美国加入越南战争是对共产主义在世界上扩张的日益担忧的回应。美国对越南的介入被拖延了。虽然之前的几场战争简洁明了，提供了一个绝对的开始和一个可识别的结束，但越南战争却一直拖着。因为在战争中没有明显的真正目标，而且因为美国似乎处于同一个国家的两方之间持续不断的战斗中，美国将军几乎不可能宣布胜利。当美国在进驻越南近十年后最终从该国撤军时，许多人认为，美国在越南的介入总体上是一个巨大的失败。他们特别指出，美国对越南的介入未能实现该国的任何目标，降低了美国在国际社会中的地位，并使该地区比美国发现的更糟。总的来说，美国在越南的行为为试图在世界范围内干预时不应该做什么树立了一个标准。美国最初介入越南是为了与苏联打一场代理人战争。苏联曾试图将共产主义及其附属政府传播到世界各地，越南成为了一个试验案例。美国已经卷入了长达数十年的朝鲜战争，但越南战争有些不同。 The US got involved in what was essentially a civil war, fighting on behalf of the South Koreans because of the communism that was tried in North Vietnam. The historical question that this project will answer is “in what ways can the American intervention in Vietnam be considered a failure?” While some might argue in the alternative, the American involvement in the war in Vietnam was foolhardy, and because it failed to achieve its goals, it can be considered a failure.
越南战争之所以被认为是失败的主要原因之一，是因为那里的冲突具有不确定性。为了取得成功，必须有一个明确的目标，一个人正在努力实现。由于种种原因，越南的情况并非如此。很少有人知道“赢得”越南战争意味着什么。理查德·尼克松被指控串通让战争继续下去，因为这对他在国内的政治地位有利。当人们把这一点与一开始就如此不确定的局势联系起来考虑时，就可以开始理解为什么美国最终发现自己陷入了一个无法获胜的泥潭。除了想要阻止共产主义在东方的传播之外，美国没有一个明确的目标。考虑到这一点，人们可能会认为美国的目标是消灭北越，但美国从未打算这样做。相反，美国开始打击北越的流氓政府，同时支持其在南越的盟友。在某种程度上，目标是支持南越，这样南越就可以作为对抗北越共产主义势力的力量。 However, it became difficult to achieve this goal because of the reality of what civil wars can be. As the war carried on, the South Vietnamese were not happy with American involvement. Often, in individual battles, the US did not know who the enemy was. It was caught between two groups of people that both did not like the US, and American forces were trying to collaborate with South Vietnamese forces that did not necessarily support those American forces. Because the US lost significant lives in a conflict where it could not possibly achieve its goal, the effort in Vietnam can absolutely be classified as a failure.
美国的声誉因战争而受损，这是战争被认为是失败的另一个主要原因。在战争期间，政府在国内外的声誉都受到了质疑。首先，有人认为理查德·尼克松(Richard Nixon)腐败，他从一场持续的冲突中获益良多。尼克松破坏了美国为结束战争所做的努力，因为他个人认为，这场战争将使他在政治上和职业上受益，而这种方式本可以更加和平。随着时间的推移，当这些事情被揭露出来时，许多公众都清楚地认识到，政府不能被信任去履行其最核心的职责。除此之外，还有几件事让人质疑战争努力的完整性以及执行这项努力的美国军队。越南战争期间发生的许多事情揭示了美国军队控制的黑暗一面。迈莱大屠杀就是其中之一，几名美国士兵参与了强奸、杀害和致残平民。在迈莱，一些美国士兵奸杀妇女和儿童。美军似乎无法控制自己，进行了大规模处决。 It was only through the intervention of a handful of brave Americans that the US forces stopped the killing and pillaging during this time. Worse than that, there was an effort on the part of the government to cover up this event. The US government was trying to keep morale high about the war, and because anti-war protests had begun on college campuses and in cities around the country, the government was beginning to feel a bit of a squeeze. Vietnam was one of the first wars in which journalists were taking pictures and bringing reports from the front lines. As people began to see what war entailed, they did not like what they heard. The Mai Lai Massacre would have totally undermined American confidence in the war effort, which is why military leaders colluded with government officials to keep things quiet and even cover things up. The way the US behaved itself in the context of the war provided significant fodder not only for Americans to stop believing in the war effort, but also for people in the international realm to stop believing in what the US was after. The US went into Vietnam without the support of many of its international partners, who had grown tired of war efforts in the wake of World War II, and who only supported the Cold War through various forms of diplomacy. As the US continued with its war effort and more brutality was reported, neighboring countries lost faith in the American government to do the right thing. Both with citizens at home and allies abroad, America surrendered some of the moral capital that it had worked so hard to gain in World War II. Given that a major part of the war effort was about making the moral case for democracy and capitalism over communism, losing out on this moral capital was a major loss for the US. Because of these things and how it impacted the American reputation at home and around the world, the war effort can certainly be deemed a failure in many respects.
美国在越南的战争使该地区比以前更加糟糕。每当人们想要分析一场军事冲突的影响时，其中一种方法就是评估战争对一个地区的影响是否比它开始时更好。重要的是，越南战争不仅对北越造成了难以置信的破坏，对南越也是如此。虽然很难知道一场大规模战争的破坏程度，但估计表明，双方在战争中丧生的平民多达200万人。除此之外，还有人认为，近100万北越和越共士兵在战争期间死亡。多达25万南越士兵在战斗中丧生。总的来说，战争造成的全部破坏花了很多年才得以恢复。最终，美国在1973年退出了这场战争。两年后，在美国让南越自生自灭之后，北越占领了西贡。这是这场战争的有效结束，北越“获胜”，在某种程度上，任何一方都可以在这种战争中声称获胜。 Importantly, this brought about the unification of Vietnam, which was far from a good thing. Not only did the North Vietnamese put into place their communist system, but the South Vietnamese had to pay a heavy price for their role in the civil war. The United States was gone by that point, and with the North Vietnamese being the big winners of the conflict. This left the South Vietnamese vulnerable to abuse. Beyond that, the North Vietnamese had power, which allowed for communism to spread more than it could have. The US was also weakened by this, having lost many men in the war and also spent significant amounts of money in the effort. These results were decidedly bad for the United States, leaving the region in a worse state than the country found it. Given the amount of effort exerted by the US, and the sheer human toll of the war, that the US did not accomplish its ultimate goals is a major factor that one must consider when assessing whether the war was a success or failure.
我们非常了解越南和美国在那里失败的介入。从围绕政府和军队的道德问题，到这场不可能获胜的战争所造成的巨大伤亡，很明显，美国的介入远非成功。然而，对于越战中最大的失败有一些分歧。一些人关注侵犯人权，而另一些人关注失败的美帝国主义。其他人仍然将越南视为政府腐败和军队越权的例子。无论从哪个角度看越南战争，都有理由认为这场战争是失败的。美国没有一个明确的目标，正因为目标不明确，我们可以很容易地说，美国从一开始就没有机会赢得这场战争。除此之外，美国还做了许多有损其在美国民众和国际社会中的形象的事情。从某种程度上说，美国在战前在国际社会中拥有善意，但它把所有善意都用在了在越南的行动上。盟友们开始明白，不能信任美国来领导这类行动。 Some may even say that this concern among allies started then and continues today. Beyond that, the US did not do itself any favors in terms of stability in the region. Vietnam and Southeast Asia in general got more volatile as a result of the war, and the people in South Vietnam found themselves in a more dangerous situation because of the US’s efforts in the region. When all of these things are taken into account, one can see clearly that the American effort in Vietnam was not a success, and any fair assess could even consider it to be a massive failure.
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