The world has an experience of witnessing thousands of wars, fought by various countries, using diverse tactics and having different outcomes. There are no two entirely similar wars, each single one of them has its peculiarities and hidden and apparent motives. Though some conflicts have traits in common, thus their causes, outcomes, and implications can be compared. In my short paper, I would like to compare the Korean and Vietnam Wars.
The Korean War was a war fought between armies of North Korea and South Korea. The battle began approximately on June 25, 1950, and ended three years later on July 1953. Over the course of this war, more than two million Koreans died, and much more were injured and suffered much. The first steps towards the war were made after the World War II ended. The USSR and the United States made a treaty to force the Japanese out of Korea. Together, the United States and the Soviet Union succeeded in freeing Korea from Japanese regulation. Under that pact, it was also agreed that the Soviet Union would maintain the north of Korea after the war, and the United States would obtain control over the south. The dividing line was the 38th parallel. It was decided that Korea would become a unified, democratic country based on free elections, but dates were not specified. Instead, it soon became clear that there will be a war and not peaceful negotiation (The Korean War: Causes).
Now I would like to describe the causes of the Vietnam War; a war fought from the late 1950s to 1975 that was, in fact, the only war that did not end in a U.S victory. What is terrifying is that this war between took the lives of between 2 and 5.7 million people. The causes of the Vietnam War trace their roots back to the end of World War II. Before and shortly after World War II, France had controlled Vietnam. The Vietnam War was a point of the conflict between France and the Vietnamese leaders. In summer 1954, France and Vietnam signed the Geneva Peace Accord. After the treaty was signed, the country was split into two separate states: North and South Vietnam. In this situation, the United States got a hold of the democratic southern part and started to give military advisers to help train and support the army (The History Place).
Earlier I presented brief descriptions of the causes and outcomes of the two wars that at times seem a bit similar. Though, the consequences of the two wars were different indeed. While the Korean War was a success for the U.S. and the United Nations, the War in Vietnam was the biggest failure of the USA. There are several reasons for such s difference in outcomes, though lower I would like to present the main one. Even though both wars were thought between the north and south of the countries and in both wars it was mainly U.S fighting against USSR communist regime, the war in Vietnam was doomed to fail. Mostly, this is because the war in Vietnam involved partisans’ fighting that was encouraged strongly by the USSR. Conversely, In Korea, the troops were fighting the regular army. Thus, the failure of the American actions in Vietnam is caused mainly by the impossibility of succeeding when competing against the partisan commando and not regular army.
Work Cited
The History Place, 5th of May 2005. Retrieved from http://www.historyplace.com/unitedstates/vietnam/index-1945.html World History on December 21st, 2007.
The Korean War: Causes. Retrieved from http://www.historycentral.com/korea/causes.html on December 21st, 2007.
