Causes Of The Vietnam War

Many people felt that this was a war of money that the U.S. didn’t need to interfere in and was being fought by North and South Vietnam, therefore we had no business getting in the middle of it. The United States should've thought of themselves and done what was best for them as a country. When Dwight D. Eisenhower left office, a new President came in with the name John F. Kennedy. JFK warns the American public about “Military Industrial Complex”. This affected Americans because we didn’t want all of Vietnam to become communist. From the beginning, the United States was not aware of what they were getting themselves into. Furthermore, they didn’t understand the nature of the war on who and why they were fighting.

The Vietnam War lasted longer, bloodier, and more hostile than any U.S. President or American citizen imagined. Lyndon Johnson faced many other enemies during the war such as the duration, the immense number of deaths, and for the first time in most American’s history, failure. Through deep evaluation of Lyndon B. Johnson’s foreign policies as President during the Vietnam war, failure was a recurring outcome, as he faced military and political difficulties over having complete authority over political decisions made leading to the misuse of his respective power, receiving split support through torn Americans at home, and his accord to deport so many troops into combat in Vietnam.

Even before Johnson became president, he had visions of a perfect society (Turbulent Years 67). When he did become president, he pushed as many of those ideas through Congress as possible. For instance, several medical aid and civil rights bills went into Congress and were approved. This was the crowning glory of Johnson's presidency.

Lyndon B. Johnson became the 36th President of The United States, following the assisantion of John F. Kennedy, who Johnson was vice president too. During his presidency two major events would occur in the United States, that Johnson had to resolve. He first has to deal with the conflict of the Vietnam War which was a major issue in the United States during his presidency, many people argued not to be there any longer since it was seen as a pointless and almost victory was seen as unachievable. Another goal of Johnson’s was to put the United States into to an era of social reform, in this goal he was highly successful. Johnson was reelected by the people as the President in 1964, where he won in a landslide showing how the American people approved of him at the beginning of his presidency.

Like To Harry G Summer , its President Johnsons fault for not committing the people of America to the Vietnam War. To others it was America’s irrational fear of communism to blame as well. All these factors do have important roles to play during the war. Who is to blame for the war? Well looking at the facts and taking it quite literally it is America’s fault that we lost the war. But technically we won our objectives and never lost any major battles. We only actually didn’t reach our overall objective. To Vietnam we lost the war . It may be the fault of President Johnson for not keeping the people well informed or giving them a “Call to

It was under President Johnson’s presidency that the United Sates sent U.S. troops to enter the Vietnam War. The military troops became involved in the conflict in order to contribute to the salvaging of the country underneath communism; additionally it was also supposed to prevent any further expansion of communism during that time. The French had sent in troops prior to the U.S., but after their retrieval it was the United States turn to contribute actively to the cause with military action (Rosenberg, n.d.).

The purpose of the Vietnam War was to stop communist expansion and to protect South Vietnam from attacks by North Vietnam and rebels within South Vietnam who hoped to unite the two countries under communism (Nelson, 488). This war was one of the most excruciating experiences in American history. It left us wounded and deflated as a superpower. Americans’ view of their country after a loss and embarrassment like this one was now ruined. No one president is entirely responsible for the development of this war, but Johnson was the first to send combat troops to Vietnam. Years later, after learning the deception of the Johnson administration, blame may be placed more upon Johnson and his manipulation of Congress and the public by publicizing a threat to our security that never existed. The administration took advantage of Congress and exaggerated or simply created an attack on the U.S. as an excuse to use military action on North Vietnam.

The Vietnam War greatly changed America forever. It was the longest war fought in America’s history, lasting from 1955 to 1973. The Vietnam War tarnished America’s self image by becoming the first time in history the United States failed to accomplish its stated war aims, to preserve a separate, independent, noncommunist government. The war also had great effects on the American people. It was the first war ever broadcast on television. The public was able to see what happened on the battlefield. One of the chief effects of the war was the division it caused among the people. Not since the Civil War had America been so divided. This war would have lasting affects on the United States.

The Gulf of Tonkin resolution was set as an attempt to contain communism in 1964 after the Gulf of Tonkin incident. This incident gave the U.S authority to join in the Vietnam war to try to seize communist aggression. Whether the United States should have been in the Vietnam war or should have stayed out is a very controversial issue. The United States however should not have been part of the Vietnam war due to political reasons.

"Many may think who was the cause of the Vietnam war what and why it caused, Consider a very highly reason that the United States.War methods were for the employed soldiers to fight the communist, sacrifices made by those that were hurt by the war. Public support for the war and the American government as the anti-war movement went on. Some say it was President Lyndon B. Johnson as he say’s this quote.”I guess we’ve got no choice, but it scares the death out of me. I think everybody’s going to think, “we’re landing the marines, and we’re off to battle.” Said on March 6, 1965.

The conflict concerning Vietnam can be dated back to the Cold War and the fight against widespread communism. The fear of a domino theory in Southeast Asia lies at the heart of U.S. involvement in Vietnam. Starting with president Truman and ending with Nixon, the Vietnam conflict continued to become progressively worse with time. Unlike previous wars, the Vietnam War tarnished America’s image as it was the first time in history the U.S. came out defeated while being far more advanced. However whether or not this conflict can be referred to as “Johnson’s War” is controversial. While Johnson is responsible for the escalation of the war, one man can not fully be at fault as this conflict was inherited by his predecessors and Johnson was within reach of acquiring a peace treaty until being interfered.

Let’s start from the beginning, the start of the Vietnam War started way before the fighting and war actually happened. The start of the Vietnam War really started at the end of WWII. Tension grew between the United States and the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union were a communist government, and the United States was very firmly against that. The United States had a fear of communism growing and that sparked the urge to get our foot in the door, and stop it. (Vietnam at War, Bradley) Northern Vietnam was also a communist government which of course meant they sided with the Soviet Union, which means we did not agree with North Vietnam. South Vietnam was not a communist government and they did not agree with the rules and the intentions of North Vietnam. This is where problems began.

During the summer of 1964, President Johnson received reports of that North Vietnamese torpedo boats had fired on the U.S. destroyer Maddox in the Gulf of Tonkin. In the first attack, on August 2, the damage inflicted was limited to a single bullet hole, and on August 4, proved to be only misread radar sightings. To Johnson this didn't seem to matter if the attack was real or fantasy, the president made a call for arms because he saw this as the beginning of a wider war. In the entire Congress, only two senators voted against his request for the power to "Take all necessary measures to repel any armed attack against the forces of the United States and to prevent further aggression." The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, as it came to be known, gave the President the freedom to conduct the operations in Vietnam as he saw fit.

Traditionally war serves as an instrument for peace with a defined winner and loser. This was not the case in the Vietnam War. As the longest war in U.S history, it spanned nearly 20 years encompassing 5 different presidential terms. The war in Vietnam served as a limited “proxy war” between the United States and Soviet Union fought to combat the spread of communism, to preserve a democratic state in Southeast Asia, and to limit the power of the Soviet Union. Due to the complexity of the Vietnam war itself one cannot categorize the war in terms of “winning” or “losing”, rather one must look at the political, ideological, and historical causations of the war

The Vietnam War was a major world event, that has affected many different people in various ways. Many different lives and families have been drastically changed forever, due to the outcome of the war. However, many do not know why the war started or how it actually affected Vietnam, the United States, or the people. According to friends who were alive during this time period, even some people who were living through it had no idea what the countries were fighting about, or how it was going to affect the world that they are living in.