Goals and Objectives of the Wars
The Vietnamese war was dated between 1954 and 1975 and was as a result of a protracted conflict between northern and southern Vietnam and its ally, the United States of America (Herzog, 2017). Mostly, the Vietnam War was referred to as the "war against Americans" or simply the "war against the Americans to save the nation" (Chigbo, 2018). The Vietnam War also contributed significantly to the other regional wars such as the cold war with the major participants of the war being the United States of America and the Soviet Union (Herzog, 2017). One of the goals of the Vietnam War initially was to unify the country against the French administration in the country. The country was under colonization, and there was the need to seek freedom like the other countries in South East Asia had (Chigbo, 2018). The other goal of the war was to spread the communist values across the country as a replica of the regime in China and the Soviet Union (Chigbo, 2018). Southern Vietnam was not in favor of the northern Vietnamese ideologies and was fighting to keep in touch with the western allies such as the United States of America.
The southern Vietnamese ideology led to the other goal of the Vietnam War; to end the American ideologies from spreading into what was meant to be a communist Vietnam (Steger, Owens, & Park, 2015). The goals of the Vietnamese war were thus focused on the unification of the northern and southern Vietnam under the communist principles, which were widely practiced by the Asian countries including the Soviet Union and China. The focus on the unification of the country by the war led to Vietnam's eventual victory in the war (Steger, Owens, & Park, 2015). However, the goal of the war in the driving of the Americans away from South Vietnam and the changing of the capitalist ideology of the region to a communist one led to the extension of the war, which led to widespread suffering of the locals. Therefore, the goals and objectives of the Vietnam War were not justified as necessarily leading to the aggravation of the war (Steger, Owens, & Park, 2015). Additionally, Vietnam was reestablishing itself after escaping the French colonial rule, and it was not wise for the country to be involved in a regional war before stabilizing (Steger, Owens, & Park, 2015). Nonetheless, the goals and objectives that were put in place for the war were all met, and the country finally unified under a communist rule.
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The Korean War reached international attention in 1950 when more than 2.5 million people had been killed (Sandler, 2015). The Korean War was between the democratic people's republic of Korea, also known as North Korea, and the Republic of Korea, also known as South Korea. The Soviet Union is reported to have supplied the North Korean military and advised them to attack the South Korean ones (Sandler, 2015). Several other countries took part in the war with the United States of America coming to South Korea's aid while China went to the assistance of North Korea. The similarity of the Korean War to the Vietnam War was that the countries involved, apart from the combatants, were the United States of America, China and the Soviet Union (Haruki, 2018). The war ceased in July 1953 with the northern and southern parts of Korea being regarded as different territories. The first goal of the Korean War was to unite both south and North Korea into one country (Haruki, 2018). The objective did not go through as the countries ended up as separate and had de facto boundaries talks in 1954 (Haruki, 2018). The goal was similar to the Vietnam War in the uniting of the various parts of the country. However, the outcomes of the war proved different for both wars.
The other goal of the Korean War was to contain the conflict and to avoid its spread to the other European, Asian, and the American countries (Carson, 2016). Mostly, the United Nations in conjunction with the United States of America aimed at keeping the Soviet Union from supporting the North Koreans in the war. However, the goal was successful up to some extent after which both the Soviet Union and China joined the fight in support of the North Koreans (Carson, 2016). The goal was slightly different from that of the Vietnam War in that the Korean War gained the attention of the United Nations while the Vietnam War did not gain the attention or had zero input from the United Nations (Carson, 2016). Just like in the Vietnam War, both the north and South Korea had different ideologies from one another, which led to a significant conflict since the two areas had differing ideologies. The other goal was to ensure that communism did not spread in the Korean War (Carson, 2016). The objective was somewhat effective. North and South Korea had a ceasefire agreement, which established the boundaries between the two countries and stopped the spread of communist ideas from North Korea to South Korea.
The Outcome of the Combatants
The significant combatants involved in the Vietnam War were the northern and southern parts of the country. The other countries involved were China, the Soviet Union and the United States of America (Schutte, 2015). However, the initial stages of the war had the Vietnamese and the French as the combatants where the former fought against the French colonialists. The outcome of the initial stages of the war was that the Vietnamese won and were able to drive the French out of their country. After the French rule in Vietnam ended, the country had to advocate for the preservation of communist ideologies, which were common in South East Asia and the other parts of the continent (Schutte, 2015). The Soviet Union and China played the role of supplying weapons and other items in northern Vietnam, which led to increased reinforcement in the region, which would be used to ensure that the communist ideas would be spreading to the southern part of the country, which had already been influenced by the United States of America (Schutte, 2015). The result of the war against America led to the economic isolation of the country since it had been depending on the support of countries like the Soviet Union and China, which were mostly concerned with spreading communist ideas into the country.
Because of the war, the southern Vietnamese government collapsed in 1975 (Schutte, 2015). The collapse of the government led to the unification of the Vietnamese government under a communist regime. That led to a collision between the north and the south since southern Vietnam was in favor of the United States of America and its capitalist principles while the north was in favor of the Soviet Union and China, which were both in favor of communist ideologies. The Vietnam War between the north and the south also led to the death of at least 2 million civilians of Vietnamese citizenry, more than 1.1 million northern Vietnamese soldiers (Schutte, 2015). About 250000 South Vietnamese soldiers and around 58000 of the service members who originated from the United States of America were also killed. The war affected both north and South Vietnam (Schutte, 2015). The war also led to the emigration of more than 2 million refugees from Vietnam between the late 1970s and the early 1990s.
The Korean War was between North and South Korea and had the following participants. The major combatants were North Korea and South Korea (Cha & Katz, 2018). The other combatants were China and the Soviet Union in favor of North Korea and the United Nations and the United States of America in support of South Korea. Compared to the Vietnam War, which ended up uniting both north and South Vietnam, the Korean War had the outcome of a ceasefire agreement with North Korea and South Korea having to draw up a de facto boundary to separate the two countries (Cha & Katz, 2018). Thus, north and South Korea ended up having different ideologies with the former being inclined to the communist beliefs while the latter was inclined to the capitalist beliefs influenced by the western world. The aftermath of the Korean War set the pace for the exacerbation of the cold war (Cha & Katz, 2018). The Korean conflict indicated that the superpowers of the time, the Soviet Union and the united states of America would take part in a limited war which involved a third world country (Cha & Katz, 2018). The limited war strategy was used in other fights before the Korean War such as the Vietnam War. The participation of the United Nations was also a notable distinction between the Korean War and the Vietnam War.
Both north and South Korea suffered massive economic setbacks in the war (Vable et al., 2016). That was similar to the financial constraints that Vietnam faced during and after the war. Infrastructure was destroyed by the bombings and land mines that were used in both the Korean and the Vietnam wars. The other outcome of the war was the financial support that the United States of America made available for South Korea to boost the country's economic stability (Vable et al., 2016). Nonetheless, the industrial output In North Korea exceeded that of South Korea with an average of 39% growth between 1953 and 1960 (Vable et al., 2016). Different from the Korean War, the Vietnam War did not have the other countries involved helping the country financially to attain its stability.
References
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Sandler, S. (2015). The Korean War: No Victors, No Vanquished . University Press of Kentucky.
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Vable, A. M., Canning, D., Glymour, M. M., Kawachi, I., Jimenez, M. P., & Subramanian, S. V.
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