Vietnam War Survey
1. Since the 19th century, Vietnam had been under French colonial rule. During World War II, the country was taken over by Japanese control. Following the Japanese defeat in the war, Vietnam was back in the hands of the French; however, France was short of troops to occupy the nation. This led to the Nationalist Chinese forces occupying North Vietnam and British troops landing in the South to help the French (Hickman). Taking advantage of the split, Ho Chi Minh established a Communist organization with goals to defeat the French. Ho’s communist forces took over North Vietnam, which caused France to want to regain control of the North. This meant that Ho Chi Minh and his supporters would have to fight for the area. After hearing of this conflict in the U.S., President John F. Kennedy feared the dreaded “domino theory,” which meant that if one Southeast Asian country became communist, then many others would follow the same track. The U.S. military presence in Vietnam, slowly but surely, increased from 800 troops
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During the Vietnam War, many types of works were created to express society's opinions on the war. “Fortunate Son,” by Creedence Clearwater Revival, served as a powerful anti-war song that demonstrated society’s bitterness toward the violence of the war. The song makes a clear distinction between the “fortunate sons” that would never have to serve in the war and the “unfortunate sons” that would be drafted into the war (Shmoop Editorial Team). The novel, “Paco’s Story” by Larry Heinemann deals with the emotional trauma of returning back to normal life after witnessing so many deaths in war. Paco, the main character, survived the war, but he had to watch as the people around him were killed (Lindsay). Curtis Bennett is a well-known poet who wrote a variety of poems dealing with the war. In these poems, he did not criticize the soldiers, rather he criticized the trauma of the war. (“Anti-War Poetry of Curtis Bennett / Read by Ed
North Vietnam came under the control of the Vietnamese Communists who had opposed France and aimed for a unified Vietnam under Communist rule. Vietnamese who had collaborated with the French controlled the South. For this reason the United States became involved in Vietnam because it believed that if all of the country fell under a Communist government, Communism would spread throughout Southeast Asia and further. This belief is known as the domino theory. The decision to enter Vietnam reflected Americas idea of its global role - the U.S. could not recoil from world leadership.
Tim O’Brien served in the Vietnam War, and his short story “The Things They Carried” presents the effects of the war on its young soldiers. The treatment of veterans after their return also affects them. The Vietnam War was different from other wars, because too many in the U.S. the soldiers did not return as heroes but as cruel, wicked, and drug addicted men. The public directs its distaste towards the war at the soldiers, as if they are to blame. The also Veterans had little support from the government who pulled them away from their families to fight through the draft. Some men were not able to receive the help they needed because the symptoms of Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) did not show until a year
When Vietnamese revolutionary Ho Chi Minh and his political organization, the Vietminh, seized control of their independence from France United States Politicians saw it as another communist take over. When really Ho was more a nationalist than a communist. All Minh wanted was for the United States to recognize its independence from France and to send aid to help it reach its nationalistic goals. "Before the Cold War Ho and the Vietmin...
The Vietnam War was a war over communism that started in 1950, when Ho Chi Minh, the national leader of Vietnam, introduced a communist government into North Vietnam. In 1954 it was decided to split the country at the 17th parallel, and was ruled under opposing governments, Bao Dai leading the south and Ho Chi Mihn the north. North Vietnam went to war with South Vietnam with the north being supported by Russia and China, as they were also Communist countries, and the south being supported by Britain and the USA.
The French eventually gained back some control over parts of Vietnam. In early 1946, the French began a series of dual negotiations with the Chinese and Viet Minh over the future of Vietnam. After failed negotiations with the French over the future of Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh and his Viet Minh retreated into remote parts of the countryside to fight a small-scale insurgency against the French. (The History Place, Beginner’s Guide)
After returning, Minh had help from the Vietminh; an organization of communist that wanted freedom from other countries. Their main goal was to turn Vietnam into a self-governed communist country. France wanted none of this non-sense. In 1945 they had moved back into southern Vietnam and ruled most of the cities. Ho Chi Minh swore to fight France to gain control of the whole country. U.S. promised to aid France, and sent almost $15 million worth of financial aid to France. The French fought for four years, being financially aided by the U.S. the whole time. The U.S. spent nearly one billion dollars in order to help France regain control of the tiny country. The only reason that much effort was put into a small area was the fear of the y. Domino Theory. The Domino Theory first showed it's head during a 1954 news conference by U.S. President Eisenhower. The domino theory is the fear of the spread of communism from one country to the next, and so on. Even with the assistance of the U.S. France could not gain the control it once had on Vietnam.
...ust deal with similar pains. Through the authors of these stories, we gain a better sense of what soldiers go through and the connection war has on the psyche of these men. While it is true, and known, that the Vietnam War was bloody and many soldiers died in vain, it is often forgotten what occurred to those who returned home. We overlook what became of those men and of the pain they, and their families, were left coping with. Some were left with physical scars, a constant reminder of a horrible time in their lives, while some were left with emotional, and mental, scarring. The universal fact found in all soldiers is the dramatic transformation they all undergo. No longer do any of these men have a chance to create their own identity, or continue with the aspirations they once held as young men. They become, and will forever be, soldiers of the Vietnam War.
The impact of the Vietnam War upon the soldiers who fought there was huge. The experience forever changed how they would think and act for the rest of their lives. One of the main reasons for this was there was little to no understanding by the soldiers as to why they were fighting this war. They felt they were killing innocent people, farmers, poor hard working people, women, and children were among their victims. Many of the returning soldiers could not fall back in to their old life styles. First they felt guilt for surviving many of their brothers in arms. Second they were haunted by the atrocities of war. Some soldiers could not go back to the mental state of peacetime. Then there were soldiers Tim O’Brien meant while in the war that he wrote the book “The Things They Carried,” that showed how important the role of story telling was to soldiers. The role of stories was important because it gave them an outlet and that outlet was needed both inside and outside the war in order to keep their metal state in check.
It all started with the French fighting a war against all of Indochina, and the U.S providing aid to the French in the late 1940’s. Even with the aid of America, Ho Chi Minh defeated the French in 1954, but America decided to become officially involved in an attempt to defeat the North Vietnamese communists. Eisenhower, addressed the United States with what he called the “Domino Effect,” basically stating that if we allow communism it will spread all over the world.
The United States involved themselves in Vietnam for four main reasons: they wanted to contain communism, prevent the domino effect, support a very weak South Vietnam, and get retaliation for being attacked. After seeing China fall to communism in 1949, Lyndon Johnson did not want to watch the same thing happen in Vietnam. He decided that the United States must fight to contain communism in Vietnam and prevent the domino theory. The domino theory simply stated that if one country fell to communism, neighboring countries would soon follow suit, falling like a set of dominos. Essentially, Americans believed that if South Vietnam fell, Laos, Cambodia, and Thailand would follow. Also, South Vietnam could not stand against the Vietcong alone because they were too weak and ill-equipped to fight. The United States believed that with good government, a large scale and ...
The conflict in Vietnam for the United States started when President Dwight D. Eisenhower went along with the domino theory and sent in military advisors in South Vietnam to stop the communist movement from taking place in South Vietnam. The Vietnam conflict was between the communist’s and the United States. North Vietnam was led by Ho Chi Minh, and Ho Chi Minh led the Viet Cong, a guerilla group to help spread communism. The United States were supporters of the South Vietnam because they wanted them to maintain their government rather than falling to the domino theory of communism. After Eisenhower’s term ended, John F. Kennedy became president and took control of the situation in Vietnam.
Without any intent of taking in Vietnam as an American colony, Kennedy was intent on protecting South Vietnamese democracy and American safety. Guided by ideas of anti-communism and the Domino Theory, these factors influenced America’s overwhelming presence in Vietnam, exhibited through imperialist dynamics. As a nation grounded in independence and revolution, American presidents carried this ideology into the sixties. In particular, Kennedy subscribed to the Domino Theory which asserted that when one country fell under communism, others would follow suit in succession, like dominoes (Morgan 134). If South Vietnam fell under communism, other countries in Southeast Asia would then follow suit.
The Vietnam War started in 1954, and grew out of the Indochina War with Ho Chi Minh forming the Viet Minh, or the League for the Independence of Vietnam. The Viet Minh fought both the Japanese and French colonial administrations
Throughout the Vietnam War, the public was filled with aggressive and passionate feelings when participating in countless protests or oppositions towards to concept of war. The United States’ involvement in the Vietnam War derived from the fear of the “domino effect,” which can be described as the fear of falling into a communist economy shortly after surrounding countries become communist as well. In the Truman Doctrine, the United States proposed to assist any countries resisting communism, in effort to suppress the spread of communism. Subsequently, the US aided South Vietnam in defending North Vietnam’s desire to conquer and eventually develop yet another communist nation. This was a controversial decision because the spread of communism
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.