Falsification: The Gulf Of Tonkin Incident

For the sake of conciseness, and in order to focus the bulk of the content on the main topic, this essay will make certain assumptions. Most importantly, the essay assumes that the conflict in Vietnam was, indeed, lost by the US. It also presupposes that � due to the political climate in the US � the war itself was unavoidable. Finally, the essay takes for granted

Upon the French’s exit, the American involvement and commitment escalated with the use of the political establishments in South Vietnam to assist in the curbing the spread of Communism. This presented America an opportunity for them to significantly integrate themselves in the South Vietnamese government to further delay the reunification election from taking place in 1954. The attacks on the US naval vessels during the Gulf of Tonkin incident provided the U.S, under the Johnson administration, another justification for the escalated involvement of the conflict in Vietnam. In which, the U.S responded with the Gulf of Tonkin resolution to launch a full-scale military effort towards the North until their withdrawal from Vietnam in 1969. The desolate gradual departure of America in Vietnam was summarised by Senator James Buckley as “that damning silence of those who cannot find even a single word of compassion for those under Communist tyranny”. It can be inferred from this context that as the situations in Vietnam continue to evolve, the American’s participation also varied to align with these conditions.

During the Vietnam War, these soldiers has shed their blood and sacrificed their future for their homeland, but their government, their society and their families alienates and forsakes them. Unlike any other wars happened throughout the history of America, the reason for United States to get involve in the Vietnam War is to stop the spread of communism, a very simple but also very unreasonable. Instead of volunteer, the majority of the soldiers in Vietnam War were drafted without any prior notice. Hence, before going to war, the soldiers find themselves having a difficult time of trying to seek for a reasonable purpose of going to war. Some people try to escape from the drafting process and stay home or continue their education. Other people, who actually go to war say “’I just want

The war in Vietnam was a war against communism that tore apart the US. The United States of America plunged together with its allies and played a tremendous role as far as fight against communism is concerned. A huge number of American soldiers were deployed in Vietnam a practice that coupled with much unpreparedness. The soldiers were not aware what exactly they were up to in Vietnam. Most Americans at the time were very much against the act. It was one of the most deliberating wars America plunged herself into and the only one to have been lost. Most intriguing is the amount of publicity and media buzz created by the film industry. Vietnam War was the topic of many television networks, music and Hollywood. Journalist and veterans and scholar were never left behind and went ahead to produce tones of literature on the legacies and lessons to be learnt from the war (Hochgesang, Lawyer, and Stevenson). The exploitation of the soldiers and rejection of the veterans created just as much interest as the war had created. One such commentary came from George Kennan, who depicted the war as one of the most disastrous mission The United States has ever undertaken (Westheider 155-159).. This essay will establish the effects the war had to the US soldiers.

The Vietnam War is in no doubt, one of the most controversial conflicts that the United States has been involved in. “The fear of Communism sparked the United States to take major foreign initiatives after World War II” (Document 6). As stated previously in that quote, the Vietnam War as well as many other conflicts of the Cold War era all stemmed from one thing: the United State’s perhaps “irrational” fear of Communism. This paper will discuss the legality of the Vietnam war through moral and legal perspectives. The Vietnam war was illegal by; violating moral standards, the United State’s Constitution, and multiple United Nations agreements.

Many Americans believed that the war ravaged country of Vietnam, had to be resurrected from grave. Beginning in 1964 and growing in later years, anti-war protests began forming. Outrage from civilians erupted when President Johnson issued the draft, as he felt the Americans needed to take a more aggressive action against North Vietnam. Young men refused to join the fight and protests emitted from college campuses and major cities such as Washington D.C. and New York. ((n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.texasgateway.org) and ((n.d.). Retrieved from http://avuth15.wix.com/thecoldwar are both primary sources illustrating anti-war protests, showing the outrage that America had towards the war. By 1968, the whole country had felt the war's impact. When the war finally ceased and the troops returned home, the protests, the actions by the government and the war itself, had taken a toll on the country. America's opinions were sharply turned against the war. The veterans who fought bravely in the war, returned to a nation that was bitter towards anything related to the war. Today, a Vietnam War memorial has been erected in Washington, to honor those who sacrificed their life for their country. As shown in ((n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.english.illinois.edu), the Vietnam Veterans Memorial was built to honor the U.S defence members who died in service in South-East Asia. As a result, the social

In this essay I am going to discuss the impact of the antiwar movement on the course of the Vietnam War and ultimately the role the movement had in ending the war. My argument is that the antiwar movement did influence some Vietnam policies; however it did not directly end the war. First I will discuss the impact of the antiwar movement during Lyndon Johnson’s time as President, I will then examine the impact of the movement throughout Richard Nixon’s presidency, and then I will discuss the overall impact on both presidents’ policies; I will then consider the general opinion Americans had towards the movement and finally I will evaluate the role that the movement had in ending the war.

Relating to Appy’s claim, as escalation grew after the Tonkin Gulf, America began to wage an unmoral war that was not supported by the Americans and Vietnamese or understood by American soldiers. Agreeing with Appy’s claim, the prime issue of an immoral and unjust war is one that America must realize and understand the full consequences that this has had on the nation if it is to learn any lessons from Vietnam. Originally told that the war was fought to contain communism, bombing campaigns as Operation Rolling Thunder annihilated many villages and the countryside where it was believed that the Viet Cong were stationed. Proven more often than not to be unsuccessful, only to produce the numbers of unidentified Vietnamese bodies and remains that

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.

The mass disapproval of the Vietnam War stemmed on the account of Americans losing faith in the government, based upon the moral implication of the war, and the unnecessary interference of the United States in foreign affairs. And due to theses ramifications the public upheaval resulted in a massive social movement against the entirety of the war. However, the brunt of the public’s outcry was felt by the returning soldiers. The primary source is of a young drafted soldier, Sebastian Ilacqua, who recounts his experiences in Vietnam and his unforeseen homecoming from the war. The source is based on his outlooks and experiences which can be interpreted as bias.

The Vietnam War was, and still is highly controversial. Whether or not the United States should have entered the war is still up for debate. However, when considering the war’s impact, it seems quite clear that the nation shouldn’t have. 1967 was a time when many Americans were heavily divided not just over America’s involvement and action in Vietnam but also about their values and morals. It was in this year that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his speech “Beyond Vietnam” in which he provides exceptional reasoning for ending the war, and a call to action for Americans to fix not only the damages of war in Vietnam, but also in their own country. After reading his speech, it is very clear why the United States should have stayed out of

In the recent decades since the Vietnam conflict there have been debates over whether U.S. leaders and military personnel or the common U.S. people had a greater impact on the outcome of the conflict. At first glance it may seem like the common people played a greater role in the outcome of Vietnam because the large number of antiwar protests put pressure on the leaders to withdrawal troops. However, when the situation is further examined it becomes apparent that the U.S. leaders and military personnel’s lack of knowledge about the North and South Vietnamese people and their use of poor military tactics ultimately made the war unwinnable. The unwinnable state of the war was not influenced by the ant-war protests held by the common U.S. people,

The purpose of this paper is to explain why opposition to the Vietnam War increased over time and to explain why the criticism of the war was justified. The Vietnam War was the first war that was heavily televised. This meant that reporters went to Vietnam to try and find interesting stories and that civilians would see gruesome images every night in their living room. People saw the brutal images of war every night, but the government kept telling them that America was winning the war. The Tet Offensive was the turning point for many Americans.

“Beyond Vietnam” is a speech by Martin Luther King Jr. in a meeting of religious leaders and laymen concerned about Vietnam. It is apparent that the executive committee shared the same sentiments Martin L. King Jr. that a time has come where silence will be viewed as betrayal. In my view even when pressed by the desires of inner truth, people tend to not easily accept the act of opposing their government policies. So this was a bold step that the Clergy and laymen took in opposing the government especially in times of war. This paper tends to discuss the Martin Luther King, Jr. speech analytically in a clear and outright way.

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