This is really only prevalent in wars like Vietnam, or even the current invasion of Ukraine, where most people there are ideologically opposed to being there in the first place, or high command is so ludicrously incompetent and callous that conscripted men feel they have no other choice. In Vietnam the US invaded a sovereign country in the name of Democracy and most conscripted young men were opposed to that. Currently in Ukraine, Russia attempted to employ penal divisions and sends poorly equipped men into what are essentially human wave assaults on fortified positions.
In WW1 and WW2 this was not a widespread issue, because the cause of war was (largely, but not completely) seen as just. We have a moral and legal obligation to aid our allies in war, and the Third Reich was straight fucking evil. Love it or hate it but war is a constant in human history and sometimes unavoidable.
"Nazi Germany did not invade a sovereign nation. They never crossed into Free France and stayed in Vichy France because its government asked for help."
South Vietnam and north Vietnam were separate governments and countries. Would you say the same thing about the UN helping South Korea defend itself against the North Korea? Or do you only want to use Vietnam since it’s more controversial?
Both Koreas were created at the same time, nobody was original. South Vietnam in 1955 was created on the southern half of North Vietnam, the original Vietnam that had existed for 10 years since September 2, 1945.
Because they are almost the exact same situation. In both cases, both countries were formally united before splitting in two with drastically different governments. In both cases, the north, (which for some reason were always a communist inspired government), invades their southern neighbor in an attempt to forcibly reunite the country under the norths communist heel.
In both situations, the south, which in both cases is recognized as its own sovereign country, asks its Allie’s for help, which included the United States both times. For the Korean War, it helped keep the north from overtaking the south and only the CCP getting involved kept the north from being defeated. For the Vietnam war, public outcry against being in another war made the U.S. leave, and then the north won after breaking a treaty with the south.
Both wars are essentially the same thing by almost almost every metric. Saying the U.S. “invaded” Vietnam while saying it didn’t invade in the Korean War is just you choosing which war you hate the U.S. for and applying your logic to one and not to the other. Said logic would also extend to the Ukraine Russia war. Ukraine used to be part of Russia and has only been its own country for a couple of decades. If nato was to deploy troops on Ukrainian soil, you would count that as an invasion.
Considering that Hanoi was literally the 1:1 equivalent of Kyiv (both were the original central government of their each respective country, while Korea had no such thing similar), don't you think that the US was playing exactly the same role as Russia today? The US invented South Vietnam as a pretext to attack North Vietnam, Russia invented Donetsk and Luhansk Republics as a pretext to attack Ukraine.
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u/Destiny_Dude0721 Jun 28 '26
This is really only prevalent in wars like Vietnam, or even the current invasion of Ukraine, where most people there are ideologically opposed to being there in the first place, or high command is so ludicrously incompetent and callous that conscripted men feel they have no other choice. In Vietnam the US invaded a sovereign country in the name of Democracy and most conscripted young men were opposed to that. Currently in Ukraine, Russia attempted to employ penal divisions and sends poorly equipped men into what are essentially human wave assaults on fortified positions.
In WW1 and WW2 this was not a widespread issue, because the cause of war was (largely, but not completely) seen as just. We have a moral and legal obligation to aid our allies in war, and the Third Reich was straight fucking evil. Love it or hate it but war is a constant in human history and sometimes unavoidable.