Cultural Understanding

Running head: IMPORTANCE OF CULTURAL UNDERSTANDING {text:bookmark-start} Importance of Cultural Understanding {text:bookmark-start} Table of Contents Thesis Statement Understanding cultural environment is important. The leaders must study and understand the cultural environment prior to entering the war. The failure to achieve cultural understanding can bring tremendous negative effects and challenges for the military forces and civilians. The following are the two examples of the war where military organizations failure to understand the culture of the enemy: the Vietnam War and the Operation Iraqi Freedom. {text:bookmark-start} Abstract {text:bookmark-end} Cultural understandings arecritical skills that the United States (U.S.) military forces must possess for continued success in future conflicts. With threats to national security, our leaders must understand the enemies, anticipate threats, and respond appropriately to those threats. The U.S. military forces entered into military operationsduring the Vietnam War and Iraq War with little or no knowledge of their culture. Understanding the culture of our enemies is the key to military success during current and future operations. Importance of Cultural Understanding {text:bookmark-end} Broad Topic Thesis Statement Understanding cultural environment is important. The leaders must study and understand the cultural environment prior to entering the war. The failure to achieve cultural understanding can bring tremendous negative effects and challenges for the military forces and civilians. The following are the two examples of the war where military organizations failure to understand the culture of the enemy: the Vietnam War and the Operation Iraqi Freedom. Introduction to Cultural Understanding Justification for the U.S. Involvement On both Vietnam and Iraq, the U.S. military forces entered the wars with conventional warfare thinking. The most high-ranking U.S. officers are from conventional combat...