The United States Entered The Vietnam War

Over thirty years ago the Vietnam War ended, and the U.S. came back home with their tails between their legs and nothing to show for other than a high number of casualties, and a huge pile of debt. The U.S. underestimated the North Vietnamese army, and it was costly. Many believe that the Vietnam War was none of the U.S. business, but on the contrary, many believe we should have tried to stop the spread of communism. The long-lasting Vietnam War was unnecessary for the U.S. to be a part of; it put many people through unneeded stress and hard times.

As communism began to spread steadily and gain more and more attention, Americans became immensely concerned in what most saw as a detrimental threat. President Eisenhower only added to the hysteria by outlining the Domino Theory: the theory that a political event, in this case referring to the spread communism, in one country will cause a similar turn of events in neighboring countries, like a falling domino that causes an entire row to fall down. Although the Vietnam War is seen by many as the only option to try to end the spread of communism, the specious outcome of the war was not effective enough to justify the amount of unethical decisions and situations that were allowed to take place. In 1961, under President Kennedy, 100 Special Forces troops were sent to South Vietnam and by 1963, just two years later, U.S military advisors and Special Forces had increased to 21,000 troops. We will soon see that this is just the beginning and in my paper I will outline the full record of events all the way to the end of the war, including the reasons for U.S involvement, unethical decisions that were made, America 's effort to end the war, and the lasting impact the war had on the United States.

The US has been known to diverge from its once-isolationist state, engaging in international affairs like World War I and several other events alike. It’s therefore no surprise that the US intervened in the Vietnam War during the 1960’s. At the time, President Lyndon B. Johnson put forth new ideas, plans and tactics to help and protect the South Vietnamese and surrounding countries from communist influence. However, the United States’ initial goals and plans didn’t always go the way they had expected. Indeed, Johnson’s Vietnam policies failed because of his unreasonable military strategies and his inefficient political actions.

Secondly, America’s involvement in the war was under President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s governing force and it was his decision whether or not America should have entered the Vietnam War. The former president always wanted freedom for all and did what he could to provide it. During a speech led by a strong Vietnam believing citizen named Ho Chi Minh, he talks about the Declaration of Independence and how he wants just as America wanted; freedom for all. Ho Chi Minh stated that the “French appealed to the United States for assistance, but President Eisenhower decided not to comply [, and] France finally had to surrender its position in Vietnam” (Doc. B). Although America didn’t help the French in this situation they did agree on French action and at one point “The French pushed Ho into the countryside and established a puppet government, which was recognized and supported by the U.S. government” (Doc. B). The United States at this time would not agree or comply with any actions unless America was to gain something. In this situation, America would only help the French with military help if the French would give the associated areas

The Vietnam War was a result of the United States’ involvement in the Cold War against the USSR. The main goal of the United States during the Cold War was to contain communism and prevent the USSR from affecting other countries with their communist government. One of the concerns for President Dwight D. Eisenhower was that if communism spread to Vietnam, then other countries in Southeast Asia would become more susceptible to adopting communism. As a result, The United States entered a war in Vietnam, where they supported South Vietnam against the communist government of North Vietnam. The Vietnam War was a failed attempt by the United States to contain communism and support South Vietnam, because after decades of combat, the United States

The Vietnam War, once called “the most disastrous of all America’s undertakings over the whole 200 years of history” by George Kennan (Brinkley, p. 773) was a war where the United States entered to support South Vietnam. The goal was to help South Vietnam maintain an anticommunist government. What began as providing aid, turned into intervention, and then full-fledged involvement. In the beginning, few Americans protested America’s involvement in the war, however this drastically changed as time continued. Peace

History Controlled Assessment : Part A – Explain why the USA was involved in the conflict in Vietnam during Eisenhower’s Presidency

Before the famous Vietnam war started, America promised we would keep communism from taking over. When Eisenhower and Kennedy were in office they continued to supply weapons, funds, and military advisors to South Vietnam. America stepped in when North Vietnam began to take over South Vietnam. We stepped in to help South Vietnam because they are our allies and they couldn't take on North Vietnam alone. This action taken by the United States government to step in created many problems within our own country.

The Vietnam War was seen by all as horrible and by many, senseless. War has the ability to change people, countries, and even the harmony of the planet. After the Vietnam War’s end, many Americans didn’t want to hear or speak about the war. Many of the citizens in America wanted to forget it ever occurred. The United States had lost their invincibility to their negligence; the nation believed it could do anything. They especially thought they could end the war quickly in Vietnam and stop the spread of communism. The United States had joined the Vietnam War with hopes of becoming an alliance with France. This alliance would help turn the tide easily for them on what they thought was a naïve,

The main reason America decided to join the Vietnam War was due to their belief the ‘domino theory’ would occur if noting was changed. This is what would see them join the Vietnam War to help South Vietnam fight against the communist North.

The United States lost many things in the war in Vietnam. Some people may argue as the United States was deeply involved due to America’s desire to modernize and democratic.The effort the United States put in this war was inevitable for it not to happen as Nixon’s presidency would have no stoping it from happening. While leaving a non-communist entity south of that line. The united States refuse to accept the arrangement of the administration. As presidents committed the United States to conflict bit by bit, many of these ambitions were forgotten. Instead, inertia developed against withdrawing from Vietnam, Washington believed that U.S. withdrawal would result in a communist victory.

The conflict concerning Vietnam can be dated back to the Cold War and the fight against widespread communism. The fear of a domino theory in Southeast Asia lies at the heart of U.S. involvement in Vietnam. Starting with president Truman and ending with Nixon, the Vietnam conflict continued to become progressively worse with time. Unlike previous wars, the Vietnam War tarnished America’s image as it was the first time in history the U.S. came out defeated while being far more advanced. However whether or not this conflict can be referred to as “Johnson’s War” is controversial. While Johnson is responsible for the escalation of the war, one man can not fully be at fault as this conflict was inherited by his predecessors and Johnson was within reach of acquiring a peace treaty until being interfered.

US entered the Vietnam War in an attempt to prevent the spread of Communism. (Pg. 406)

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

This reason is linked to the Domino Theory as Truman supported the French in the hope that communism would not spread into Vietnam and hence preventing it from spreading to the rest of the world. Furthermore, this is a long term cause as containment was introduced even before the Domino Theory. A third reason why the USAbecame involved in Vietnam was when Eisenhower supported Diem's corrupt government in the South. Until this point it was a civil war between the communist north and the capitalist south.