Chapter 18 portrayed the gruesome Vietnam War as the greatest antiwar movement the nation has faced. North Vietnam, led by Communist Ho Chi Minh, fought against South Vietnam, a democratic nation, for the expansion of land. Ho Chi Minh took control of Indochina from Japan. England occupied the southern part of Indochina and gave it to the French. Nationalist China controlled northern part of Indochina and neglected to return the land to the French due to its immense wealth in rubber and coal. As a result, the United States was involved in the Vietnam War and paid $1 billion to safeguard the French from China. Ultimately, the Unites States desired to prevent the domino theory, the spreading of Communism in Asia. Even with the immense support from the United States, the French were unable to win the Vietnamese popular support. Therefore, the United Sates supported the leader, Ngo Dinh Diem, the leader of South Vietnam, against the Communist nation. The United States involvement was a turning point in history and had a huge impact on society. The United States formulated …show more content…
Disputes against Americans living up to the ideals of the Declaration of Independence were prominent. From the commencement, the United States accepted the concept of equality. The Declaration stated, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.” However, men and women were paid unequally and racism was prevalent in society. Society sought help from the government to prevent corruption. Ultimately, the government was concentrated on the global affairs and the economy rather than uniting humanity. The Declaration of Independence sought to safeguard citizens, but the government was unable to follow the supreme law at
The Vietnam War was first derived from the gradual oppression of the communist party of the north over the region of South Vietnam. The North Communist party was supported mainly by China and the Soviet Union whiles the Anti-Communist party of South Vietnam was supported by United States and France. The communist party group, as known as the Viet Cong, was recognized for their guerilla war strategies within the region of South Vietnam, intended to fully expand and unify Vietnam under Communist rule. U.S. involvement with the Vietnam War starting in November 1, 1955, develops from the theory of the domino effect, stating that if one country falls into communism, a threat that can develop into the encouragement and spread of communism throughout the world in the future. It is basically viewed as a potential harm to the welfare of the United Sates. Therefore, due to the conflicting forces of the historical, political, economic and cultural nature of the war itself, it is known to be the longest enduring war in United States history that altered many lives of the Vietnamese and American community, leading to suffrage and acts of courage.
The Vietnam War was fought between North Vietnam communists led by their leader Ho Chi Minh and South Vietnam anti-communists led by their president Ngo Dinh Diem. North Vietnam was trying to taking over South Vietnam to make it a communist country. That is when the U.S. came knocking on South Vietnam’s door and gave them much needed help in 1950. In Eric Foner’s and John A Garraty’s essay, “Vietnam War,” they explain, “from Washington’s perspective, . . . [a]ny communist anywhere, at home or abroad, was, by definition, an enemy of the United States” because of President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s “domino theory” (Foner). Eisenhower’s “domino theory,” was a theory that if communists took over Vietnam, they would gradually control all of Southeast Asia. The first aid given by the U.S. was to France. Willbanks explains in his essay that the U.S. provided France, a South Vietnamese ally, $2.6
Vietnamese people wanted freedom and communist Ho Chi Minh wanted freedom for Vietnam therefore people supported him. But they all know that Vietnam belong to the French. Ho fought with French his army was in the north and he tried to get US to help him but US didn’t because he was communist and were afraid that communism would spread throughout South
The United States played a very crucial role in the conflict that occurred in Southeast Asia between the U.S.-backed democratic South Vietnam, and Soviet-backed communist North Vietnam. Following the defeat of its French administration in 1954, North Vietnam, led by Communist leader Ho Chi Minh, wanted to reunify the country with the help of its rebel allies in the south, known as the Viet Cong. Out of this chaos emerged a difficult situation for the United States, as Cold War sentiments were present within this proxy war between the two powerful nations and the third party of Vietnam. The United States wanted to support Ngo Dinh Diem, leader of South Vietnam, in order to ensure his government would not fall into ruins and be taken control by the communists, but President Eisenhower was also hesitant to get his troops involved in this large scale conflict in Southeast Asia.
The United States entered the Vietnam War in 1961 to prevent the spread of communism; the United States was afraid if North Vietnam successfully took over South Vietnam then they might have a chance to spread to other countries; thus, causing the Domino Theory. The United States’ fear of the Domino Theory transformed a civil war between two regions into a bloody miniature world war. The U.S. did nothing but lose there; they lost lives, equipment, time, kill more civilians than soldiers, and finally withdraw from the war. Even though the United States joined the Vietnam War to help stop the spread of communism, they never should have gotten involved, because it led to pointless fighting and
The Vietnam conflict began long before the U.S. became directly involved. Indochina, which includes Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos, was under French colonial rule. The Vietnam communist-nationalist, also known as the Vietminh, fought for their freedom from the French. The French were being slaughtered, and were doing little to keep the communist North Vietnamese out of South Vietnam. The U.S. sent financial aid to France to help them eliminate the communist threat. At the Geneva Conference in 1954, the major powers tried to come to an agreement on Indochina. There would be a temporary division on the 17th parallel in Vietnam. The Vietminh would control North Vietnam, and South Vietnam would be ruled under the emperor Bao Dai. There was to be an election held in two years to set up the permanent
There is no single fixed reason as to why the U.S. entered the Vietnam War. The United States became involved in the war step by step until it was completely committed, which was when Japan took over Indochina. There is, however, multiple reasons as to why stopping communism in Vietnam became a major U.S. priority. Presidents Eisenhower and Truman both advocated doing everything in their power to keep communism, which is a social system where all property is collectively owned instead of by individuals, from spreading throughout the world. Therefore, the domino theory is one of the major reasons it became a U.S. priority to prevent Vietnam from falling to communism. Another major reason for the action taken by the United States towards this dilemma would be that if the United States hadn’t taken part, the non-communist people of South Vietnam would have been persistently victimized and tortured. Lastly, it became a priority to the U.S. because the nation just generally felt responsible in helping Vietnam become independent and to be involved in the global fight against communism.
United State’s Cold War policy was beginning to come into play by this time. The U.S. was concerned with the domino theory, which believed that the communist overtake of North Vietnam would cause other countries in surrounding regions to adopt the ideology. In the interest of the U.S. to support South Vietnam, they back an anti-communist politician named Ngo Dinh Diem. In 1955, Diem took control of the South Vietnamese government with the support of the U. S. Later in
The Vietcong, who supported communism in the North, opposed the ruling of Ngo Dinh Diem. The United States eventually forgot about the Vietnamese conflict due to other foreign affairs, but due to the increased threat of Communists taking over all of Indochina, they were pulled back into the conflict.
From the beginning, the people of America had a distrust in the government when they first began to involve themselves in the Vietnam War. The United States feared that communism would overtake the world, and, unlike the majority of its citizens, the government of America felt it their responsibility to prevent this from happening. An opportunity presented itself in which America could aid in the prevention of the overtaking of Vietnam by a communist government. South Vietnam and North Vietnam were separated at the seventeenth parallel, and South Vietnam wanted it to remain that way and to become its own independent country and democracy. However, North Vietnam and its leader, Ho Chi Minh, wanted to unite both North and South Vietnam under communist rule. In 1954, President Eisenhower put into effect America’s plan to halt the spread of communism. Eisenhower sent a letter to Ngo Dinh Diem, the Prime Minister of South Vietnam, with America’s plans and motives in efforts to gain the trust of a possible new American ally. The citizens of America saw this, not as an opportunity, but as a danger to their precious country. The American government viewed South Vietnam’s situation as a cry for
The longest, most unpopular war fought by the United States, the Vietnam War (Caputo 4), claimed 50,000 of its lives (Samuels 4). The Viet Minh, a resistance group, conducted a campaign in 1946 with the intent to Vietnam, a French colony, into two separate countries. Known as the “domino theory,” the fear of communism spreading throughout Vietnam frightened the United States. (Samuels 4) The United States decided to intervene when “North Vietnamese military action forced a French withdrawal from Vietnam.” Beginning March 8-9, 1965, President Johnson sent the first round of troops to South Vietnam. Although the troops landed in 1965, their assistance to Vietnam began much earlier when they promoted the rulers of colonial
Even before the war had started, 80% of Vietnam itself was in support of the regime Ho Chi Minh, therefore, the United States were stacked against the odds. Within the United States government itself, there was a large divide between those that wanted the war, hawks, and those that strongly opposed the war, doves. Without a doubt, the communist Vietnam had numerous advantages against the United States even before the war started like landscape and better war tactics, such as, setting up bear traps around the jungle, digging tunnels to the camps around Vietnam, and bombing some camps at night while hiding out during the day. Tactically, the Soviet Union played a large role in spreading the communist mindset within Vietnam. By providing ammunition, soldiers, and moral support, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics had a large enough influence within the country that the war was practically between the United States and the Soviet Union. The Cold War had a large impact on the Vietnam war and based on the domino theory, the United States just simply did not want to lose Southeast Asia and were prepared to go to war even if the likelihood of them winning was low. The communist Vietnamese even had an advantage in terms of soldiers because civilians joined forces against the United States military in order to remove the invaders from their territory. This commenced to non-stop fighting, violence, and death throughout Vietnam, the United States, and other nations that took part in the war. Although the idea of containment was why the war seemed reasonable, the fact that Vietnam turned completely communist anyway invalidates the cause for the war, while also undermining the reason millions of lives were lost during the years of
America's involvement in Vietnam was rooted in the containment policies of the Cold War. President Eisenhower and Truman believed that if Southern Vietnam fell to the Communists that all Southeast Asia would be next (The Domino Theory). Starting with the fall of China in 1949, which turned a local nationalist struggle against the French rule in Indochina into a world wide strategic battleground. As far back as World War II, FDR had supported the Vietnamese forces led by Ho Chi Minh a communist, and had called for an end to French Colonial rule. However after Jiang’s Failure, American policy changed. Fears of a communist victory in Indochina caused the United States to abandon its position of neutrality and openly endorse French policy
To understand the US involvement in Vietnam, it is necessary to understand the background of traditional independence and opposition to larger powers throughout Vietnamese history. The Vietnamese had a long history and tradition of opposing invading powers. This opposition and culture was to draw the U.S. into the longest war it has been involved in. This was an indirect but vitally important cause of US involvement in the Vietnam War. As early as 500BC, Vietnam was a country that held a strong sense of nationalism, and endeavoured for the goal of autonomy, independence, and self-rule. Up until modern history, there have been several events that have contributed towards intensifying this sense of nationalism and resistance against foreign powers. National resistance against the Chinese empire was one of the earliest examples of resistance against nationalism. Throughout the period of pre-modern history from 210 BC to 1789, resistances against foreign control and rule such as that against the Nan Yue, the Song, the Ming, and the Qing, were frequent. These attempts at national resistance came down to the basis that the nationalist Vietnamese did not want foreign influence determining the political future, culture, or customs of their country. Another main example that increased a sense of nationalism was French Colonialism. The French, who were appealed by Vietnam’s unique location, natural resources, and the extensive economic opportunities
During the peak of the Cold War, the US and USSR were the two world superpowers, going head to head in proxy wars around the world. One of the most famous proxy wars was the Vietnam War, in which the technologically superior US army lost to the inferior North Vietnamese Army (NVA). Prior to the Vietnam War, the French IndoChina War ended several years earlier, in which the Viet Minh forces managed to push out the French forces, separating the country into two; the Communist North lead by Ho Chi Minh, and the South led by a French-backed emperor. By then, the US government feared that the fall of North Vietnam to communism would cause neighboring countries in Southeast Asia to follow, creating a chain reaction dubbed as the “Domino Theory”.