Divisions in the Presidents' Administration Caused by the Vietnam War

In her book The Vietnam Wars, 1945-1990, author Marilyn Young examines the series of political and military struggles between the United States and Vietnam, a nation that has been distinctively separated as the South and the North. Young chooses to express the daily, weekly, monthly progresses of the affairs collectively called the Vietnam Wars, focusing on the American interventions in the foreign soil. She seeks to provide an answer to a question that has haunted the world for years: What was the reason behind the United States interfering in the internal affairs of a foreign country in which it had no claims at all? Young discloses the overt as well as covert actions undertaken by the U.S. government officials regarding the foreign affairs with Vietnam and the true nature of the multifaceted objectives of each and every person that’s involved had.

In 1960s, the US was faced with another crisis of communist expansion in the war between North and South Vietnam. The Kennedy Administration decided to further pursue their containment strategy out of fear being seen by the international community as weak towards communism. During the Johnson Administration, an attack against American vessels that happened in the Gulf of Tonkin led to President Johnson being granted the ability to conduct broad military operations without congressional approval. The American public began to largely oppose American intervention in Vietnam because the optimistic statements made by the government ran contradictory to the reports of the violent fighting by American news outlets. During the Nixon administration, the US switched to a policy, later known as Vietnamization, where the main goal was to strengthen the South Vietnamese forces and provide them with better armaments so they can better defend themselves. Vietnamization proved to be ineffective as the South Vietnamese forces were unable to hold their own against the North without US air support as proven during Operation Lam Son 719 and the Easter Offensive. The signing of the Paris Peace Accords officially ended US involvement in the Vietnam War. The US followed containment policies during beginning of the war due to the underlying fear of the spread of communism and since the policies were inherited from previous

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.

The Vietnam war brought many changes to the United States in the 1960’s and the 1970’s. Some of the changes were for the better of the country, take the rediscovered Women’s Rights movements and the ever growing Free Speech movements inspired by New Left, while most of the other changes brought on tensions between government and their people. The Domino Theory pushed our leaders to the edge. In order to stop the Domino Theory in Vietnam, the U.S. invaded. The war was useless for the American government to get involved with. Even Robert Kennedy described our presence in Vietnam as ‘... sending a lion to halt an epidemic of jungle rot.’ (Doc E) From new groups forming to rebel, to inflation and loss of trust in the Government, from 1960’s to

By the time the of its conclusion, the Vietnam War was considered as a waste of life and deemed unnecessary by the American population. Sending American men to die in a foreign country in the name of capitalism did not resonate well with agitated families. Government officials, however, held a different stance on the war. Among those government officials, was President John F. Kennedy. “[JFK] became president in 1961 having proclaimed Vietnam the ‘cornerstone of the free world in Southeast Asia’” ( Keene et. al., p. 788). President Kennedy, fully committed to preserving capitalism, replies to a letter from a distraught sister whose brother was killed in the war while also detailing the need for U.S. involvement in Vietnam. President Kennedy justifies the reason for American lives in Vietnam being due to, “[determining] that [Vietnam] must not fall under Communist domination” (Johnson 275), confirming Kennedy’s beliefs in a communist-free world. Although the Kennedy Administration opted for a “middle path” by

In response to the increased threat of North Vietnam, recently elected President John F. Kennedy increased America’s presence in Vietnam without intervening by increasing the number of economic, military, and political advisers “from 800 in 1961, when [he] took office, to 16,700 in 1963.” However, once Kennedy was assassinated, Lyndon B. Johnson was elected and was accused of not doing enough to prevent this “domino theory” of falling into communism from happening.

The War in Vietnam remains to be a blemish of American foreign policy today and remains as a crisp thought to those who lived it. As the decades pass away through the sands of time, historians and civilians alike further their wonder of who was truly responsible for this calamity. Verily, this war was the full responsibility of Lyndon Johnson because he failed to learn from former presidents of why fighting was happening, he accrued some of Kennedy’s inept advisors and, he was selfish in terms of the reason why he gave the approval for war.

War is often seen as a sensitive and debatable topic and one of the most controversial wars to have ever been fought was the Vietnam War. In Lyndon B, Johnson’s “Speech on Vietnam (September 29.1967)” and Martin Luther King’s speech, “Why I am opposed to the War in Vietnam” we are offered two different perspectives on this matter. While Johnson provides reasoning on why we should fight the war, it is King’s speech that shows a more compassionate side to Vietnam that I agree with.

In the book Overthrow: America’s Century of Regime Change from Hawaii to Iraq, author Stephen Kinzer argued the many events that led to America’s long term failure of “regime change” in Iraq. I believe that the most compelling case for Kinzer’s argument of long term failure for the United States has to be when America tried to overthrow the leader, President Ngo Dihn Diem, of Vietnam whilst we were aiding the country. Even if America thought that getting a new leader would be better in the war against North Vietnam. This case was different than the others. For example, instead of just targeting person or a movement, the United States was targeting the leader of Vietnam during the time where America was aiding them in the way. In turn, when President John F. Kennedy and his advisors were together for a final meeting to overthrow Diem, Kennedy never gave a clear decision. Three days later, President Ngo Dihn Diem was murdered. This, of course, caused controversy and a major dilemma between Vietnam and the United States and eventually led to a strain between the two

Before entering the Vietnam War, President Kennedy had been warned by Charles De Gaulle, a French general, that war in Vietnam would trap America in “a bottomless military and political swamp” (Source A). Just a few years later, entrance into this very swamp resulted in a wide variety of changes in American life. The Vietnam War affected cultural aspects of American life by giving rise to the counterculture movement of the 60s and 70s, it affected economic aspects of American life by depleting resources in a long and drawn out war, and it began to tear society apart. The changes brought on by the Vietnam War had both positive and negative impacts that affected our country for years to come.

“The Vietnam War was arguably the most traumatic experience for the United States in the twentieth century.” (Donald M. Goldstein). Many times in America, our leaders have made impulsive decisions that, though persuaded by the correct intentions, resulted in even greater turmoil. The quoted source reflects the feelings of some citizens that view the United States as falling short when trying to lend a hand in the fulfillment of South Vietnam’s desire to become a democracy. In the case of the Vietnam War, the results of the decision to aid South Vietnam in its efforts to exclude itself from communism were not as triumphant as the United States had expected. The United States willingly sent its troops into a foreign country to help fight for its freedom; however, only some Americans were able to view this as loyalty to one of its allies. Many different opinions on the United States’ involvement in the war is questioned, and sometimes even condemned, by our society today.

The Vietnam War was a tragic part of the United States’ history that to this day holds a great deal of mystery and a lack of information. It was an unpopular war, taking place from 1955 to 1975, with surmountable losses on each side. Forty years later, the consequences of the Vietnam War are still prevalent in the side effects of Agent Orange, post-traumatic stress disorder of soldiers, and the national debt. Though those are significant problems, the biggest influence of the Vietnam War that impacted Americans was the staggering number of soldiers killed in action, missing in action, or taken as prisoners of war. Vietnam was a danger zone where no life was guaranteed, bodies were hard to recover dead

President Johnson reassured American citizens of the need to fight in Vietnam, and the importance of fighting the spread of communism. We were in Vietnam for four reasons; to support anticommunists in Vietnam, to strengthen world order, to prove we would be defenders of freedom, and because withdrawing would not end the conflict, as the fight would simply change locations. Johnson said “to withdraw from one battlefield means only to prepare for the

The United States intervention in Vietnam is seen by the world as America’s greatest loss and longest war. Before the start of the war in Vietnam, the thought of the United States losing this war was unheard of because America was technologically superior, no country in south East Asia could contend with them. Lyndon B. Johnson announced that he would not be the president to allow South East Asia to go Communist . Why the United States lost the war has been a huge debate since the end of the war, because there were so many factors affecting why they lost; the war was a loss politically, after losing support from not only the American public but also the South Vietnamese and losing a political mandate for the war by 1973, when the last

Robert Brigham writes that the Vietnam War, 1954-1975, started as a conflict between Vietnam and France. After many years, the French could no longer keep control in Vietnam and resulted in the French making a peace agreement with Vietnam in Geneva, Switzerland in 1954. The United States did not agree with this, so President Eisenhower created the “Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO).” In 1955, the Government of the Republic of Vietnam (GVN or South Vietnam) was created. Later that year, Ngo Dinh Diem won an election that made him president of the GVN. On December 20, 1960, the Communist Party’s new united front, the National Liberation Front (NLF), was created. In 1961, President Kennedy sent people to report the conditions in the South, which was later known as the “December 1961 White Paper.” This report argued for more military and economic aid, however, the people of his administration were urging the president to just withdraw from Vietnam altogether. According to Brigham, by 1963, it was clear that the GVN was on the road to political collapse. It was later decided that Diem had to be taken out of power and on November 1, 1963, Diem was killed. In August 1964, “the DRV launched an attack on the C. Turner Joy and the U.S.S. Maddox, two American ships in the Gulf of Tonkin, in response to American and GVN issues along its coast.”