Holy Trinity Case Study

Chapter One

Psychological Influence Should be the key Operational Concern. The Battle for Stalingrad during World War Two and the Battle for Huế City during Vietnam can teach many lessons about the importance of maintaining morale throughout an operation. During excessively violent and protracted engagements, the psychological effect of battle should be the key operational concern. This is especially true when policy insinuates that the objective has become the ultimate consideration in an endeavor with a multitude of factors. Stalingrad and Huế City depict what is possible when psychological elements escalate war to extreme measures. The success or failure of an operation of this kind could have a profound influence on the final outcome

The application of the “Holy Trinity” provides military historians with a framework to create a holistic view of wartime activities. Analysis of the Trinity on an engagement, military historians are able to narrow down the events that occurred and develop a comprehensive understanding of any wartime engagement. Disputing the influence of the Trinity on a battle aids in further developing the understanding of war and can assist in the development of future military strategy. Through the examination of psychological and physical characteristics as they apply to battle, a case study approach utilizing the Trinity framework provides new depth to the understanding of the art and science of war. Therefore, in order to fully understand how morale and psychological variances effect the Trinity, military historians should examine battles with profound psychological ramifications. A comparative analysis of the World War Two battle of Stalingrad and the Vietnam War battle for Huế City are excellent examples of attritional warfare with extremely different outcomes but a multitude of similarities. A Trinity analysis of Stalingrad and Huế City offer military historians with profound examples depicting how psychological variables influence the outcome of

Huế served as the Imperial City during the Nguyen Dynasty, which was the last Vietnamese dynasty to rule in an independent fashion and held control of Huế City through 1945. The value of the city to the history of Vietnam made its possession culturally significant to North and South Vietnam. Huế City’s large population was due in part to the major lycée that was there and served as a major hub for the Vietnamese religious population. During the Vietnam War, Huế City became an important objective because it was the former hometown of Ho Chi Minh, who grew up inside the Citadel. Minh’s upbringing inside the Imperial City was shaped by the Nguyen Dynasty’s anticolonial sentiment, which held slight control inside the citadel until 1945. The recapture of Minh’s hometown would have been as significant to him as Stalingrad was to Stalin. With the Vietnam War in a stalemate, Ho Chi Minh intended to ignite a revolution against the American foreign influence. The ability to refute the American impression that the war was coming to an end was a key consideration while shaping of the Tet Offensive. It is for this reason, that Huế became an important objective. The capture of Huế would provide an opportunity to establish a revolutionary political and military force through very public means. The establishment of a rival Vietnamese to the American guided South