A Summary of the Causation of the Vietnam War
Traditionally war serves as an instrument for peace with a defined winner and loser. This was not the case in the Vietnam War. As the longest war in U.S history, it spanned nearly 20 years encompassing 5 different presidential terms. The war in Vietnam served as a limited “proxy war” between the United States and Soviet Union fought to combat the spread of communism, to preserve a democratic state in Southeast Asia, and to limit the power of the Soviet Union. Due to the complexity of the Vietnam war itself one cannot categorize the war in terms of “winning” or “losing”, rather one must look at the political, ideological, and historical causations of the war
In the aftermath of WWII most European countries fell under the influence of the communist Soviet Union. At the time the Soviet Union was rapidly spreading it ideals of Marxist equality throughout eastern Europe (History.com). Fearful that the grasp of communism would spread rapidly outside of Europe, the United States shifted its attention to the Korean Peninsula where the soviet backed North Korean government threated war against the South. Realizing that communism was not a primary threat the
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The “falling domino theory” was a metaphor used by president Eisenhower to describe the uncontrollable spread of communism from one country to another. In essence “The dominoes Eisenhower described were countries, and the contagious element they carried were the political and economic features of communism (Leeson and Deane 1)”. The dominoes Eisenhower described also referred to cold war rhetoric. At the time the United States was in engaged in the cold war with the Soviet Union and attached great significance to the political state of countries associated with communism it. It was believed that if communism was not contained it posed a grave threat to
The Vietnam War of 1954 - 1975 was the longest and one of the most unsuccessful wars in U.S history. It took place in countries such as South Vietnam, North Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos. The war was a huge blow to the United States’ pride and military, so much that there were lotteries for soldiers. There were five presidents in office during the war, but the main presidents that had a big impact on being involved were Dwight Eisenhower, Lyndon B. Johnson and Richard Nixon. Although the objectives of the U.S being involved were good intentioned, there are many reasons to support that it was an Unjustifiable war due to the casualties. While looking at present information about the war, it was not needed for America to step into the territorial
The Vietnam War was the most controversial war in American history. Costing more than 47,000 U.S. lives and $140,000,000, the war had momentous impact on the country, politically, economically, and socially. More significantly, the United States failed to achieve its stated war aims, for the first time in history. The goal was to preserve an independent, noncommunist government in South Vietnam, but by the war’s end in 1975, all of Vietnam was under the communist rule of Ho Chi Minh’s Democratic Republic of Vietnam. The U.S. emerged from the war disgraced: a global superpower had been bested by the nearly third-world nation of North Vietnam. But how? Antiwar sentiment among the civilian population contributed to the American defeat, but
The Vietnam War was a grousing, costly battle that drained our nation morally and psychologically. The war lives infamously with the unpopularity received by America and its people. Many believed that we had no business joining arms with South Vietnam to try and defeat a communist regime of North Vietnam and the Viet Cong. With the war begining in 1954 due to the rise of the North Vietnamese and their leader Ho Chi Minh, an advocate for communism, which put a target on North Vietnam due to America’s pursuit to end communism around the world. By 1969 and the Wars 15th year of existence, more than half a million American soldiers had been involved. Many returning veterans and a large portion of the American public felt bitter about our involvement
The Vietnam War that took place between 1954 and 1975, was a war that many of us struggled to behold in the first place. There were different opinions and impressions that led the public to think different outcomes of the war. But, the public had the correct intentions. The war was not something that could be won, even though the South Vietnam were backed up by other countries including Australia who had a great deal of responsibility. The South Vietnam had no chance of winning this war for many reasons such as the publicity of the war, the terrain where they were fighting, and even the South Vietnamese war regime. The Vietnam War was destined for failure from the start…
The Vietnam War was one of U.S. history’s darkest times. It lasted roughly 20 years, from the autumn of 1955 until the spring of 1975. Because it recently became a new country, the North Vietnamese wanted Vietnam to have a social order that was based on Marxist ideas. The South Vietnamese disliked this dreadful idea, and enlisted the U.S.’s help to fight the North. As the years passed by, however, the U.S. slowly withdrew their soldiers due
“No event in American history is more misunderstood than the Vietnam War. It was misreported then, and it is misremembered now (Richard M. Nixon).” Many argue whether or not the Vietnam War should or should not have happened, I say that although most people do not want war it should have happened. I will explain this to you by first giving you some background information about this war. Then I will go into the theory known as the domino theory. After that I will explain to you how this war changed not only the United States but also Vietnam. Finally and most importantly I will tell you about the after effects of the War.
Background: The Vietnam war was a long conflict in Southeastern Asia, starting after World War II, ending in 1975. After losing the war, Japan seceded from the country in 1945, leaving the french with the urge of wanting to regain its long forgotten land. In addition, when China turned to communism in 1949, the communist views became a large influence in Vietnamese society. President Harry Truman was blamed for losing China to communists because he did not want to get the U.S troops involved so he instead aided the French. As a result, Vietnam wanted to become a Communist country; however, the United States was willing to help the lost cause of South Vietnam.
There were many causes of the Vietnam War, like government components and consequences that caused the Cold War. The causes of the Vietnam War were surrounded by the simple ideas held by America that communism was threatening to cover all over south-east Asia.
Initially, the war in Vietnam was in many ways, trivial – involving only limited action by a world superpower on distant battlefields of the Third World. However, US commitment in Southeast Asia persisted across fifteen years, marking it as the longest war in American History. The conflict took place during and thus became intertwined with the turbulent cultural and social uprisings of the 1960s, ultimately shifting the country’s course over the latter half of the 20th century. A flashpoint in the Cold War, the Vietnam War was essentially a contest of diplomatic and ideological hostility and an extension of the US’s policy of containment, which later exposed a myriad of other geopolitical, social and military ideas. It was also, however,
The Vietnam War was one of U.S. history’s darkest times. It lasted roughly 20 years, from the autumn of 1955 to the spring of 1975. Because it recently became a new country, the North Vietnamese, led by Ho Chi Minh, wanted Vietnam to have a communist government. The South Vietnamese disliked this idea so much that they enlisted the U.S.’s help. As the years passed by, however, the U.S. eventually withdrew the soldiers due to public unrest at home. This led to the defeat of the South and the communist reign.
The Vietnam War was a long lasting conflict in the Southeast Asia. It started after World War II in 1954 and didn’t end until April 30th, 1975. This war killed over 200,000 Vietnamese and over 58,000 American soldiers in the war; on top of that, the lives of over two million civilians. This war was also known as “America’s longest war” – that helped with the control of communism during the Cold War. For nineteen years, the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam) fought against the American-Supported Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam). This war ended in 1973 for the United States and then two years later; South Vietnam surrendered to the north.
Through six presidential administrations, The Vietnam War is known as America’s longest conflict. Between 1955 and 1975, a war rampaged between North Korea, a communist government and South Korea, an authoritarian capitalist (Jones, Wood, Borstelmann, May & Ruiz, 2014). Billions of dollars were spent, millions of Americans served, and it was the first televised American War. The United States supported South Vietnam because they too hoped to stop the spread of communism. By the 1960’s the American government increased their troops in Vietnam and in 1965, the first combat units were sent (Jones, Wood, Borstelmann, May & Ruiz, 2014). Today many of the American troops share their experience in relation to The Vietnam War. This paper will explore
The Vietnam War was a 20 year dispute over the political power struggle, unification, and spread of communism in their newly independent country. Northern Vietnam, officially known as the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, fought alongside their communist allies, the Soviet Union and China, for what they viewed as their independence and unity of Vietnam. The nationalists of the Republic of South Vietnam fought alongside the US and their other allies in the Southeast Asian Treaty Organization (SEATO) to prevent the spread of communism.
The Vietnam war occurred on November 1st, 1955. The war ended on April 30th 1975. The Vietnam war was in south and north Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos. The Vietnam war was between south Vietnam and north Vietnam. North Vietnam was supported by the USSR, china, and north Korea. The United states, Thailand, Australia, New Zealand, and the Philippines supported south Vietnam.
Before the Vietnam War, the United States had never lost a war. The military of the United States had grown to be one of the largest in the world. The post WWII boom boosted America’s economy to be the largest in the world, occupying 38.6% of the world GDP in the 1960 . Yet with all of its military and economic might, the United States could not defeat an insurgency seeking control of a third world country. The United States didn’t lose the war on the battle field; the failure of the United States could be traced to foreign policy failure, poor American military effectiveness, US military moral, loss of local support, and the loss of support from the American people. The United States should have won the war but due to its short comings faced a humiliating defeat that left millions dead, divided the United States and ruined millions of lives.