The War in Vietnam Essay

During the Vietnam War, United States involvement was for personal reasons and fear of communism. Neither the United States or the Soviet Union should have been involved. The War was just used as a cover up for the actual silent, passive aggressive war between the United States and the Soviet. The Vietnam war was started by the North “Viet Cong” and their desire to unify Vietnam under communist rule. The South was against communism, making tensions grow until eventually, a war broke out on November 1, 1955. Five years later in the 1960s, the war was escalated with the involvement of foreign countries. While the North was supported by its communist allies such as China and the Soviet Union. The South was supported by the United States of America. The Americans wanted to halt or prolong the spread of communism. The “domino theory” compelled the U.S. to get involved as soon as possible because if not, the rest of Asia would fall to communism like “dominoes”. The U.S. involvement only started with Eisenhower administration when Vietnam split in half. This action of the United States was only for their own well being and their main goal was not for the good of Vietnam. During this time period the Vietnamese had just united and established the state of Vietnam. The war ended up lasting 9 years with long periods of bitter guerrilla warfare in the rugged jungles of Vietnam which would eventually result in the victory of the North and longed unification of Vietnam

He created a band called the Viet Cong. He wanted to get rid of the U.S. in the south and take over as a whole country. Vietnam became heavily divided. On August 2, 1964, North Vietnam shot fire at the United States Navy boats. This caused President Johnson to continue on with the war and he intensified it.

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

They had already been persecuted enough before with millions murdered and just as many trying to escape from the torture. The United States attempted to help get these non-communists out of South Vietnam by using a two-year period to ease the French out and create a government capable of raising and training a strong military to resist communist aggression (Keene, 786). The U.S. therefore felt it to be the right thing to help the suffering non-communist people in the fall of South Vietnam as others were strongly divergent of their

When the war started, North Vietnam took side with the communist party which includes China, Viet Cong, and supported by many other communist countries such as the USSR as the main supporter of armour vehicles, explosive, and weaponries such as Type 59, Type 62, T-55, T-54, T-34, however tanks such as those were proven inefficient due to jungled biome and the needs to cut down trees could jeopardise secret operations and ambushes. Guerrilla warfare was proposed by Viet Cong it helped the communist to attack or defend territory with repeat succession when fighting against the

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

The way that the United States got involved with Vietnam was in large part due to the way that we usually get involved in conflicts and disputes; out of a need to proactively or reactively respond to a threat to American interests at home or abroad. True to the times, the threat was communism and it came in the form of a North Vietnamese government led by Ho Chi Minh. The United States was convinced that Minh was wording with China and the Soviets in an attempt to unify Vietnam under a banner of communism (Roark, Johnson, Cohen, Stage, & Hartman, 2012, p.

Beginning in 1955, with the help of America massive amounts of U.S. military, political, and economic aid, the Government of the Republic of Vietnam (GVN or South Vietnam) was born. “The purpose of this offer is to assist the Government of Vietnam in developing and maintaining a strong, viable state, capable of resisting attempted

The United States got involved in Vietnamese affairs after World War II. Weakened by the war, the French were no longer able to keep their colony in Indochina, while Communist ideas and desire for independence from colonialism inspired Indochinese to take up arms against French colonial masters. The United States partly wanted to support the French as America's ally, but mostly wanted to prevent the spread of Communism in Southeast Asia, assuming that the fall of one country into Communist hands would lead to the fall of the entire region in a "domino theory." Americans also thought that the Vietnamese communists were part of the international communist movement. These assumptions

After all, who wouldn 't want that over being bossed around by the French? The pieces were slowly falling into place, but the people were still missing a leader to lead them to their independence. Ho Chi Minh would eventually rise to be the first president of the Communist-ruled Democratic Republic of Vietnam. After being exiled from Vietnam for 30 years, he returned to his country to fulfill his purpose with the support of China and Russia behind him. In 1941 Minh founded the Viet Minh, a Communist party that would soon be a force to be reckoned with. Four years, later on August 25, 1945, Ho Chi Minh and the Viet Minh declared independence, resulting in the abdication of Emperor Bao Dai and an end to monarchy in Vietnam4.

During the 1960’s he United States entered the conflict in Vietnam, mostly in fear of the spread of Communism. Without ever officially declaring war, the American nation entered the conflict under the claim “that it was defending South Vietnam against aggression from the North” (Anderson and Bourassa). It wasn’t until 1961 that the United States formed an official treaty with South Vietnam, agreeing to provide “provide military and economic assistance” (Badertscher and Goodwin) and would later sponsor a coup in 1963 that would result in the assassination of Ngo Dinh Diem, the first president of South Vietnam.

Two years later, on April 30, 1975, columns of North Vietnamese soldiers entered Saigon, meeting little resistance from the demoralized South Vietnamese army. The last American officials fought their way onto any aircraft available and left Vietnam to the Communists. Ho Chi Minh, who had died in 1969, did not live to see the moment. After years of struggle, Vietnam had been unified – but by force and at the cost of millions

Diem’s regime had turned to be oppressive, corrupted and unpopular, however the US government continued to prop it up, fearing the increase of resistance efforts by the communists in South Vietnam. Ho Chi Minh who was supported by Viet Cong organized the movement against Diem’s regime (SparkNotes Editor, 2005).

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

---Between 1955 and 1960, the North Vietnamese with the assistance of the southern communist Vietcong, tried to take over the government in South Vietnam, and in November 1963 President Diem was overthrown and executed. The following year, the North Vietnamese began a massive drive to conquer the whole country aided by China and Russia.