The United States Foreign Policies in Vietnam and Somalia

The United States Foreign Policies in Vietnam and Somalia

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                                                     Introduction

In the 1960s, the U.S. became deeply involved with Vietnam to ensure that the developing nations modernize as democrats and capitalists. The involvement started with supporting the economic and social sectors of Vietnam. Shortly, the goal of upgrading South Vietnam began to be implemented using military power (Schultz, 2017). Besides, despite the effort the Americans made towards Vietnam, their defeat was unavoidable. For Somalia’s case, the united states have been preventing the nation from being turned as a base for terrorist groups to organize attacks on the United States and destabilize the lengthy persistent disputes among the countries such as Eritrea, Somalia, and Ethiopia that has increased (Schultz, 2017). Recently, America gas has been suspicious of the militant Islamic organizations’ collaboration in the area. This paper will reflect on the united states’ foreign policy and lessons learned from Somalia and Vietnam. The paper will also analyze the similarities or differences between the united states foreign policy in Vietnam and Somalia.

USFP goals in Vietnam and Somalia

The United States foreign policy has specific goals in Vietnam and Somalia. In Vietnam, according to president Johnson and other officials under the U.S. administration, the immediate goal of the policy is to demonstrate the worth of the united states’ commitment (Powaski & Pusca, 2019). Secondly, the foreign policy aims to pass a message to the communist nations that wars characterized by national liberation have minimal or no chances of success. Besides, President Johnson and the administrative officials also aim to persuade North Vietnam to surrender from the south and stop supplying the Viet Cong with weapons. Also, the policy sought to acquire a political settlement that, as a result, would assure South Vietnam’s freedom and independence. Donald Yamamoto, the current united states ambassador in Somalia and the previous subordinate secretary of state for the African matters, charted the united states’ goals in Somalia (Powaski & Pusca, 2019). One of the goals is to support the building of democratic establishments and holding the politicians accountable. Secondly, the United States aims to boost Somali security forces to be effective. Besides, they aim to offer humanitarian assistance in the Somali land as a whole. The fourth goal of the policy is to implement stabilized and economic recovery programs.

Achievements/Costs

The USFP in Somalia and Vietnam witnessed some achievements and several associated costs. The American Professional military men perceive the war in Vietnam as a reasonable exercise of military power. Colonel William argues that were it not for America’s determination to heighten the war to the present magnitude, Ho Chi Minh would not have introduced any Vietnam action. Besides, in the first quarter of 2020, USTP reported significant advancement to disrupt al-Shabaab in Somalia through airstrikes (Schultz, 2017).  In Vietnam, the United States foreign policy has facilitated the diplomatic sector’s achievements in implementing the policy on international integration and economic diplomacy. Furthermore, The United States has incurred considerable costs in implementing the policy goals. Mr. Hoopes argues that the war was associated with massive blood, money, and domestic unity losses. On the same note, the use of airstrikes in Somalia to attack the terrorist was quite expensive.

Lessons Learnt

The united states foreign policies on Vietnam and Somalia resulted in several lessons. The United States learned the need to use a model of overwhelming capability instead of the slow application of capability, as seen in Vietnam for intervention diplomacy. Besides, America learned the uselessness of aiding a foreign administration that cannot govern its society and the futility of using interventions used in the past even though they succeeded in that given time. Stanley Hoffman points out that ignorance of realities about the war opponent should be avoided in the future for it contributed to USA failure in Vietnam. Moreover, Non-U.N. multilateral intervention should be encouraged. The regional and other coalitions should be formed to foster regional means of resolving conflict. This will help avoid developing the feeling of colonialism that some nations experience whenever potential western countries intervene. Besides, there is a need to arrange for U.N. reforms (Schultz, 2017). This will help the U.N. respond effectively to any conflicts or attacks that may arise due to the new space of ethnicity and regional conflicts. Another lesson learned is seeking goals and policy agreement and dealing with differences honestly. It tends to be impossible to stress the primary of a given policy and agreement of goals among parties in an intervention coalition. Thus, future interventions should be to identify where unreconcilable differences exist between parties to be intervened as early as possible.

Comparison between goals and achievements.

USFP goals in both Vietnam and Somalia witnessed minimal success and several failures. In Somalia, the USA intended to support its security to be effective, which was successful, as witnessed in the first quarter of 2020, significant advancement to disrupt al-Shabaab in Somalia through airstrikes. In Vietnam. the United States foreign policy on acquiring political settlement has facilitated the diplomatic sector’s achievements in implementing the policy on international integration and economic diplomacy. On the other hand, the united states foreign policy has witnessed very little change. The territories under the control of the central conflict parties in south-central Somalis have not shown any noticeable change as per the goals (Powaski & Pusca, 2019). The federal government and regional administrators also engage in deadly infighting that seems to persist despite the united states’ goals to end the fights.

The United States Policy goals’ achievement and failures are justifiable. The achievement on managing to carry out successful airstrikes on Somali land to disrupt the terrorists worked towards boosting the security of Somalia. However, despite the minor achievements, USFP goals’ on controlling conflicts, terminating fights between federal and regional governments have not been successful. Conflicts between parties and fights between the federal government and regional government continued to persist.

                                                           Conclusion

The united foreign policy on Vietnam and Somalia has been subject to analyses. Their goals both in Vietnam and Somalia have been identified where; in Vietnam, they had an immediate goal of demonstrating their commitment, and in Somalia, they supported the building of democratic establishment and the politicians held accountable. The foreign policy has successfully achieved some of its goals, but there is still little progress towards achieving the other plans. Besides, the united states intervention has been said to quite costly in monetary terms and time. Several lessons have been learned from the united states’ policy on both Vietnam and Somalia. Following the lessons learned from the united states intervention, any future intervention should consider applying the lessons learned for the mission to be successful.

  References

Schultz, K. A. (2017). Perils of polarization for U.S. foreign policy. The Washington Quarterly, 40(4), 7-28.

Powaski, R. E., & Pusca. (, 2019). Ideals, Interests, and U.S. Foreign Policy from George HW Bush to Donald Trump. Palgrave Macmillan.

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