Economic Development As A Tool Of Foreign Policy

During the cold war, the United States engaged in many aggressive policies both at home and abroad, in which to fight communism and the spread of communist ideas. Faced with a new challenge and new global responsibilities the U.S. needed to retain what it had fought so strongly for in World War II. It needed to contain the communist ideas pouring from the Soviet Union while preventing communist influence at home, without triggering World War III. With the policies of containment, McCarthyism, and brinkmanship, the United States hoped to effectively stop the spread of communism and their newest threat, the Soviet Union.

President Dwight Eisenhower conditionally pledged to support South Vietnam’s new nation in 1955. In the time period between 1955-1961 the United States pumped seven billion dollars in aid so that Vietnam would not “go over quickly” like a “row of dominoes” (McNamara 31). In the next 6 years Vietnam would cost America billions of dollars, thousands of lives, and the disaffection of much of the United States public. Yet in the end, South Vietnam would fall to the North less than 2 years after the United States military involvement ceased.

The Vietnam War was a result of the United States’ involvement in the Cold War against the USSR. The main goal of the United States during the Cold War was to contain communism and prevent the USSR from affecting other countries with their communist government. One of the concerns for President Dwight D. Eisenhower was that if communism spread to Vietnam, then other countries in Southeast Asia would become more susceptible to adopting communism. As a result, The United States entered a war in Vietnam, where they supported South Vietnam against the communist government of North Vietnam. The Vietnam War was a failed attempt by the United States to contain communism and support South Vietnam, because after decades of combat, the United States

(Lecture notes, March 16) Half of Vietnam wanted to be communist the other half wanted to be independent and Americans got involved in a war that had nothing to do with us out of fear that if we did nothing communism would spread until it threatened the American way of life. Many Americans wanted out of the Vietnam War, including President Johnson, but were afraid to pull out without just cause because as Johnson said, “America had chosen the path of containment with open eyes.” and to pull out would make Americans look weak and cowardly to the rest of the world. (Brands, pg.

The war dragged on from 1946 to 1954. The French had a certain deal of

The Vietnam War’s initial purpose seemed to be clear: to destroy and prevent the spread of Communism to Vietnam and neighboring nations. This notion was backed by the belief that Communism’s spread was similar to falling of dominoes. The belief was named the “Domino Theory”, as Communism spread to one country; each neighboring country would fall to the clutches of Communism, one by one like toppling

This helped both the United States and Europe. The United States was able to get Europe to adjust to their “concept of U.S. foreign aid programs”, while Europe tried to prevent communism from taking over their nation. The Domino Theory also represented multiple events such as the Korean War and Vietnamese War. As mentioned in the Domino Theory, the land around one, that had already fallen due to communism, would also fall with it and in both wars, Korea and Vietnam were at risk of communism taking over. Thus, this led to American involvement, as stated in “Eisenhower Gives Famous ‘Domino Theory”, “Eisenhower’s words had little direct immediate impact–a month later, Dien Bien Phu fell to the communists…

With the US beginning to go into a cold war with the USSR, communism was the number one enemy of the US at the time. Asia in particular was a region where the US had a lot of missed opportunities in trying to stop communism. Vietnam, formerly Indochina, was a great source of materials and a good area to set up operations against communist China, and keep a barrier between less powerful nations. Thus when communism appeared in the region, the US was sure to try and stop it.

The Vietnam War gradually expanded and escalated from 1962-1967 where three distinct phases characterized major shifts in the U.S. military approach. Contributing to the gradual expansion of military commitment was not only the lack of a comprehensive strategy, but also a failure to understand the enemy. Furthermore, policy makers viewed Vietnam in the context of containment where the U.S. approach centered on limited objectives; namely preventing the spread of communism and promoting regional security while avoiding war with Russia and China. Conversely, North Vietnam engaged in total war for unification while

As tensions rose between the United States and the Soviet Union, the once “Cold War” became “hot.” Factors that contributed to rising tensions were political shifts and confrontations between the U.S. and the Soviet Union. Both superpowers had global connections with other nations, which made local conflicts a big part of the Cold War. In many of these local conflicts the United States and its allies supported one side, while the Soviet Bloc supported the other. This allowed the two superpowers to confront each other indirectly instead of head to head. In 1949, China was overrun by Communist forces, which scared the U.S. because of the domino theory. The domino theory stated that once one nation fell to Communism many more would follow like the falling of dominoes. During this time, many European colonies sought the help of either superpower to help them gain their independence. This is how the Cold War became very “hot.” In many battles for independence, shooting wars broke out between the two sides, which included the two superpowers. In some places the brutal conflicts tore the

Many people still ask why America invaded Vietnam yet why it did not win the war, against the spread of communism. Instead, many U.S. soldiers lost their lives, but they managed to destroy a country’s economy, which was starting to show recovery from the French colonial control. Back in the late 1940s, American involvement in Vietnam was driven by the Cold War, in an effort to contain communism, as expressed by the Domino Theory. America’s military invasion into Vietnam came in the 1960s, in an effort to protect the Southern region from the invasion of the communist North authority. Nevertheless American troops were being overpowered by a peasant Vietnam army who had the support of Communist China and Soviet Union. Modern Vietnam is still fighting

With both the USA and the USSR intending to ‘share’ their ideologies with the world after WII, a state of political and military tension formed, which in turn created a Cold War and “From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain [had] descended across the Continent.” as said by Winston Churchill in 1946. Global expansion (and world domination) is absolutely key to the theory of communism, so to America’s displeasure, the USSR supported the Chinese Communist revolution in 1949, Communist North Korea in the war from 1950-53

The Vietnam War is an example of the U.S. putting the pragmatic strategy of containment ahead of idealistic or materialistic strategies when it came to foreign policy decisions. When scrutinizing the U.S.’s involvement in the Vietnam War more broadly, it is evident that the U.S. had no business in getting involved in Vietnam other than the fear that Vietnam would adopt a communistic government following its independence from France. In fact, much of the U.S.’s actions were hypocritical to the democratic values it claimed to be upholding in aiding the South Vietnamese. The U.S. had decided to back Ngo Dinh Diem as the leader of Vietnam in 1955, despite French and American officials doubting his capabilities. Diem continued to give U.S. officials headaches with Diem’s regime persecuting non-Catholics and other dissidents in South Vietnam, setting up “re-education” camps, and not following the U.S.’s advice to land reform to turn the farm land over to the peasants. Tired of Diem’s uncooperativeness, the Central Intelligence Agency backed a coup to overthrow Diem.

You might wonder what the Domino theory had to do with the cold war? The cold war nation was born of the domino theory which held , if one of our neighboring countries fell under communist influence or control we would soon follow ( U.S History ).The U.S. got involved with the domino theory

North Vietnam was a communistic country when South Vietnam was a capitalize country, that shows where the problem was. The reason why we helped or aided South Vietnam was because the U.S. government viewed its involvement in the war as a way to prevent a communist takeover of South Vietnam. So we sent about 500 thousand military personnel to Vietnam.This was the best idea to stop communism from spreading at that specific time period. We also helped South Vietnam because Eisenhower wrote to South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem and promised direct assistance to his government.The North Vietnamese government and the Viet Cong were fighting to reunify Vietnam. That was the immediate cause of the Vietnam War and why we aided South Vietnam in the Vietnam