Apush Vietnam War

The society in the United States and Western culture tends to be more conservative during the peace time and long time prosperity. The American faced problems with spread of communism in South-east Asia, which resulted in the Vietnam War. The war brought many government experiments with the economy, such as overheating the economy and high inflation due to the Golden Standard. Economics as a fiend of study introduced the new way of policy-making - the free market with minimal government interventions. This trend was followed especially by president Reagan, when his administration reduced taxation, government spending, and regulations.

The economy was in trouble because the United States had poured in some 168 billion into the war. During 1962- 1965 there was low inflation, almost full employment, and a favorable balance of trade. President Johnson declared a “War on Poverty” through his “Great Society” programs while escalating the war in Vietnam at the same time. However, his decision to finance both “guns and butter” – a major war and the Great Society simultaneously, without a significant increase in taxes unleashed an acceleration of inflation, when Nixon came into office. Although the real reason for inflation was the high military spending for the Vietnam war, the stall of economic growth had produced a more important matter, economic recession, and high unemployment. Though he did act upon them, his policy

The Vietnam War, lasting for approximately 20 years, was the longest and one of the most controversial wars in American history. Not only did the war take a heavy toll on the American troops fighting abroad, but it also led to riots and tension amongst Americans on the homefront. Two presidents devoted to winning the war against the spread of Communism in Vietnam as quickly and effectively as possible were Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon. Although Johnson was a Democrat and Nixon was a Republican, their foreign policies in Vietnam were similar because they both kept secrets about the war from Congress and because both of their foreign policies were disliked by the American public. However, they differed because Johnson escalated the United

1...The Vietnam war was a timely and expensive conflict between 1954 and 1975; the war pitted North Vietnam and its Southern Allies also known as the Viet Cong against South Vietnam and the United States. There were five Presidents during this time; Dwight Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford. Multiple things contributed to America losing the war of Vietnam and the fall Saigon. The strongest factors were the fear of communism, the fear of American military failures and domestic instability in America.

The war budget during World War II was very high and in result the economy was prosperous. This changed after major cuts had been made to Johnson’s Great Society as the entry to the Vietnam War was just too enormous (Doc H). Almost 200 billion dollars were used to support the Vietnam war. This massive amount could have been used to better domestic policies and better public agencies. This also led to increased inflation rates and the economy slowly started to go downhill. This inflation is better known as stagflation, as the high inflation was combined with high unemployment. In the eyes of George McGovern (Doc H), the U.S. has a very limited amount of resources which require much more immediate attention than the Vietnam War. He believes using this large sum of money of war is a waste of both the currency and the manpower. McGovern was an advocate for smaller military budgets and even smaller defense spendings. He did not approve of the massive defense spendings on behalf of the U.S. government. Nonetheless, he promoted the idea that limited defense spendings would not only reduce the increasing rates of inflation, but it would also make it easier to support the domestic programs of the Great Society. If more of the defense spendings were used to support programs on the homefront, the economic tensions during the 1965 to 1975 period may not have

In conclusion, the 1970s were a time in history that will be remembered for many years to come. The Vietnam War was full of controversy and frustrated the American pride the country obtained after World War II. The colleges in the U.S. were a popular location for anti-war protestors and even resulted in the death of several students. The draft was in full effect and created “draft-dodgers” which mostly fled to Canada to escape the war. Many Americans felt our military should not have even been in Vietnam, but the government feared the communist domino

In this journal, Mitchell Lerner offers his assessment on the commonly accepted view among historians and people generally that Lyndon B. Johnson’s popularity declined due to the way he handled U.S involvement in the Vietnam War, by keeping the growing involvement a secret and not being truly honest about the odds how a victory in this war. . However, Lerner argues that this evaluation of Johnson fails to take into account several aspects pertaining to Johnson himself and the political atmosphere of the late 20th century. Lerner first claims that Johnson did attempt to make his intentions with Vietnam explicit, but either his words were ignored or misinterpreted by many Americans. Additionally, Lerner asserts that Johnson actions in Vietnam, like increasing the amount of U.S ground troops in Vietnam, should have also made Johnson commitment to Vietnam evident. Again though, Johnson actions were ignored by the American people. Lerner reasons that the American people generally ignored Johnson’s affairs in Vietnam because they were more concerned with domestic issues plaguing the United

In the mid-1960s, Lyndon B. Johnson tacked his name onto a long list of U.S. presidents presiding over conflict in Vietnam. More so than his predecessors, however, President Johnson’s involvement was arguably more significant, because he was the first U.S. president to commit the United States to a ground war in Vietnam. His escalation of the war in early-1965 came as a surprise to many, considering his pledge to deescalate the conflict during the 1964 election campaign against Republican Barry Goldwater. However, in analyzing declassified executive documents, the Johnson Administration had, by the summer of 1964, decided that escalation in Vietnam was the only course of action which could feasibly end the conflict and establish stability in the region. Following President Kennedy’s assassination in 1963, Johnson felt it necessary to continue his predecessor’s legacy in Vietnam, although his reasons for doing so were less refined than were Kennedy’s. Unconfident in foreign affairs, Johnson was assured in one thing: his alarmist views on the spread of communism. Spurred on by the criticism of his contemporary Republican opponents, Johnson took a hardline stance at the beginning of his presidency, declaring that he would do whatever necessary to stop the spread of communism in Southeast Asia. Furthermore, understanding that a withdrawal from Vietnam would undercut the legitimacy of U.S. foreign commitments, Johnson—albeit reluctantly—ignored the suggestions of political

actions that resulted from opposition to the Vietnam War. These included political protest rallies and

Throughout Nixon’s campaign, his promise to the American people focused on law and order as he often spoke to the forgotten and silent (Richard Nixon 2014). Furthermore, he catered to this group in his domestic policy by attacking liberal programs and successfully passed significant and progressive social legislation such as welfare reform, strict environmental laws and consumer protection legislation (Richard Nixon 2014). The focus of Nixon’s agenda was to attack liberal ideology by confronting liberalism within the Supreme Court and concentrating on nominating conservative justices (Richard Nixon 2014). Where President Johnson’s desire was to win the approval of the American people by bringing them together, Nixon pursued to accomplish conservative control through division. However, both Johnson and Nixon encountered the developing social unrest which was deepened by the Vietnam War due to their presidential boldness (Pfiffner 2011, 13). President Johnson deceived the American people which worked to intensify the war as he did not want to endanger his Great Society Program (Pfiffner 2011, 13). President Nixon’s continuous pursuit of the war and opposition to the congressional efforts at ending the war led to his challenging

the most principal of all movement and events. The Vietnam War influenced all other events and

Both wars also had ideological motives as well. In Vietnam, the ideology behind all the fighting was so great that what started out as a civil war between North and South Vietnam ended up as an international war as the United

The Vietnam War was a long lasting one that started in an attempt to try to prevent Vietnam from joining the Socialist Republic, but at the end the United States lost the war and a lot of credibility towards other countries. This opposition and the fact that the first military defeat of the United States being, created a feeling of bad conscience in the US population considered against an unjust war, said Vietnam syndrome. Syndrome gave way to a movement for peace and lasted until the mandates of Ronald Reagan. The Vietnam War became a symbol, and still is, social groups and leftist parties in many parts of the world, then imitated an example of

Tensions were not only rising in Vietnam but they were also rising on American soil. Opposition to the war escalated as the casualties grew, which created divisions among people of the American society. The United States government

The more involved the United States became in the Vietnam War, the more money the government spent on the military. This left less money available for Johnson's Great Society. Many American citizens were against increased U.S. involvement in Vietnam. America lost territory after some attacks, and it took them weeks to regain. Americans started to distrust the government.