The Vietnam War: social cost and political reasons in favor of an early withdrawal

Introduction
The Vietnam War was a war without a clear start. It was an undeclared war without frontlines and clear objectives. First, the government sent a few advisers. Later, the government sent the marines followed by half a million soldiers. During this prolonged conflict, more than 58,000 American soldiers lost their lives and another 200,000 were injured. Although it is difficult to confirm the casualties from the Vietnamese side, there were almost two million. The war divided the nation and cost the nation thousands of young, energetic youths. Many people protested against the war. Protesting against an engagement in conflict is not new. Thousands support every conflict engagement thousands more oppose it. It is the right of a citizen in a free democratic society to speak out against the policies of the government. The argument for those who opposed the war was not against America or the soldiers sent to fight on behalf of peace and capitalism. It was against the policies that sent the soldiers and engaged the country in the conflict.

The Vietnam War: social cost and political reasons in favor of an early withdrawal
The Vietnam War was unpopular in the United States; it was also unpopular in other countries including the United States allies and foes, such as China and Soviet Union. George ball who was the presidents adviser and a supporter of the war prior to the end of phase two of the engagement urges for an end to the conflict in his publication Cutting our losses in south Vietnam. According to Ball, moving on to phase three of the engagement will not help America achieve its objective. It will only end up isolating the country from its allies and risking the engagement of powerful foes, such as China and Soviet Union. Phase three of the conflict engagement involved an increase in bombings in North Vietnam and an addition of ground forces in South Vietnam. According to Ball, greater commitment in the conflict is unwarranted because the outcome of the conflict is uncertain and so is the duration of engagement.
The Vietnam terrain proved a considerable challenge for a conventional force as the United States army. The rugged terrain covered by jungles and paddy rice farms were a battlefield as nothing the soldiers had experienced. The rebels in the country had an upper hand, no wonder they managed to kill so many American soldiers despite their superior equipment and training. The challenge posed by the government is that, despite the prolonged conflict, the government in Saigon enjoying American support was a joke. The government was incapable of unifying the country and providing sound intelligence to base military operations. American was drawn into the conflict by a commitment it had made earlier to defend free people facing armed minority groups and the spread of communism. Despite this commitment to defend free people, the country was divided into many factions quarreling over petty issues, which did not matter given the magnitude and impact of the conflict on the Vietnamese.
John Kerry opposed the Vietnamese War posing the social cost as too high for both the American and Vietnamese people. Among those in favor of a tactical withdrawal are 150 honorably discharged soldiers from the conflict in Vietnam. The veterans testified to the war crimes committed to Vietnamese during the conflict. According to the soldiers, torture and pointless killing was standard operations for many units. The investigations called the winter soldier investigations. Revealed that the country was committing more war crimes that the radical groups they posed to free the Vietnamese people from committed. The people facing the full effect of the war were the Vietnamese people. The war, which was fundamentally a conflict between communism and capitalism was fought in a country where most of the people did not event understand the difference between the two. The soldiers could not stand for a campaign that purported to preserve peace and established order but ended up ruining everything the America stands for. The crimes were not only against the Vietnamese, but also against the American soldiers for forcing them into a conflict without clear objectives or reasons for engagement.
The Vietnamese people were not in favor of any agent in the conflict, they simply sided with the side that occupied their homes at any particular time. Their aim was to be left alone to work in their rice fields. The social cost in American was also high, more than 58,000 soldiers died in the conflict and hundreds of thousands of other suffered injuries, including psychological. According to the soldiers, the weapons used in the country were unacceptable and affected not only the Vietnamese, but also the American soldiers. The Americans engaged in the war without first determining the kind of war they were engaging in. Before they knew, they were in too deep to call it quit without substantial losses. Even after realizing the error of their actions, the Americans led by President Nixon continued to engage in the conflict because their pride could not allow them to admit they made a mistake. This is the argument the soldiers put forth to the American people and called for a change of policy because Americans could not continue dying because a few people in Capitol Hill could not admit their mistake.
The conflict in Vietnam did not pose any significant threat to the United States. The policymakers in the country made the error of according the conflict far more significance that it deserved. The overinvestment in both capital and manpower made it all the more difficult for the country to count its losses when it was evident that the conflict had no end in sight. The policy makers accorded the conflict more significance in terms of the stakes involved than was the case. This compromised the countrys ability to honor its commitment and raised significant questions from both friends and foes about the ability of the country to honor its commitment and its strategic decisions. The political reasons for a tactical withdrawal from the country include the lack of support from both within the country and from allies in Europe and other parts of the world. The social cost includes the high body count of both the Vietnamese people and the American soldiers.
Conclusion
Kerry sums up the war in Vietnam challenging the logic of continued conflict because continued conflict goes against the objectives of engagement. He says, the hypocrisy in our taking umbrage at the Geneva Conventions and using that as justification for the continuation of this war when we are more guilty than any other body of violations of those Geneva Conventions American soldiers in the conflict were breaking more Geneva conventions with impunity as no other factions in the country. The Vietnamese people were better off left to solve their conflict because it was a war against colonial influence instead of a war between communism and capitalism as the Americans believed when they first engaged in the conflict. This is the understanding that led to a lack of political support for the conflict. The rugged terrain covered with jungles and rice farms contributed to the high social cost for the Americans because conventional weapons were ineffective in the predominantly rural country.