Expository Essay
ASSIGNMENT INSTRUCTIONS
Write a 1000-1500-word expository essay about a topic of your choice in the style described within Unit VI and VII. Purpose: Throughout Units VI and VII, we have discussed the conventions of the expository essay. The purpose of this assignment is to measure your mastery of those conventions by putting your knowledge to practice. As we discussed in Unit VI, Lesson 1, the expository essay is a general term for an essay that expounds upon or explains a topic.
The objective of the essay is to convey information to the reader; most importantly, an expository essay is an exploration of a topic, and the tone is explanatory. After choosing your topic, you will need to choose the form that is most appropriate to fit the topic: cause and effect, problem and solution, or sequential. A thesis statement, which contains the paper’s argument, will be appropriate to the form you choose. Process: For the expository essay, you will complete the following steps:
- Choose a topic: See Unit VI, Lesson 2, for more information about choosing a topic.
- Create a plan of action: See Unit VI, Lesson 3, for strategies for assessing what you already know and assessing what you need to know.
- Research the topic: See Unit VI, Lesson 4, for instruction on research methods.
- Choose the organization of your essay: Choose between cause and effect, problem and solution, or sequential organization types. See Unit VI, Lesson 1, for a list of the three organizational forms, and see Unit VII, Lesson 1, for a description of thesis statements written according to the organizational form of the essay.
- Create a thesis statement: See Unit VII, Lesson 1, for a description of thesis statements written according to the organizational form of the essay.
- Draft the essay: See Unit VII, Lesson 1, for keeping brainstorming in mind and Unit VII, Lesson 2, for more on the drafting process and description of each essay section.
Stylistic details: All essays must meet the following requirements:
- Include 1000-1500 words.
- Write in Times New Roman, 12 pt. font.
- Include one-inch margins on all sides.
- Use double spacing (top-to-bottom every page, to include above and below titles and centered words).
- Include an APA title page (for all essays) and reference list that includes all of the sources used in the essay.
- Include page numbers (upper-right corner only).
- Adhere to APA convention and documentation style.
- At least one source is required. All sources used must be cited.
The following document will assist you in creating this assignment:
SAMPLE STUDENT ANSWER
The Vietnam War
Since America became a superpower nation, the representatives have become elated regarding their prestige and continuous victory. Hence, they started waging wars, while aspiring for easy wins. However, the ultimate results disappointed soldiers’ hopes despite having the most effective and powerful army globally. America’s interventions in Vietnam, besides Afghanistan, significantly led to the inappropriate outcome and consecutive defeats.
The work looks into the causes of the failure of the United States to outdo Vietnam through analysis of literature review materials, including journal articles and periodicals. The research conducted historical and descriptive methods concerning the historical incidences and discovering the detailed war results.
The cause of the war portrays that Americans were overconfident about their superpower abilities as a country that they forgot to be realistic and analyze the need to fight with the Vietnamese. The country’s overconfidence led to several factors leading to their defeat namely the inability to contain Vietnamese, the extension of the Cold War between the USSR and the United States, guerrilla War favoring the Vietnamese, the inappropriateness of the military power upon the Vietnamese, and South American’s support for the Vietnam war.
Failure of the Containment upon the Vietnamese
The United States’ position as being a powerful and leading country on the global stage, led to it interfering with other nation’s internal affairs, including enactment of jurisdictions ranging from waging wars to forming alliances during the Cold War (Salah, Afaf, & Ilhem, 2021). The United States felt that the Vietnam, as a country, could potentially become more powerful that it. Vietnam was a threat to the United States. Hence, The United States used a containment strategy on the Vietnamese to inhibit communism from advancing (Salah, Afaf, & Ilhem, 2021).
The ability to inhibit communism would discourage Vietnam from creating better relationships with other countries and potentially become even more powerful. Vietnam would have received more support from countries, in the case of a wat between Vietnam and the United States. However, the strategy failed.
Extension of the Cold War between the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) and the United States
The Cold War was significantly experienced between the USSR and the United States, which were contending superpowers. Both parties were trying to outdo each other towards becoming the most powerful country globally. The War was characterized by highlights such as competition for monetary and military assistance for other countries, opposition over the unwaveringness of current autonomous nations, and risks of atomic disputes.
Both the USSR and the United States primarily focused on providing monetary and military assistance to other countries to control them. After Americans gave their allies weapons during World War II, Soviet pioneer Stalin Josef intended to develop a domain which would cushion Europe and the Soviet Union (Salah, Afaf, & Ilhem, 2021). Americans gave over 12 billion dollars in support for Western Europe nations which were willing to partner with the United States.
By the 1950s, the rivalry was spreading into Latin America, Asia, and the Middle East, with every side trying to have control. While the Vietnamese received military assistance from the Soviet Union, Americans helped the Afghanistan people during the Cold War. The ability for Vietnamese to build friendship with the Soviet Union, which was an enemy to the United States, led to Americans also creating enmity with Vietnam.
Guerrilla War
The War involved three stages namely reducing Viet Cong soldiers’ movements, then consecutively demolishing the enemies, before capturing regions and placing them under South Vietnamese’ control. The ability to demolish enemies would involve the implementation of strategies such as ‘looking for and destroying,’ whereby there was sending of ground troops into the Vietnam villages and jungles to find enemy positions and used artillery and warplanes (Salah, Afaf, & Ilhem, 2021).
The Americans tried to combine their naval, air, and ground warfare but failed to execute the strategies effectively because of Vietnam’s geographical nature. The place was characterized by huge regions of jungles (Salah, Afaf, & Ilhem, 2021). The geographical nature assisted the Vietnam forces to impose guerilla war well against the Americans. The Vietnamese knew spots that they could easily hunt down the Americans first before they find them
The inappropriateness of the military power upon the Vietnamese
Several veterans trusted that the operational model created by the American military command was irrelevant to Vietnam’s political struggles, especially in the rural regions. Reliance on military initiatives had severe defects (Bergerud, 2019). First, there was an inefficient use of financial and human resources. The troop’s focus on wasteful and big-unit initiatives caused the soldiers to neglect more sophisticated and less costly measures which could have led to the higher chances for American troops to win the fight against the Vietnamese.
Americans should have considered military units if it was favorable for more significant political aims. Second, the soldiers claimed that brutality from South Vietnamese and American military acts was morally reprehensible and counterproductive. The war led to material destruction, suffering, and grief for the rural Vietnamese (Bergerud, 2019). The violence’s innocent victims hated the government (Bergerud, 2019). The enemy eventually benefited. There was the development of certain goodwill like a thoughtless soldier using water buffalo or airstrike.
The Reluctance to Associate with Global Territorial Gain
President Roosevelt was not interested in neither colonizing Southeast Asia nor intending to support France’s aim of maintaining their Vietnam land, as a form of reluctance towards associating with global territorial gain (Rahman, 2020). Regardless, initial American Presidents maintain association with the fight against communism. A leading factor of resistance against America’s association in the country was due to not wanting South Vietnam to be controlled by the Northern Vietnamese, who were communists.
Americans donated around three billion dollars in financial assistance to France to assist them with their war against Vietnamese communists (Rahman, 2020). Communists were viewed as being a threat to economic progress and Westernized developments. President John Kennedy alleged that Vietnam’s ability to focus on communism would, unfortunately, cause the loss of Southeast Asia entirety. Hence, the need to support France was important to secure Western Europe, especially because of the increasing communist party’s popularity (Rahman, 2020).
Conflicts against Northern parts of Vietnam emerged through financial help from allied troops. The American government incurred much time considering jurisdictions towards Indochina conflicts. The American leaders’ deliberations extended wartime and delayed the prosperity of resistance against the American association in Vietnam (Rahman, 2020). Therefore, it is apparent that the United States’ status against North Vietnam communists was mainly ideological because of the view that communism would be an increasing threat to the West.
South Americans’ Support for the Vietnam War
Many Americans often understood that people from South American regions supported conservative republicans, who consecutively preferred the War. Several scholars allege that conservative communities from the Southern parts of America supported the United States’ foreign policy and military use during the War (Dirkson, 2018). The staunch political policy and opinion, especially backed by Southerners, influenced the War, including consecutive outcomes.
Many Southerners viewed military forces as being patriotic and hardly tolerated those feeling differently or had different thoughts. Southerners’ attitudes were rooted in their perceived interests, values, and regional history, regardless of the war sentiment, race, or religion (Dirkson, 2018). The Southerners’ desires for unilateral interventions, staunch anti-communism and consideration of force enabled them to support and strengthen the War.
Conclusion
The ultimate results disappointed soldiers’ hopes despite having the most effective and powerful army globally. America’s interventions in Vietnam, besides Afghanistan, significantly led to the inappropriate outcome and consecutive defeats. The United States’ consideration of the containment strategy upon the Vietnamese to inhibit communism from advancing, failed, contributing to America’s reforms towards considering other measures such as the use of military force.
While the Vietnamese received military assistance from the Soviet Union, Americans helped the Afghanistan people during the Cold War. The ability of the Soviet Union to support Americans affected the relationship between the parties and ultimately led to the Cold War between the Vietnamese, Americans, and the Soviet Union. The Americans tried to combine their naval, air, and ground warfare but failed to execute the strategies effectively because of Vietnam’s geographical nature. Thus, the country was defeated by the guerrilla war.
The troop’s focus on wasteful and big-unit ‘look for and demolish’ initiatives caused the soldiers to neglect more sophisticated and less costly measures which could have led to the wellbeing and security of Vietnam’s rural regions. Transforming the peasantry’s political orientation from apathy or hostility to genuine guidance and support could have been America’s objective.
References
Bergerud, E. (2019). The Dynamics of Defeat. New York: Routledge. Retrieved from https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/mono/10.4324/9780429496660/dynamics-defeat-eric-bergerud
Dirkson, J. (2018). More Than a Conservative, Pro-War Narrative: Savannah, Georgia and the Vietnam War. Digital Commons @ Georgia Southern. Retrieved from https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2902&context=etd
Rahman, S. (2020). Why did resistance against the United States’ involvement in the Vietnam War take so long to succeed? BSHR. Retrieved from https://broadstreethumanitiesreview.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/SiamVietnamResistance-2.pdf
Salah, A., Afaf, O., & Ilhem, T. (2021). US Strategic Failure in Vietnam and Afghanistan: Causes and. Hamma Lakhdar University of El-Oued. Retrieved from http://dspace.univ-eloued.dz/bitstream/123456789/10532/1/Us%20Strategic%20Failure%20in%20Vietnam%20and%20%20Afghanistan-converti.pdf
Jermaine Byrant
Nicole Johnson
OVER
RATING
YEARS
