War is inevitable in any country, it has transpired in our past, in our present, and will continue to transpire in our future. Being a country, the United States has been involved in many wars that including the Vietnam War. The Vietnam war began in the 1960’s and lasted about 15 years. There are many questions to be asked about this war such as, why did we get involved in the war in the first place, what impact did this war have on American society, and what was the impact on our foreign policy due to this war?
The U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War is confusing to many. President Harry Truman stated in document 1 “ I believe that we must assist free peoples to work out their own destinies in their own way” this means that we have to help countries
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achieve and or maintain freedom especially if communism is in the picture, but not take over the country and do it our way. Also, in document 3 “WHY ARE WE IN VIET-NAM?” Lyndon B Johnson said “We are there because we have a promise to keep. Since 1954 every American President has offered support to the people of South Vietnam.” What he means by saying this is that we cannot just pull out of Vietnam when things get bad, we have to stay and assist them and try our best to end the conflict. Things began to get bad when The North Vietnamese and Communist Viet Cong forces launched an assault in the late 1960’s. The assault was against targets in South Vietnam. The U.S. and South Vietnamese militaries sustained heavy losses before finally repelling the communist assault. The impact on American society do to the war was massive. First, America's economy, was affected from the war. We spend 170 billion dollars on the war which today is in the range of 1 trillion dollars. To fund this war the American people were taxed greatly as seen in document 4b. It shows that taxes were going to the war not that “Great Society.” Also, Many American soldiers were affected by drugs, when they came home from the war their battle with drugs did not end. They got addicted to escape the war, it was very easy to obtain drugs in vietnam since marijuana is grown almost everywhere. The Vietnamese Government took steps to get rid of marijuana but soon a more addictive and destructive drug came into play, heroin. Heroin is one of the most addictive drugs which makes it deadly and dangerous. Soldiers were getting hooked on heroin or other opiates to escape the war, sadly when they returned home they were full on addicts. Many soldiers went through months of withdrawal from the drugs and were very sick. There wer a ton of reasons why the public disapproved of the war but a major contributor to this was the media. The Vietnam War was the first war to be televised. The war was on TV's everywhere, with no censorship, this means citizens were seeing everything that was going on. Many people believed that it was the media that sparked the lack of support for the war. The Tet Offensive, for example, would become one of the most climatic events in which the media played a role. Up to that point, the media had portrayed the U.S. as winning the war. When the North Vietnamese sprung up and attacked the U.S. saw we were not exactly winning. As the images filtered across TV screens and magazine pages, people began to doubt President Johnson’s credibility. In just a few days American support for the war took a rapid turn around. The United States foreign policy has changed throughout history, especially after the Vietnam War.
The war increased caution about involvement in foreign affairs. After Vietnam, we weighed the risks much more about intruding in another nation's problems in the fear of having another war. Also, we were scared to use military power in almost any circumstance because we were scared of another Vietnam War, this was called Vietnam Syndrome. In document 7 the War Powers Act is discussed. The purpose of this act is to check the president's power to start an armed conflict. The president needs consent of congress to authorize the use of the military. This is a big deal because congress never declared war on Vietnam. Also, document 8 has to do with using military powers in foreign conflicts because many American Soldiers who fought in Vietnam are now in congress. The document stated “But the Vietnam experience has given almost all of them a sense of seasoned caution about using American military power without having the broad support of the the American people.” This is major because we now see how if a country's soldiers and people do not even understand what they are fighting for, the outcome is not going to be
good. The Vietnam war was very controversial. Many people wonder why we got involved in the war and how this war has affected our country. It is clear that the U.S. did not have to get involved in Vietnam but at the same time you see in documents 1 and 3 that we were helping the South Vietnamese and trying to do the right thing. The toll that the war took on home was terrible, it was rough on the soldiers and the everyday citizens themselves. The foreign policy of America has changed with the formation of the War Powers Act which make checks and balances stronger to benefit the country and the understanding that you can not win a war without the support of your citizens.
On the contrary it can be argued that the Americans had lost the war for not being able to win the hearts and minds of their own people and thus already losing support of their country additionally their inability to cope with the rigorous environment of the Vietnamese landscape and the Vietcongs use of guerrilla tactics proved devastating to their war effort.
...untry to war at anytime and anywhere in the world. Because of this, the American people want to have confidence in its leader’s abilities. Plus, the actions of the President and his staff have a direct influence on the thoughts and perceptions of the people towards interference in foreign countries. Most people did not find the threat of Vietnam falling to communist rule as justification for the number of lives that were lost.
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?
In the early 1960s the U.S. began sending military advisors to South Vietnam beginning the Vietnam War, arguably the most controversial war in United States history. This incident followed Vietnam gaining its independence from the French Empire’s Indochina in 1954. The nation soon split, creating a communist North Vietnam, and a noncommunist South Vietnam. In fear of communism spreading the U.S. supported South Vietnam and sent troops. As the incident dragged on it caused a huge anti-war movement and a lot of political turmoil.The troops were withdrawn in 1973, the whole country fell to communism, and the U.S. failed. How did a superpower such as the U.S. take defeat from a small country like Vietnam? Many have wondered and continue to wonder
JOHN F. KENNEDY IN VIETNAM There are many critical questions surrounding United States involvement in Vietnam. American entry to Vietnam was a series of many choices made by five successive presidents during these years of 1945-1975. The policies of John F. Kennedy during the years of 1961-1963 were ones of military action, diplomacy, and liberalism. Each of his decision was on its merits at the time the decision was made. The belief that Vietnam was a test of the Americas ability to defeat communists in Vietnam lay at the center of Kennedy¡¦s policy. Kennedy promised in his inaugural address, Let every nation know...that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and success of liberty. From the 1880s until World War II, France governed Vietnam as part of French Indochina, which also included Cambodia and Laos. The country was under the formal control of an emperor, Bao Dai. From 1946 until 1954, the Vietnamese struggled for their independence from France during the first Indochina War. At the end of this war, the country was temporarily divided into North and South Vietnam. 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 was known as the domino theory. The decision to enter Vietnam reflected America¡¦s idea of its global role-U.S. could not recoil from world leadership. The U.S. government supported the South Vietnamese government. The U.S. government wanted to establish the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO), which extended protection to South Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos in case of Communist subversion. SEATO, which came into force in 1955, became the way which Washington justified its support for South Vietnam; this support eventually became direct involvement of U.S. troops. In 1955, the United States picked Ngo Dinh Diem to replace Bao Dai as head of the anti-Communist regime in South Vietnam. Eisenhower chose to support Ngo Dinh Diem. John Fitzgerald Kennedy was born in Brookline, Mass., on May 29, 1917. Kennedy graduated from Harvard University in 1940 and joined the Navy the next year.
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.
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.
It is understandable that some Americans strongly opposed the United States getting involved in the Vietnam War. It had not been a long time since the end of World War II and simply put, most Americans were tired of fighting. Mark Atwood Lawrence is one of the people who opposed our involvement in the Vietnam War. In his essay, “Vietnam: A Mistake of Western Alliance”, Lawrence argues that the Vietnam War was unnecessary and that it went against our democratic policies, but that there were a lot of things that influenced our involvement.
The participation of the United States in the Vietnam War was Archer 2 the subject of much debate with the American public throughout the duration of the war. The war in Vietnam did not cause any direct harm to the United States. The conflict was between the Vietcong, rebel communists in North Vietnam, and the South Vietnamese. The U.S. became involved in preventing the attack. the spread of communism.
The Vietnam War totally changed president’s power, economic situation and normal Americans’ lives. As the start of all the chaos in Vietnam, the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, gave president power to take all necessary measures to repel any armed attack against the forces of the United States (Doc A). Which numerously increased President’s scale of power. After the long fights in Vietnam, the War Powers Act in 1973 limited President’s power on wars (Doc G). The war was expensive. The country spent plenty of money to supply the army in Vietnam (Doc B). As a response, presidential candidate McGovern asked all that is necessary for prudent defense, and no more (Doc H). Which shows American considered not all the costs were necessary and
Nixon’s principle objective was to reduce U.S involvement in the war, so he began the process called Vietnamization which gave the South Vietnam the money, the weapons, and the training that they need to take over the full conduct of the war. In return, the U.S troops would gradually withdraw from Vietnam. The president proclaimed the Nixon Doctrine, declaring that in the future Asian allies would receive U.S support but without the extensive use of U.S ground forces. Nixon’s Vietnamization process reduce the number of antiwar protests, but when the president expanded the war by using U.s forces to invade Cambodia in order to destroy Vietnam’s communist base, a nationwide protest occurred. U.S senate voted to repeal the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution
The true answer to why the United States got involved in Vietnam lies in part in the Truman Doctrine. This statement is true for two reasons. First, the Truman Doctrine set forth a policy that was applied the international spread of Communism. Second, the Truman Doctrine was brought up when the conflict in Vietnam was increasing. The first United States involvement in Vietnam began in the late 1940's, long before it escalated to include the United States Military. Because of the basic terms or the Truman Doctrine, the United States was drawn in the Vietnam conflict. The Truman Doctrine dealt with fears of Communism, the domino theory, and a feeling there was a need for containment. All of Vietnam was in danger of falling into the hands of Communism.
The Vietnam War was a war that changed America forever. It was a long, costly war between Communist North Vietnam, with the aid of the Viet Cong, and Capitalist South Vietnam, aided by the United States. It was a controversial war at the time, but today, it remains embedded in America's history as a war to be remembered.
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.