Guerrilla Warfare The Vietnam War - 1171 Words

No 7. The guerrilla wins if he does not lose, and the conventional army loses if it does not win. We Fought a military war; Opponents our Fought a political one. We sought physical attrition, Opponents Aimed for our psychological exhaustion. In the process, we lost sight of one of the cardinal maxims of guerilla war. The guerilla wins if he does not lose, the conventional army loses if it does not win. The North Vietnamese used their forces the way a bullfighter uses its cape - to keep us lunging into areas of marginal political importance. (Kissinger, 1969, 214) When I first read the statement above, actually a bit confusing for personnel and soldiers who does not understand the tactics and strategy of guerrilla and†¦show more content†¦1 . Meaning of Victory in War of words ...... 261 War is a way to achieve political goals of a country . Where the decision for war was not in the hands of politicians dtangan military commander . But the tactics and strategy used is certainly a decision of the military commander . Here, the role of a commander to determine what strategy or tactics to use in order to win the battle so that the war can be won by his party . The definition of the word win and a victory in guerrilla warfare and conventional war means different things both literally and under the conditions and situation of late . As said by Kissinger in his book ...... that the guerilla wins if he does not lose ; The conventional army loses if it does not win ( Kissinger 1969 , 214 ) . based on my understanding of the book , Kissinger tried to convey his opinion that the guerrilla war if the parties can continue to launch guerrilla operations / battles that they have implemented to erode and destroy the morale of enemy troops on an ongoing basis or until the opponent gave up or lost the will to fight , then this is where the guerrillas declared victory in the battle . In contrast to the definition of the word win in a conventional war although the goal in every battle it has the same goal , but different definition of victory itself . This is because the unconventional warfare tactics and strategy that takes precedence is conquering the realShow MoreRelatedModern History : The Vietnam War854 Words   |  4 PagesBackground: The Vietnam War began, because of Indochina (Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia) being conquered by the Japanese, in 1941. This led to the creation of the Vietnamese nationalist movement, formed by Ho Chi Minh to resist the Japanese. The Vietnamese national movement also known as the Vietminh, was a communist front organization. To stop the spread of communism through Asia, the United States intervened. 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Why was America involved in such brutal war to stop a brand new country from forming? Shouldn t we support that because that s what happened to us.† That was my very first question when my grandfather first told me about the most brutal and longest wars America has ever been in, the Vietnam War. America’s involvement in the conflict was to stop the evil and corrupt system of Communism. French force s were dead meat unless America teamed up with them. Unfortunately, this didn t stop the nonmoral