The Domino Theory: The Vietnam War

the United States escaped the blunder of defeat, American blood was lost in this war and the

The Vietnam war has been referred to by many names, one of the longer ones was 'the cornerstone of the free world southeast Asia'. It was called that by John F. Kennedy. He was talking about Vietnam being and essential country in a non-communist world. He believed that if Vietnam became a communist country, all of the surrounding countries would also become communists. This is the main reason America was involved in the Vietnam war. Another reason was that America wanted to spread their “political ideas around the globe”. They wanted to do this so that their anti-communism stance was clear. The public also wanted to keep communism from spreading. To soldiers, the war was like a crusade, a great journey to purge the communists from Vietnam.

The domino theory was defined as the held belief that if one communist country fell, neighboring communist countries would fall with it, and in turn, communism would eventually reach America and take over the world. This was theorized by American foreign policy advisors, but the phrase was popularized after Dwight D. Eisenhower’s use of it in one of his speeches. In this speech, he talked about the importance of American intervention in South Vietnam to allow the creation of a buffer country (South Vietnam), a country or state that stood between a potentially

- quoted by Pilger, J., (2001). p.182.) This proved to be one of the many propaganda missions played out by the American government to convince the people of America of the just and honourable need to go to war in Vietnam - although notably during these crucial, early stages of the war, much of America’s military involvement and activities in Vietnam went unreported in the American media and it is argued that ‘[the] American press was simply not interested in Vietnam’ (Wyatt, C., (1993), Paper Soldiers: The American Press and the Vietnam War, p.67).

The ‘Tet Offensive’ showed the first signs of the effect the media had in Vietnam, which led to the the question of “why did the audience see what they saw?” Firstly, unlike previous wars journalists had “extraordinary” freedom to cover Vietnam without any direct government intervention. Overtime this noticeably created a problem where the harsh brutal accounts from journalists differed from the positive optimism that United States Officials portrayed. The media was simply the messenger to the American people. But this was the first instance where technological advances had allowed a war to be played out on your own television screen every night of the week. The journalists reacted in the same way as the American public; they too were shocked beyond belief at the constant scenes of burning villages, bloody soldiers and lifeless bodies. These feelings came across in the broadcasts and like the ‘media effects theory’ explains, naturally Americans took up that same belief. This was the first time that the American public showed collective beliefs opposing to the war. To further push public opinion against the war, Hallin suggested that there was a “…declining morale among American troops in the field…”. The thirty-minute nightly

     Eventually, the media’s coverage was a severe blow to the war effort. In a live

US policy during the war was weak and not nearly aggressive enough to beat the North Vietnamese. For example, President Johnson was unwilling to order a full scale invasion of North Vietnam. His reason for this was it passed through the territory of countries not involved in the war This was due to fears that it would also provoke China into entering the war directly. Another example would be Johnson’s refusal to cut off the Ho Chi Minh Trail. As a result, supplies would continue to flow uninterrupted. The reasons for not cutting off the trail were mainly political. These political reasons include not wanting to breach Laotian neutrality, especially since the North Vietnamese had no qualms about breaching, and that US

In the 1950's, television, having been introduced to political coverage as a new medium, surpassed the dominance of newspaper and radio media as the primary public source of information regarding politics by 1962. Political processes and events of various measures were all soon televised in recognition of overwhelmingly positive public feedback. By the 1970's, live coverage of major political events were as common as seeing grass on the ground.

By 1968, after fighting for 7 years, America won almost every battle they fought with a death ratio of 1:10. But in January 1968, during the Vietnamese Lunar, Tet, the North Vietnamese Army and Viet Cong attacked the American and South Vietnamese forces violating the Tet Mau Tanh ceasefire agreement which the North

The media’s portrayal of the war was genuinely positive during the beginning of the war. During the early years news coverage was mainly in 3 minute ‘newsbites’ (Shah, 2003) and focused on military operations and political policy (Hallin, 1986). These short segements would later increase in air time as the war gained more public attention. Journalists quickly flooded to Saigon to report on what would become the most heavily reported event of the time. Reporters had been granted full access to troops and fighting (Kenneth,

During the time of the war the Vietnam came about war a different way than the Americans. The Americans used the same strategy they used in WW2 which seemed to be very successful for us and the Vietnamese used an all out, no grudge strategy known as guerilla warfare. This strategy had no petty on mankind. A group of people sprayed trees, houses, grass and etc with a chemical called herbicides. They sprayed over 19 million gallons of it across about 4.5 million acres of land.

Even though the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution stated they had no political ambitions or military ,the story seemed more than just providing aid to a week country but rather was United states committee to prevent communism. Vietnams war can be perceived for some individuals as a way of America giving assistance to south Vietnam based on making decision in what they believe is best for the population, however helping and assisting in a war according to my definition of terrorism.

For Americans, the 1960’s were a time of both unnerving turmoil and exciting change. Following on the heels of the 1950’s themes of tradition and conformity, the contrasting events and attitudes in the sixties constituted a perfect storm leading to a reconstruction of American social, cultural, and political ideals. Although each decade has experienced identifying features, events occurring during the sixties provided for a definitive coming of age era for the United States. While much of this revolution can be attributed to the events themselves, the medium used for disseminating these ideas bears some of the responsibility. Throughout the decade television replaced radio and newspaper as the primary source of news and entertainment.

At the time, two world superpowers were at a stalemate. The United States and the Soviet Union, each with opposing ideologies and policies. Otherwise known as the Cold War, the domino theory was dominant during this time period as the US used it as an excuse to involve themselves in conflicts where communism may become a problem. The US policy, the “domino theory” was one of the main cause of the war as the country feared that if Vietnam came under the influence of communism, the rest of Southeast Asia will follow them. The US and their firm belief

Good evening ladies and gentlemen, I have more updates on the war in Vietnam. On May 7 Dien Bien Phu fell into the Viet Minh. Me and my administration have gotten together to discuss ideas of what to do, but in the end I made the decision to not do anything to aid the French because it has gone too far. In other news, the National Security Council presented me with a paper titled “Review of the U.S Policy in the far East”, and I approved of it. This paper mentioned that the United States should support Ngo Dinh Diem of South Vietnam, and encourage him to establish more democratic institutions. However, Diem refused this offer when we offered it to him. The last update that I have for today is about the domino effect. The domino effect in Vietnam