eyes to this fact and made us realize that in order to conduct successful military operations, there must be a level of trust between the American people (Module 8 Notes, 2017), the government and the military.2. How have these lessons been applied in the years since the end of the war?This nations succeeding conflicts which have included the Persian Gulf War, Iraq, Afghanistan and Kosovo, have enabled the United States to deploy vast amount of men and material to these regions in the hope of gaining a decisive victory over our enemies. However, though the First Gulf War was an overwhelming victory for the U.S. and the Coalition Forces, it fell short regarding its ability to defeat the enemy, which would lead to the resurgence of hostilities and the growth of terrorist activities in the region. The victories in Grenada and in the Gulf, helped the United States government to again turn to military intervention when dealing with various foreign situations, instead of remaining paralyzed by the disastrous results of Vietnam (McMahon, p. 174, 2002).Even today, most of the foreign policy decisions which require the United States to possibly utilize military force have their roots in the policies, whether good or bad, which are a direct product of the Vietnam War. The early decisions which President Johnson made regarding the continued support and the further escalation of the military intervention, have directly impacted upon our decisions to enter the Middle East after the 911 attacks. The lessons of Vietnam have also affected the decisions of previous administrations regarding our involvement in Somalia, which resulted in American military casualties. Foreign policy decisions which have included clandestine operations such as those which were approved by President Reagan, regarding the support of South American rebel forces, continue be a major focus of the political landscape and will be met with criticism. The Vietnam War, left the impression on the American people that the United States should not intervene in or become part of any foreign entanglements which did not directly impact upon the safety of the United States or its neighbor to the north, Canada (Herring, p. 363, 2014).3. Using specific contemporary examples, what is the continued relevance of these lessons?Under President Ronald Reagan, the United States would continue to rebuild its military infrastructure and continue to challenge the Soviet Union as the primary global super power. Regan tried to use the military to force his doctrine of defeating the evil Soviet Union and bringing them to their knees. Many opponents to this military buildup feared that the United States would become embroiled in smaller military conflicts (Herring, p. 364, 2014) around the world which might result in a direct conflict with the Soviet Union.After the fall of the Soviet Union and its political a social reemergence, the United States began to embark upon a strategy of becoming the world's police force which would lead to the development of the coalition of allied forces in response to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. The United States along with its allies would force the issue and launched an all out assault upon the Iraqi forces, and achieved what was though to be a complete military victory. The inability to totally disable the Iraqi armed forces, would lead to anther conflict in the region and allow for the growth of terror groups after the capture of Saddam Hussein. The false security of a strong military (McMahon, p. 184, 2002), coupled with political agendas, detracted fro our ability to effectively deal with the problems of terrorism and terrorist cells.We became involved in Iraq, and Afghanistan on a grand scale with the primary focus of responding to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. While the military commitment was overpowering, we did not develop and effective exit strategy and are still embedded in the Middle East. This is much the same as our military response in Vietnam, along with our inability to create a credible exit strategy in this situation as well.References:Herring, G.C. (2014). America’s Longest War: The United States and Vietnam, 1950-1975. New York,N.Y.: McGraw-Hill.McMahon, R.C. (2002). Diplomatic History. Vol. 26 Issue 2, Retrieved from:http://eds.a.ebscohost.com.vlib.excelsior.edu/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=2&sid=ba2c5d6d-3325-4252-964f- (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.b894bc4f1e40%40sessionmgr4009Module 8 Notes. (2017). Ending and Remembering the War: . Retrieved from: https://sway.com (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site./AHIb1Utdros8MqOS