The Lessons of Battle of Dien Bien Phu and Tet Offensive

In both the Tet Offensive and French experience at Dien Bien Phu, both countries lost greatly to the Vietnamese; losses that were supposed to act as an example for future similar Vietnamese wars. In France at Dien Bien Phu, the Ho Chi Minh defeated the French forces at Dien Bien Phu. This victory marked the end of the French colonial in Indochina. This defeat by French has being among the most prominent losses in the world. In the Tet offensive, the Viet Cong forces initiated the Tet Offensive a mission that constituted of multiple attacks on over 100 South Vietnam towns.

The Tet Offensive mission was led by the popular leader of the communist known as General Vo Nguyen Giap. The mission of the Tet Offensive was to encourage the united forces to withdraw their support of the South Vietnam and to also curb rebellion among the South Vietnam towns. Tet Offensive was able to overthrow the south forcing the united army to unwillingly retrieve from the South.

In both wars, the Vietnamese army tremendously won overthrowing both the French and the US respectively. As a result, these defeats should have served as an example and warning in the cases of “Gulf of Tonkin Resolution” as well as the case of “Legacy of Vietnam.” In the, “Gulf of Tonkin Resolution" and "Legacy of Vietnam" and Tet Offensive, the United States severely lost to the Vietnamese army. In both wars, there was loss of thousands of lives that were unfortunately lost in vain. The first defeat in the Tet Offensive should have acted as a lesson to America to avoid going into another war with Vietnam specially a war American army wasn’t prepared to undertake at the time.

The victory of Vietnam in the case of French and Tot Offensive clearly revealed that Vietnamese armies had better military training than both the French and the American armies. Just like in the case of Tet Offensive, America in the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution" and "Legacy of Vietnam" went to war without having prior preparation for the war. This lack of preparation worked for the benefit of the Vietnamese armies. Thousands of American soldiers lost their lives and a lot of resources were wasted as well. Both the wars between American forces and the Vietnamese resulted in total failure. If America had taken some caution measures in the case of “Gulf of Tonkin Resolution" and "Legacy of Vietnam" and examined its opponent, America would never have gone to war with Vietnam as the odds wining were close to zero. America blindly jumped to war that it wasn’t involved in the first place.

In the Tet Offensive, America was caught up in a fierce war between the south and North Vietnam an issue that didn’t directly influence America. In the French defeat, Vietnamese armies attacked for 57 days nonstop until they overthrow the French who surrendered to the Vietnamese power. Close examination of this case would have barred Americans from indulging in the prolonged war with Vietnam as it was clearly evident that Vietnam had a very strong military and never backed down kept on fighting until they overthrew an enemy. This knowledge of the skillful Vietnamese military would have prevented America from starting another war as it didn’t stand any chance against Vietnam. In the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution" as well as "Legacy of Vietnam", the president of America chose to go to war for unclear reasons as the identified attacks had no physical evidence that it was linked to the Vietnamese army and as it later turned out the attacks were wrong.

Both wars were catastrophic on America at large. America lost to Vietnam something that doesn’t work very well for the most powerful nation in the world as it negatively affected the American reputation. These losses had negative impacts on the American publicity at large and also resulted in the wastage of a lot of resources in a war America was losing. The most prominent difference between the two wars is that in Tet Offensive, the North Vietnamese army attacked while in the case of Gulf of Tonkin Resolution" as well as "Legacy of Vietnam", America attacked Vietnam for suspicion that Vietnam had attacked the American ships.