Failures of intelligence in Vietnam War Free Essay Example

The poor prediction, a neglect of important issues and the lack of clear central direction has characterized the United States intelligence. These kinds of failures caused three major intelligence failures which are: The US intelligence has failed to measure the extend of the conflict, which has been seen as larger than what the intelligence has shown. An example is underestimation of the enemy during Order of Battle, his and infiltration power, the population of civilians he ruled in the South, and his losses.

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The rise from simple three of the four rain categories of the enemy Order of Battle wore not even looked into until late 1966, over a year and half after the United States military intervention. Then after these was the changing definitions, mistakes during accounting techniques, and to juggle figures. The omission of research in Southern Viet Cong by CIA in terms of manpower until when it was too late. Also the outcome of the poor judgment of the boon dramatic.

The United States troops were set in terms of deployments to Vietnam on the basis of force ratios between Allied and armies which were far out of line with reality. This shows that if the US government had predicted the number of enemy strength, they could have sent more troops or else they could not have participated in the issues. Also, the relative neglect by US intelligence of the well springs of the power of enemy and the communist party which are termed as “infrastructure”. For example in 1969, the CIA was not aware of the Viet Cong Security Service which was doing intelligence work, which worked more as Soviet KGB .

The intelligence members of Viet Cong agents were more in number than that of United States intelligence and also the well knowledge of infrastructure which was a disadvantage to CIA. Deficiencies in US intelligence The director of CIA normally does what he wants because its somehow political position. An example is from the Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara’s when he complained that there were no Vietnam experts to analyze the situation. There were experts but he refused to heed their propositions that they foresaw. Which led to the failures not understanding the communist and approximating their numbers and also the “order of battle”.

The idea of relying on one person like Van Thieu who was corrupt and which led to the assassination of Ngo Dinh Diem. The Pleiku attacks were a convenient trigger for intended escalation and it was composed by the Americans. Even though the CIA analyst were not happy on some things they were forced to join the team. This led to issuing of wrong information. Most of these were lies that were orchestrated by the politicians and the generals. Manipulation of public opinions and politics ensured that wars were justified. This led to order of battle controversy, the Tet defeat and doctoring of information in favor of Lyndon Johnson re-election.

When information began to come in about the Soviet plan of arming Cuba it was taken lightly. It was just with a shear of chance that the intelligence went through its records and plans that were able to receive more information from pictures. Here we see that were it not for the help of the Director McCone the plan of installing nuclear weapons in Cuba could have been possible. This shows that there are few people or analyst who can analyze the situation and give a soundful decision about the issue. In the text we find out that McCone had already communicated the information to his analyst but no one acted to this information.

This shows that there is no given order as of how instructions can be acted upon. Intelligence was used to support policy During the period of Cold War, properly utilized and focused intelligence should have given directions to the United States to minimize military outlays by reducing unnecessary and right budget. If it was used properly, the US intelligence should have helped focus the defense resources on programs which were most likely to change the mind of an adversary and also if necessary to win a conflict.

While a large amount intelligence budget was apparently used this way, it is apparently obvious that the current United States political leaders are also interested in building a worldwide American empire. This empire is based upon a large and strong military advancement used to influence day to day activities around the world. Americans protected themselves from the Soviet Union and China during the Cold War but these resulted into payments of extremely large value and extraneous value for that kind of protection. Before the confrontation in Vietnam, there was no need for war.

United States looked for excuses to facilitate war plans. The intelligence was used to create illusion that Vietnam had attacked United States boat that was in Vietnam waters. This to the Vietnamese army had a right to check but it was later acclaimed that it was them, Vietnam, who had attacked the US ship. This resulted to a war that had not been planned. As the war was on it was seen by the intelligence body that there was no need for attacking in a certain way but it was refuted by the generals which resulted to the death of several soldiers.

The lying that war was about to come to an end also changed the minds of American citizen but it was a ploy for political interest. The election of President Nixon was through such ploy.

Reference

Kennedy, R. F. (1971). Thirteen Days: A Memoir of the Cuban Missile Crisis, W. W. Norton & Company, Inc. P 10 – 36 Cuban Missile Crisis available from, https://www. cia. gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/csi-studies/studies/vol46no1/article06. html https://www.nsa.gov/