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You asked me a while ago about my opinion on this conflict occurring in Vietnam, and I thought deeply about it in the meantime while awaiting my other colleagues to write back. After giving it some thought, I have declared that I do not support the Vietnam War because I personally believe that this conflict is absolutely meaningless. The primary reason as to why this war started is because communism was seeking to expand into Vietnam much the way it had attempted to expand into Korea, and of course we have our policy to contain any threats toward the well being of the citizens of any nation risking the overthrow of a government. Now I am not disagreeing with the protecting of other nations, as that is a justified priority. However, engaging in a war with an easily corruptible government such, as Vietnam's is foolish, as it was their own choice to practice communism. Nevertheless, the United States had to be the totalitarian nation that it is and send tens of thousands of kids to their deaths over in a foreign land just to hold the communists to what they had prior to their expansion(s). The government has justified this response to Vietnam's corruption with something called the Domino Theory; that if Vietnam …show more content…
became communist, so would other countries nearby. The Domino Theory is a thought that is currently provoking concern of the United States government and its citizens.
Of course, with such a crisis at hand, the government had to come up with an address to this theory without seeming like the imperialists they truly are- and they did exactly that. The American government set up a fake "terrorist attack" also known as the Gulf of Tonkin incident. In response to the Gulf of Tonkin Incident, the U.S. Congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, which essentially permitted the use of ground forces in Vietnam. In my personal opinion, I believe that the incident was a hoax- just another justification to distribute "peace" and "justice" throughout countries that already dislike us and disapprove of our
methods. Recently, I've heard from a few of my friends serving in Vietnam. They said it's the most miserable place to be on earth: with unknown and difficult terrain and constant ambushes, I couldn't imagine that it would be a desirable place to be either. I'll be honest though, I'm surprised President Johnson hasn't given up yet with the death-count skyrocketing upward, the war's end is nowhere in sight. This concerns me mainly for the many young Americans who are fighting for something they don't even understand or believe is just. Imagine being carted off to some region without any knowledge of the terrain and tactics of the enemy, that's what they have to endure on a daily basis. Hopefully one day we can remember this and learn from this piece of history to never make such a mistake again. Unfortunately though, we can't make the military leaders and government be strategic or in any sense more intelligent. If they would just take note of how quickly the VC scurry and scatter whenever they bomb them, military leaders could rely solely on aerial attacks and then send in ground troops afterwards and then maybe, just maybe, the war could be over. Though, I don't believe we should even be there to begin with, but if we have to be then we should at least end it as quickly as possible. The United States is just one step closer to being called totalitarians. Well, with how many losses the military has had and with the poor decision making in Washington, I do not see this war ending in American favor. Hopefully by 2014, we'll have some more intelligent individuals who will have learned from our historical mistakes and will attempt to prevent another disastrous conflict such as the Vietnam War.
i. Difficulties faced by soldiers due to the nature of fighting in the Vietnam War - Personnel had difficulties with transportation supplied with adapted vehicles back seat faced rear to provide additional fire power (Source A) – It appears as if the government didn't worry enough to supply men with safe and capable equipment - Threat of traps led to fear as vehicles had to be parked on street at night (Source A) o Check for traps each morning became a daily ritual particularly in fuel tanks (Source A) o A request for a locking fuel cap was denied because weren’t entitled to one” (Source A) • What circumstances would have needed to arise for them to be entitled to one? The Offensive full guard was set up (24hrs a day), personnel got no sleep and were constantly on alert (Source A) – How significant would this have been in the personnel’s mental frame of mind?
Martin Luther king states 7 arguments to show his opposition to the Americans aiding the Vietnam at war. One of the reason he is against the war is that, he is against violence and America is promoting violence by fighting against the Liberation Front. It states as he walk among the ghettos of the North, and saw these “desperate, rejected and angry young men” using the “Molotov cocktails,” using violence he told them that violence is not the solution to their problems, rather they should approach a nonviolent solution. They asked him, then “what about Vietnam?” (King, 152) this question provoked him to speak against the war. In conclusion, in order for the violence to stop, in America, the government have to take the first step, so that the
In conclusion, I think that the United States became increasingly involved in the Vietnamese War because of the policies they had made as a promise to fight communism, and because they had sorely underestimated Vietcong’s ability to fight back using Guerrilla warfare. They refused to pull out of the war in fear of losing face before the world, but this pride factor scored them massive losses in the war. In the end, with both side sustaining heavy losses, the US were still seen as mutilators in the war, with advanced showing what their intervention had costed, and Vietnam was still fully taken over by Communism – they had achieved nothing and lost a lot.
The Vietnam War was one of many. One reason some people argue the US should have been in the Vietnam War is because of the belief the US was trying to help establish a democracy there. The Vietnam war helping America win the cold war was another reason people believe the US was justified in the Vietnam war. Others believe that the US should not have been there because they were supporting a corrupt government, another reason is that American warfare was excessive and abusively killed many innocent civilians and ruined the land. While it appeared that the US was trying to spread democracy and win the cold war, but in truth, the US was supporting a mini Hitler, and our strategy had little chance of
The Vietnam War took place in between 1947- 1975. It consisted of North Vietnam trying to make South Vietnam a communism government. The United States later joined this conflict because of the stress North Vietnam was putting to South Vietnam to become a government that America did not want. The main reason why America joined was because of a theory called the Domino Effect. America and Russia were going through what has been dubbed the Cold War. The Domino Effect is the theory that communism will spread form one country to another. United states does not want this because our government is a democracy and communism opposes everything we stand for. America fearing communism was growing, stepped into Vietnam with America’s interest in mind, instead of Vietnam’s. There are several reason why American should have not gotten involved with this war. The most important reason was that America government officials made to much of a big deal about communism. This might sound cynical, but America to a certain degree did over react. Let it be said that it is much easier to say this after the fact. By looking back at McCarthyism, we can see the silliness of this fear. There is a serious side though. Thousands of people dies for a government that has no impact of their daily life. What regime Vietnam was going to change over to had no effect on the every day cycle of the United States. So truly, one can say, this can not one thing to do with America, its government and people.
As history shows, every war comes some sort of public opposition. There will always be pro-war and anti-war men and women across the country. In World War I, there was a major rift between the two sides. Not until civilians were being killed did President Wilson give in and join the war. Similarly, not everyone wanted to get into World War II until the Pearl Harbor bombings. The Vietnam War went differently than the previous two wars. This time, there was a huge majority public opposition to President Johnson and President Nixon’s decisions. The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, the Tet Offensive, and the Kent State Shootings all undermined American public support for the Vietnam War and impacted government decisions, ultimately bringing the Vietnam
The U.S. Involvement in the Vietnam War Was Justified. The Vietnam conflict has been known to be the most unpopular war in the history of the United States. The war of 1812, the Mexican war and the Korean conflict of the early 1950's were also opposed by large groups of the American people, but none of them generated the emotional anxiety and utter hatred that spawned Vietnam. The Vietnam war caused people to ask the question of sending our young people to die in places where they were particularly wanted and for people who did not seem especially grateful.
The human race has long been assumed to have a warlike nature, involving itself in many violent endeavors. Philosophers such as Hobbs firmly asserted such an ideal throughout their teachings, their theories revolving around said notion. Yet some occasions throughout history point to the contrary, specifically those in which war was the unpopular choice. Perhaps the most exemplary of unpopular wars was the Vietnam War, which spurred a myriad of anti-war sentiment. These ideals manifested themselves in a wide variety of protests and draft evasion. Despite its unpopularity, the government pushed forward with its efforts to remain involved for a number of years, drawing more negative attention to the divide that existed between the popular opinion
Firstly, This war took place from 1962 and finished in 1975 (Australian War Memorial, n.d) and saw a “welcome home” for the soldiers like never before. The Prime Minister at the time was Robert Menzies who believed that we should send troops to Vietnam to help America stop the ‘domino theory’, a theory in which America believe that when one country becomes a communist, surrounding countries will become communist as well, causing the world to become communist and America would no longer be able to trade any material or weapons to other countries to make money, forcing America to become a communist country as well. However a differing view of the Opposition Leader, Arthur Calwell, was equally passionate against sending troops to Vietnam to fight. In Arthur Calwel’s speech, Calwel stated in the Governments’s announcement “We do not think it will help the fight against Communism” (House of Representatives, 1965). The Public opinion was divided over this war and had never been displayed as overtly as it was during ...
Why did the United States get involved in the Vietnam War? Ask this question to a cross section of Americans, a housewife like Bobbie Lee Pendergrass who wrote a moving letter to President Kennedy looking for answers not about the death of her brother, but the reason why he fighting in Vietnam. Most Americans couldn’t even tell you where Vietnam was on a map much less why we sent so many soldiers to fight a civil war half way around the world because most Americans did not think that communism was not an immediate threat. The United States government’s reason was that they wanted to stop the spread of Communism and the expansion of nuclear weapons so they supported a military government in South Vietnam which was under the leadership of Ngo Dinh Diem who was not in favor of free elections because this might unify the country under communist rule. Looking back it is easy to say that the decision may have been wrong, but what is the pint now, except to learn from the mistakes made during the Vietnam War,
The speech that I chose to analyze and critique is from John Forbes Kerry “Vietnam Veterans Against the War” to the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations. In this speech he did not represent himself, he represented the group of 1000 veterans that feels the same way he does about the war.
The Vietnam war has been referred to by many names, one of the longer ones was 'the cornerstone of the free world southeast Asia'. It was called that by John F. Kennedy. He was talking about Vietnam being and essential country in a non-communist world. He believed that if Vietnam became a communist country, all of the surrounding countries would also become communists. This is the main reason America was involved in the Vietnam war. Another reason was that America wanted to spread their “political ideas around the globe”. They wanted to do this so that their anti-communism stance was clear. The public also wanted to keep communism from spreading. To soldiers, the war was like a crusade, a great journey to purge the communists from Vietnam. Sadly, this is not what happened. The Viet Cong (VC) had far better tactics than the US. The VC was told to 'nibble at the enemy' so that he could 'neither eat or sleep'. This worked very well. Another demoralizing tactic the VC used was their landmines; they were designed to blow the limbs off the soldiers without killing them. This tied up hospital beds and meant the soldiers had to carry the wounded back to the base.
The Vietnam War began as a skirmish between North Vietnam—supported by China and the Soviet Union—and South Vietnam—supported by the United States. North Vietnam was brutally suppressing South Vietnam, trying to impose Communism upon unwilling citizens. The United States—who after World War II made it their duty to protect free peoples against dictatorships—made it a priority to protect South Vietnam from invasion, and supplied them with food and weapons. President Eisenhower hypothesized the Domino Theory, declaring that one Communist state would begin attacking adjacent countries and continue in a domino effect until world domination. Used as justification, the Domino Theory was irrational, because North Vietnam only intended to reunite the country under Communism. Full-scale fighting by the US began in 1964 based on the Anti-Communist hysteria that existed at the time. Disillusioned after two years, the majority of Americans participated in the anti-war movement.
The reasons for the Vietnam War took place long before the war even began. For years, the Vietnamese had been under French colonial rule. But, when Communist revolutionary Ho Chi Minh came back to Vietnam, he established a group called the Viet Minh, the goal of which was to remove all French occupation from Vietnam. So, the fighting started, and Ho Chi Minh tried to get the US to support them. But, being true to their policies of containment, the US started supporting France. The United States' thoughts about Communism's potential growth can be summed up in one basic idea: the Domino Theory. This theory stated that if one country in a region fell to Communism, the surrounding countries would soon follow. Because of this, the US committed to keeping the North Vietnamese contained once the French withdrew from Vietnam. But, the thing that really pushed the US into sending troops into Vietnam was the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution. On August 2nd and 4th, 1964, the North Vietnamese fired upon two US ships in the Gulf of Tonkin. Following this, Congress approved the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution on August 7, 1964, which gave the president authority to send military troops into Vietnam without declaring war. So, President Johnson sent troops into Vietnam, which had already erupted into civil war, to aid the South Vietnamese.
Vietnam was a struggle which, in all honesty, the United States should never have been involved in. North Vietnam was battling for ownership of South Vietnam, so that they would be a unified communist nation. To prevent the domino effect and the further spread of communism, the U.S. held on to the Truman Doctrine and stood behind the South Vietnamese leader, Diem.