US Restrictive Limitations During The Vietnam War

During the Cold War era, American’s foreign policy was focused on the regression of communist expansion. The primary political objective was its containment. Presidents’ administrations were worried about communism spreading through the “domino” theory, the communism spreading and the zero sum game., Each loss of a country in Southeastern Asia would have a negative impact on America’s prestige. Since 1947, strategy had the the greatest impact on the employment of American airpower and determined its strategic effect. Restrictive limitations derived from political and military leaders degraded the airpower’s overall effectiveness to achieve American’s political objectives. Particularly, in the Korean war, political and military concerns of airpower excesses such as escalation to general war, with an intervention of the Soviet Union and Chinese Communist, delayed the end of war. Furthermore, in the Vietnam war almost, the same restrictions limited America airpower’s strategic effects. The war lasted years and caused significant casualties. Moreover, the US failed …show more content…
Restrictive limitations imposed by political and military leaders had a negative impact as they degraded the airpower’s overall effectiveness and efficiency. American airpower struggled to meet high expectations and to apply its destructive power in an effective way in limited wars. The outcome of the wars in Korea and Vietnam Wars reflected significant political and military concerns regarding potential implications of airpower excesses and dramatically limited its strategic effect. Overall, it shows that the same destructive power that makes airpower an effective deterrent tool can also degrade its strategic effectiveness when political restraints affect the best way to use the means to achieving the desired political objectives.184 As Clausewitz stated “War may have its own grammar but not its own