Vietnam wasn't a mistake. Well unless you count taking it over from the pansy french who screwed it all up and ran.
I don't have time to write an hour-long post, since I have class to go to, but I'll explain tonight why your statement is wrong, and why is was a mistake for anyone - including us - to get "involved" with Vietnam.
I realized that I owe you an explanation.
The first thing you must realize is that Ho Chi Minh and his buddies were Vietnamese nationalists first, and communists second.
There were several instances in which Ho attempted to gain American support for an independent Vietnam. The first of these occurred at the Paris Peace Conference in 1919. A young Ho had gone abroad to study, and, after having heard Wilson's deal about self-determination, took it upon himself to approach Wilson about fighting for an independent Vietnam, which would fit quite perfectly with his previously stated ideals. However Wilson felt about it, he was more concerned with keeping the French happy, and thus willing to join his League of Nations, which, as you may remember, he sacrificed many of his Fourteen Points to get put into the Versailles Treaty. Vietnam, being part of the French colony
Indochine, got screwed.
The next opportunity came at the close of the next world war. As you may remember, Vietnam, along with most of Southeast Asia, had fallen under Japanese occupation. A guerilla movment began to free Vietnam, a group called the
Viet Minh, a contraction of "Việt Nam Ðộc Lập Ðồng Minh Hội," or 'League for the Independence of Vietnam." This group worked closely with American and British forces in ousting the Japanese. We supplied them with armaments and intelligence, and they supplied us with intelligence and dead Japanese. When the puppet government collapsed in mid 1945, Ho and the Viet Minh siezed control and declared Vietnam to be independent. Again, however, she was subjugated to be returned to French colonial administration. And interesting thing to note here is that, when Ho declared Vietnam to be independent, he read the first part of the US Declaration of Independence, following which was a request for American support, again, because of our supposed convictions about self-determination for all peoples.
The Allies felt otherwise, however, and invaded Vietnam and returned power to France. Naturally, the Viet Minh took less than kindly to this, and immediately went to war with France for their independence.
Because the Americans declined to provide aid to the "independent" Vietnamese government in 1946, the Vietnamese went to someone who would provide them with help: the Soviet Union. While it is true that Ho Chi Minh had quite the communist tendency, he was more concerned with securing Vietnamese independence than he was with creating a communist state. Further, the Vietnamese people would rather live in a united Vietnam under communist rule than they would a divided Vietnam. Such an attitude was prevalent in both the north and the south. Because of this attitude, the plebiscite that was to decide whether or not Vietnam would remain divided was never held; there would have been overwhelming support for reunion, something the United States would not have.
It is important to understand the long history of Vietnamese nationalism. The Vietnamese people have, through their entire history, successfully resisted any and all attempts by foreign powers to subjugate them. It is the proudest tradition of the Vietnamese people: self-rule. Their great leaders of the past, the ones who fought to keep Vietnam free, are practically worshipped. If you think the American cult of Lincoln and Washington worshipping is bad, you ain't seen nothing.
The three main figures are as follows: Hai ba Trung, or "The Trung Sisters;" these two fearsome warriors led the Vietnamese people in a rebellion against the Chinese and beat them, removing Chinese power over Vietnam in the 1st Century AD. The second is Trần Hưng Đạo, the great Vietnamese general who fought - and won - three wars against the invading Mongol hordes. The horde was stopped at China, it never conquered Vietnam, and Tran beat them repeatedly by waging the same sort of war that would arise in the Indochina Wars: guerilla warfare. Triệu Thị Trinh was a 3rd Century warrior who directly defied the Wu Empire with force, again securing Vietnam's independence. She is known as the Vietnamese Joan of Arc.
In every city in Vietnam, the three main streets bear the names "Hai ba Trung, Tran Hung Dao, and Trieu Thi Trinh.
It is ingrained in Vietnamese nationalism that, with enough determination, a smaller force and wear down and destroy a much larger invading force.
I hope that you are beginning to see why American forces could not have hoped to "win" in Vietnam. If not, there's plenty more I can tell you.
