StudentShare
Contact Us
Sign In / Sign Up for FREE
Search
Go to advanced search...

American Military History: Total vs. Limited War - Assignment Example

Cite this document
Summary
American Military History: Total Vs Limited War American Military History: Total vs. Limited War The United States is a country that has engaged in several military wars both within and beyond its borders. The objectives of fighting these wars have often varied from one war to another…
Download full paper File format: .doc, available for editing
GRAB THE BEST PAPER94.3% of users find it useful
American Military History: Total vs. Limited War
Read Text Preview

Extract of sample "American Military History: Total vs. Limited War"

Download file to see previous pages

In fact, America still stands as the world superpower and has the military capability to fight a war of any magnitude. The U.S. has often adopted different styles and tactics in the wars it fought in the past. These include total war and limited war styles. Total war refers to a military antagonism in which the contenders in the war mobilizes and uses all their military resources, including civilians to win the war. Carl von Clausewitz was the brain behind the concept of total war in which he emphasized the need to destroy the enemy’s forces in military conflict.

According to Clausewitz, defeating an enemy require mobilizing all civilians and military arsenals to crash the enemy forces2. The United States has used this concept in some of the wars it has engaged in the past. These include the Civil War and World War II. In these wars, the U.S. mobilized all its civilians are military resources in order to win the war3. For instance, America used all its civilians and military resources during the Civil War of 1861 to defeat the South, which were strong and intelligent in fighting.

Report indicates that the U.S. forces resorted to total war in order to destroy the Southern forces with the aim of forcing them to surrender4. The Allied forces also fought a total war during World War II, in which all military resources and civilians were used to force the opponents to surrender. In fact, these were arguably the toughest wars that America has ever fought. As a result, U.S. military still use the Civil War and World War II as the benchmark of any other military war. As aforementioned, the U.S. has also used limited war in some instances.

The Vietnam War is a classical example of military war that the U.S. fought using limited force. The U.S. mainly employed the use of Guerilla and unconventional tactics and minimal battles in the Vietnam War. Unlimited war tactic, unlike total war, are wars in which the U.S. used limited military resources and society5. In the Vietnam War, the over 500,000 U.S. forces resorted to the use of defensive tactics in South Vietnam without using its military power to march on to Hanoi. Research also indicates that, after the 1968 war, the U.S. military airstrikes were limited to interdiction objectives.

It became apparent that the U.S. Based on the wars that the U.S. has fought in the past, it becomes apparent that the U.S. military has engaged mainly on limited war, as opposed to total war. It is true that America has engaged in total war, in some instances, as was the case during World War I, the Civil War, and World War II6. However, most wars it has engaged in the past were mainly limited with the aim of protection, pacification or for profiteering. For example, the same way the U.S. applied limited force during the Vietnam War it did the same by engaging in a limited war during the territorial expansion war in the 19th century in which it used limited military force to achieve its political objectives.

These wars include the Spanish-American War, the Mexican War, and the Indian Wars. When these wars are analyzed based on Clausewitz definition of use of force and effort as well as the destruction caused, it becomes apparent that these wars involved use of limited force and effort. In all these wars, limited military forces were used to coerce the adversaries to accept peace in their countries and to result in territorial expansion. It became evident that these wars

...Download file to see next pages Read More
Tags
Cite this document
  • APA
  • MLA
  • CHICAGO
(“American Military History: Total vs. Limited War Assignment”, n.d.)
Retrieved from https://studentshare.org/history/1492609-american-military-history-total-vs-limited-war
(American Military History: Total Vs. Limited War Assignment)
https://studentshare.org/history/1492609-american-military-history-total-vs-limited-war.
“American Military History: Total Vs. Limited War Assignment”, n.d. https://studentshare.org/history/1492609-american-military-history-total-vs-limited-war.
  • Cited: 0 times

CHECK THESE SAMPLES OF American Military History: Total vs. Limited War

The Military Art Reseach Paper

Throughout mankind's history, civilizations have been switching between total and limited war.... hellip; Total war is a conflict in which the belligerents deploy and mobilize all possible resources, while limited war is one in which the belligerent does not fully deploy or expend all of the available resources.... The French revolution broke this tradition of limited war.... The technological aspect of these wars that aided in the transition from limited war was the advent of cheap small arms and mobile cannons due to which the number of citizen soldiers increased....
3 Pages (750 words) Research Paper

The Vietnam War

The essay "The Vietnam war" shall reflect on the military choices and strategies throughout the Vietnam war and the impact this had on the Cold war.... It is stated that this was the war, that in many people's view, America did not have a chance to win.... … It is stated that the Vietnam war has been documented as the longest in the American history.... Although there was no formal declaration of the war, it is considered to have officially begun in 1961 when President John F....
5 Pages (1250 words) Essay

Method, Madness, and Morality in War

limited war entails that, destruction of an enemy need not be complete in material trait, but lead to a poise of the power structure, in which the power of rivaling groups, results toward stability.... A limited war is one which involves nations that are at war but weapons such as nuclear weapons are not involved.... The limited war is aimed to preserve several resources of a nation to be applied elsewhere or use part of resources to attain the desired objectives....
3 Pages (750 words) Essay

The United States military establishment: from Train Wreck and the RMA to the Bush Doctrine

This was a limited war of the old school variety in which there was a declaration of war at the beginning and a surrender/peace treaty at the end.... The 1812 War was another example of this kind of 'limited war', but the American Civil War introduced, arguably for the first time in history, the concept of "total war" to the world.... The concept of total war is important for the rise in importance of the american military: in order to fight a total war a military needs to be much larger than in previous conflicts, and must also have a visible presence within a society that must largely support the effort....
17 Pages (4250 words) Essay

Role of domestic concerns in us withdrawal from vietnam

As rightly quoted by Jose Padilla, war is not really something at the sole discretion of the president, rather it is the public power that should ultimately shape the foreign policy of a nation, or more precisely, the fate and destiny of the nation.... As rightly quoted by Jose Padilla, war is not really something at the sole discretion of the president, rather it is the public power that should ultimately shape the foreign policy of a nation, or more precisely, the fate and destiny of the nation....
10 Pages (2500 words) Essay

A Comparison Argument between a Limited Aspect of the Vietnam Conflict and Conflict in Afghanistan

The Afghanistan war started as a result of the September 2001 attacks in America.... This radical group had denied the American government entry into Afghanistan and capture the Al Qaeda; this prompted the then American president George Bush to declare war on Afghanistan.... This has prompted observers to relate this war to the war in Vietnam that also lasted for ten years without success.... The history of terrorism goes back to the 13th- century....
9 Pages (2250 words) Research Paper

American Internationalists and Vietnam

This paper "American Internationalists and Vietnam" sheds some light on the following question: How best to understand the meaning of the war, the groups who managed, fought and opposed it, and how -- if at all -- to derive lessons from the prolonged ordeal?... hellip; Given Washington's unwillingness to deal constructively on a diplomatic plane with either Vietnam or Cambodia (Kampuchea) in the war's aftermath, and given the choice by the United States to embark on a new globalism-- as evidenced by recent policy toward Central America and the Persian Gulf -- one must conclude on a sombre note....
8 Pages (2000 words) Essay

Military Capabilities Against Mexican Drug Trafficking Organizations

The paper "military Capabilities Against Mexican Drug Trafficking Organizations" describes that that increased MSCLEAs was instituted, data relating to drug seizures would have to be evaluated in further research to determine if the increased cooperation actually had a positive impact.... hellip; The results of questionnaires, particularly the final section on potential intervention methods will then be analyzed to provide statistical validity to the interpretation of results for the military and for the other agencies, using such common concepts as measures of central tendency, dispersion, significance levels, confidence levels or intervals....
11 Pages (2750 words) Research Proposal
sponsored ads
We use cookies to create the best experience for you. Keep on browsing if you are OK with that, or find out how to manage cookies.
Contact Us