Vietnam War Containment

The official era of the second Indochina war initiated on August 5, 1964, to May 7, 1975. Making it the longest war in both New Zealand and American history. The 1964 defeat of the French in the first Indochina war against the Viet Minh, spurred both New Zealand and British- American beliefs of the Viet Minh being a threat and a pivotal point in the expansion of communism in Southeast Asia. American President at the time, Dwight Eisenhower subscribed to the domino theory, which claimed that if one nation fell to communism, the rest would fall, like dominoes, in which the 33rd President of The United States, Harry S. Truman, believed in the policy of containment which is the concept of preventing the expansion of communism. This initiated the

We feared that failure to uphold our ties with our allies would jeopardize our defense mechanism, which NZ was sure to depend on in the future. Signed in 1951 and declared that security was ensured if needs be, the original declaration states “The parties of this treaty, reaffirming their faith in the purpose and principles of the chapter of the United nations and their desire to live in peace with all peoples and all Governments, and desiring to strengthen the fabric of peace, in the pacific area.” However New Zealand's involvement in the war wasn't at all voluntarily, after the French defeat against the Viet Cong in the first Indochina war, America pushed all its allies and on Sept. 8, 1954, formed a second alliance called Southeast Asia treaty organization (SEATO). This was initially formed as a regional alliance against the spread of communism. New Zealand's involvement within SEATO was at first hesitant, because we doubted the legitimacy of the threat of communism from expanding, and questioned that our input would spur external conflict, possibly with China. However, after the result of the first Indochina war, New Zealand's approach to national and regional security took a turning point, we believed and focused our defense strategy on forward defense, which is the

Not like Australia and America our reasons for conflict did not have an edge as captivating as theirs, as New Zealand was not eligible for conscription, and an individual's contribution to the war was not compulsory.The tension that was fuelled by our involvement within the war was surely noticeable and questioned NZ's affiliation with the U-S bombing and exposure of innocent civilians to toxic chemicals such as Agent Orange. Anti-Vietnam war movements were initiated in the mid-1960s and also challenged whether communism would be any actual threat to our country and lastly focused on the pros and cons of being affiliated in such alliances with America. Anti-Vietnam war demonstrations peaked near the edge of the war between 1967 and 1971, more evidently a riot emerged from the visit of US Vice President Spiro Agnew’s in 1970 and over 200 policemen were called to take