Opposing the Vietnam War Essay

In this way, the Truman administration attempted to justify its hostility toward all communist states; the United States’ involvement in the Vietnam War stems directly from the paranoia of communism that caused Truman to implement this policy. It is clear that the American government under the duress of the slow expansion of communism felt that using force to prevent the spread of an opposing economic and political structure was perfectly justifiable. However, this policy likely led to more disastrous military conflict, such as the Vietnam War, was based primarily on fears of a conflicting ideology, and had little evidence to back up the fears that may otherwise have been rational. The Western policies of containment exacerbated the issue of communism and its spread through Asia, perhaps even enabling it through worsening foreign relations with countries that otherwise posed no threat.

There are many reasons that cause the US declared war. The important one was the US want to make the world safely for democracy. Beginning with Germany attacked the U.S. from submarine , German sunk American ships and taken American lives. It increased tension between two nation. And from the document Woodrow Wilson Speech said “ Neutrality is no longer feasible or desirable where the peace of the world is involved.” meaning they have no longer to stay out of the war. So The US. declared war to make the world safe for democracy and to make peace for the whole world.

Johnson. We simply did not have the knowledge and the man power to do it. Another point we wanted to make if we got involved in Laos was to cut off the Ho Chi Minh trail to cut off the supplies coming in to South Vietnam from North Vietnam, thus winning the war. Some analysts have an interesting point to make as well, stating that “expanding the war would only be detrimental and have less of an impact.” Brigham states that “most leading military strategists in Hanoi agree that cutting off the Ho Chi Minh Trail would not have accomplished anything for the United States.” A third suggested strategy was the concentration of U.S. forces on defenses of “enclaves” close by strategic assets. This was just a more thought out and sophisticated way than the current invasion strategies. Analysts say that the reason this strategy would not have worked is because their superior fire power would not have been used to its maximum advantage if they were all being herded into these

What happened to america? It was like the country had been split in two, document 4. So what happened, part of america wanted to go to the war and others did not want to. So people believed that the war is pointless and that we should have never gone there. Others believe that we should have gone because like president Lyndon B. Johnson said that we had made a promise and that we needed to stop the rise of communism. Many riot had broke out like the march down fifth avenue that lead to 60 arrests but over 200,00 students joined, found in document 5 Another one was the kent state riot were not only 15 collages shut down but what was devastating was that there had been a shooting by the police, again found in document 5 This had just enraged the country even more. So what was the impact of the war on the united states foreign

Throughout the Vietnam War, American soldiers faced a problem. Thick foliage covering Vietnamese soil hid Vietnamese soldiers, causing difficulty for the Americans, but advantages for the Vietnamese. This foliage also allowed Vietnamese soldiers access to essential crops. Both of these advantages from plant growth allowed Vietnamese soldiers to fight efficiently and allowed them success. According to the book Agent Orange: History, Science, and the Politics of Uncertainty by Edward Martini (2012), the vegetation of Vietnam “retains its leaves year round; consequently it afforded ideal concealment to guerilla terrorists who sporadically attacked the free people of Vietnam.” (p. 24). The original problem the American soldiers faced in the war was a local problem, as it only affected the people in the local radius of plant growth-heavy areas in Vietnam.

During the Lyndon Baines Johnson presidential administration, both those policy makers who supported America’s involvement in Vietnam and those who opposed the war were part of the “containment generation.” They had reached political maturity during World War II and the early years of the Cold War and had experienced the intense anticommunism of the McCarthy era of the early 1950s. These leaders understood and applied the lessons of American nationalism, which had the primary message that the U.S. was the dominating nation that had to embrace its responsibility to aid and improve nations in America’s image. Therefore, when they saw that there was a threat of the spread of communism to areas of Southeast Asia, a majority of the

Many Americans still don't know why we joined in on the war,but the US needed to do something to save the jewish people of Europe.This war was documented as the most deaths in any war.It is calculated that anywhere from 45,000,000-80,000,000 deaths in World War II.Lots of families were affected during this time with the lose of their family.But it wasn't just the families being affected at home,one of every twenty soldiers returned home with PTSD.This war is still affecting many people,especially the soldiers it was recorded in 2004 that 25,000 veterans still deal with

On March 29 in 1973, the last American troops left Vietnam, leaving thousands of missing behind. The same day, a few hundreds of war prisoners were released in Hanoi. Within a couple of months, the war between the North and the South was restored and it was soon apparent that the communists are more unified and have a military dominance. In Cambodia and Laos, where the fights were not so strong, the communist victory also seemed unavoidable. In March 1975 the northern Vietnam commenced a complete military invasion in the South. Southern president Thieu asked Washington for help, but the democratic majority in the Congress refused and on March 30, the Americans could watch on TV how North-Vietnamese tanks enter Saigon, which was soon renamed to Ho-Chi-Min’s town. Scenes in American embassy in Saigon, where thousands of scared Vietnamese fought for places on board of last American helicopters were a sad ending of the biggest American foreign policy catastrophe.

But they struggle heavily because the Vietnamese use the jungle to hide, kill soldiers, and kill innocent people. The difficult times that Soldiers went through

When war broke out, there was no way the world could possibly know the severity it would have taken on the people of the world. Fortunately one country saw and understood that Germany and its allies would have to be stopped. America’s Involvement in World War II not only contributed in the downfall of the insane Adolph Hitler and his Third Reich, but also came at the best time and moment. If the United States entered the war any earlier the consequences would probably have been worse.

The United States’ spread of democracy ideology to other countries even if other did not agree was form of American interfering to change societies. Throughout the numerous wars between the Civil War and the present, the U.S. fought four wars them being WWI, WWII, The Korean War, The Vietnam War, and The global war on terror. America’s push against communism and toward liberal democracy, lead the U.S. to take action and intervene in other countries to show their grand development and influence the enforcement of a democracy. Throughout these wars the U.S faced change as there was an increase of industrialism, communism threat, and their interference in foreign policy. The increase of industrialism was a major change to American society as

The United States battle tactics did not fare well against an unseen enemy, who rarely presented himself in a full-scale battle, but rather picked at units one by one. A conversation between a colonel in the U.S. army and a colonel in the Vietnamese communist army summed up the guerilla warfare tactics used: "You know you never defeated us on the battlefield," said the American Colonel. The North Vietnamese Colonel pondered this remark for a moment. "That may be so," he replied, " but that is also irrelevant." The revolutionaries in Vietnam used hit and run attacks. They would assault small groups of soldiers, by sneaking up on them. This worked well, because it allowed the Viet Minh to avoid bigger battles, which they were not trained for. They knew that the U.S. soldiers were unfamiliar with the battlegrounds and jungles, so they used this weakness to their advantage, by being able to move more quickly and stealthily than the U.S. troops. They also knew how to

Majority of the American public criticized the war because they believe that as powerful as the US is, bombing an underdeveloped small country like Vietnam

seems now more certain than ever that the bloody experience of Vietnam is to end in a

The French then left Vietnam agreeing to most of their demands. This conference was held at Geneva and a treaty was signed called the Geneva peace agreement. As a result of this a portion line was set up dividing the south and north of Vietnam. This line was also demilitarised. America did not sign this; they saw this as giving into communism and hated it completely.