Post WWII United States Military Strategy Essay

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American Way of War

Many people point to an American way of war. The author of this report will explore whether there is any content or credence to that statement. There are some common themes and trends when it comes to American wars and how they are fought. There has also been a lot of variance, even from war to war and in the same arenas. The class for which this essay is being completed focuses on the United States and its military history from 1945 to the present. Even with that tight of a window, the evolution and shifts that have happened in terms of how American has and has not fought wars has been massive. While some themes and trends regarding Americans and war have not changed all that much, many of the tactics, what is deemed acceptable, what is not deemed acceptable and so forth have changed a lot.

Analysis

When looking at the way that America has fought war from 1945 to the present, there are not that many wars that stand out but the ones that do are plenty enough in terms of showing differences and shifts. Those wars would be the tail end of World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War and the litany of conflagrations (not wars in the technical sense) in the Middle East from the late 1970's (the Shah in Iran) to the present. The author of this report will summarize each military situation one-by-one and point out what shifts there were, what has changed after/since then and so forth.

The author of this report thought it a "must" to include the tail-end of the second World War for obvious reasons ... the use nuclear bombs in Japan. There is much myth and fact surrounding what happened both before and after those bombs were dropped. However, what is commonly agreed to be true is that the United States was in the process of developing the bombs and they concurrently wanted to avoid a protracted war with the Japanese. Indeed, the Japanese were very aggressive and unyielding in the way they fought. To be sure, the will of an enemy is quite sturdy when pilots are willing to kill themselves to help their side, that being a reference to kamikaze pilots. With that being said, President Truman came to the conclusion that a strike on Hiroshima and Nagasaki would be a way to "shock" the Japanese into surrender. It did do that but many people, to this very day, question whether it was the right thing to do in the long run. Truman was ostensibly trying to avoid a large amount of United States military casualties or, even worse, more attacks on the United States on par with what happened Pearl Harbor or worse. Regardless of how someone thinks about the subject, it is notable that no strike like those two atomic bombs has happened since. Many attribute this to mutually assured destruction and/or the people that would use the bombs (e.g. terrorists) not having access to them [footnoteRef:1]. [1: Pyle, Kenneth B. 2015. "Hiroshima and the Historians: History as Relative Truth." Asia-Pacific Review 22, no. 2: 14-27. Academic Search Premier, EBSCOhost (accessed March 9, 2016).]

Korea is unique mostly because of Soviet involvement in the area and what it caused. Just as there was a major shift in the second World War due to a shift of the Soviets from being aligned with the Axis powers to being loosely aligned with the Allies. The fight between the Soviets and the Japanese that occurred near the end of World War II helped set the stage and Korea ended up dividing before the decade was over. There was initially some hesitation when it came to the United Nations and/or the United State being involved due to the fact that Soviet and/or Chinese reactions to such involvement could absolutely lead to another World War and one had just ended a few years ago. However, the United States and the United Nations did become involved and there were several years of war. What eventually came was a stalemate and an armistice that culminated into a division of Korea between North and South Korea. The divided Korea persists to this day. Also, the Korean War is still technically in progress given that the war never officially ended. There has been some talk about this being resolved since then but the current leadership of King Jong Un makes any realistic deals to end the war and/or the division of Korea extremely unlikely.

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It has gotten to the point that Un threatens nuclear strikes when something as simple as sanctions are announced. The fact that Un has nuclear weapons, albeit almost certainly very crude and very short-range, has kept things at a stalemate that is much the same as the stalemate that led to the end of hostilities in the 1950's [footnoteRef:2]. [2: Campbell, Joel R. 2014. "The Wrong War: The Soviets and the Korean War, 1945-1953." International Social Science Review 88, no. 3: 1-29. Business Source Premier, EBSCOhost (accessed March 9, 2016).]

The war that changed everything for the United States was Vietnam. While wars since then have had their own outcomes and effects, Vietnam was a game changer. In a nutshell, the circumstances were similar to the Korean War in many ways. The Chinese were in the mix and so were the Soviets. What made Vietnam very different is that there was another nasty stalemate and a lot of Americans were getting killed. Beyond that, there were some very nasty atrocities going on with both sides, either alleged or proven. However, the biggest shift came from the people and politicians back home. There was a paradigm shift where the people of the United States rose up and protested the involvement of the United State in the country of Vietnam. Further, they demanded an end to that war. This led to immense pressure on Congress and the President. What ended up happening is that politicians and so forth got into the mix when it came to what happened on the military fronts and this led to more and more problems. Eventually, the United States basically gave up and forces were withdrawn. Many say that the United States could have won that war if the military people had been running things and there was not pressure brought to bear from home on what was done and why. Whether that is true or not, the ending of hostilities in Vietnam is really the best example of the United States losing a war. Something else very interesting about the Vietnam War is that no official declaration of war ever happened with Vietnam unless one counts the authorization of Congress to intervene. World War II had declarations that were official including against Japan, Italy, Germany and a few others. The United Nations authorized the war with Korea. However, only Congress made such a pronouncement in writing for the Vietnam war. From a declaration of war standpoint when it came to the United Nations or the United States Presidency, there was no war in Vietnam [footnoteRef:3]. [3: Joseph, Paul. 2015. "Resister: A Story of Protest and Prison during the Vietnam War Hardhats, Hippies, and Hawks: The Vietnam Antiwar Movement as Myth and Memory." Peace & Change 40, no. 2: 272-276. Academic Search Premier, EBSCOhost (accessed March 9, 2016).]

However, the author would point out that the conflicts that happened between the Korean War and Vietnam also did not go well, at least for the most part. There was an insurgency in Lebanon in 1958 that involved the occupation of Beirut. However, forces from the United States eventually withdrew. In 1961, John F Kennedy got a little proverbial egg on his face when an attempted assassination of Fidel Castro went awry. This was just one significant event of the Cold War. Another was the Simba Rebellion, which involved Congo. That rebellion was defeated as well [footnoteRef:4]. [4: Willmetts, Simon. 2015. "The Burgeoning Fissures of Dissent: Allen Dulles and the Selling of the CIA in the Aftermath of the Bay of Pigs." History 100, no. 340: 167-188. History Reference Center, EBSCOhost (accessed March 9, 2016).]

Vietnam, of course, happened in the late 1960's and early 1970's. The Cold War and some other minor battles/wars (all unofficial) continued to happen from the 1970's to the present. From the 1970's to the 1990's, most of the wars centered on the Cold War to at least some degree. This continued until the Soviet Union fell in the early 1990's [footnoteRef:5]. Starting in 1978, the Cold War spats started to get a little better and were typified by proxy wars/battles in areas that were controlled or influenced by the Soviet Union, Cuba and other Communist of Communist-favoring countries. In 1978, the United States and a few other countries helped out Congo yet again and there was an eventual victory [footnoteRef:6]. There was another flare-up in Lebanon from 1982 to 1984 that.....

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