U.S. Bombing of North Vietnam

However, Diem was a poor controller, a bad ruler. He, along with his brother, made brutal policies against Buddhists and eliminated a large amount of them in the Buddhists sanctuaries of Saigon. Diem's brother Nhu was heavily involved in these activities together with his brother's full support and the army trained by American military advisors (Moss, 2010). Nhu's wife even referred to the Buddhists as "barbecue" on a television show. All of this along with the fact that the Buddhists were denied the right to display their holy flags on the birthday of Buddha caused an immediate outburst in South Vietnam. Heavy protests started taking place and several Buddhist monks even burnt themselves to fatality as

The Vietnam War is one of America’s longest lasting wars beginning in 1955, and lasting until 1975. The United States became involved in the Vietnam War because of its efforts to stop communism in Southeast Asia. The United States feared that if communist took over Southeast Asia it would cause a domino effect around the world. The United States began sending financial aid and military advisors to South Vietnam to help stop a communist takeover. North Vietnam was run by communist leader Ho Chi Minh, and the South had a non-communist government. An election to unify Vietnam would be held in 1955, fearing that Ho Chi Minh would win the elections South Vietnam president Ngo Dinh Diem refused to hold an election that would unify the country.

In 1960s, the US was faced with another crisis of communist expansion in the war between North and South Vietnam. The Kennedy Administration decided to further pursue their containment strategy out of fear being seen by the international community as weak towards communism. During the Johnson Administration, an attack against American vessels that happened in the Gulf of Tonkin led to President Johnson being granted the ability to conduct broad military operations without congressional approval. The American public began to largely oppose American intervention in Vietnam because the optimistic statements made by the government ran contradictory to the reports of the violent fighting by American news outlets. During the Nixon administration, the US switched to a policy, later known as Vietnamization, where the main goal was to strengthen the South Vietnamese forces and provide them with better armaments so they can better defend themselves. Vietnamization proved to be ineffective as the South Vietnamese forces were unable to hold their own against the North without US air support as proven during Operation Lam Son 719 and the Easter Offensive. The signing of the Paris Peace Accords officially ended US involvement in the Vietnam War. The US followed containment policies during beginning of the war due to the underlying fear of the spread of communism and since the policies were inherited from previous

The Geneva Peace Agreement in May 1954 set the foundation for the developments in the next coming years in Vietnam. The Agreement accorded that Vietnam was to be divided at the 17th parallel into communist North and democratic South Vietnam giving each country independence, a 200 day legal migration period and general elections to be held at both zones in 1956 to reunify Vietnam. The division would cause developments in each country including economic development through the growing nationalism in North Vietnam, political developments through political ineptitude and corruption in South Vietnam and social changes

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.

Because Johnson believed in the domino theory, that if one county turned Communist, namely Vietnam, then neighboring nations would also turn Communist, his approach to the Vietnam War was to escalate the attacks to the point in which the Communists could no longer fight back. Johnson escalated the war through a variety of attacks, including Operation Rolling Thunder, which was the first of many aerial bombings on North Vietnam. Moreover, it was under Johnson’s administration that tens of thousands of American troops were dispatched to Vietnam which was another factoring intensifying the war. On the contrary, Nixon’s approach to the war in Vietnam was to pull out American troops because he valued American lives over containing Communism in Vietnam. Therefore, because the war had reached a stalemate by the time Nixon was in office and he valued American lives over containing communism, he implemented the process of Vietnamization, the organized transaction of American troops in Vietnam that were replaced by South Vietnamese troops. The reason why Johnson chose to escalate the war while Nixon tried to bring American troops home was because of their differing political views. Since Johnson was a Democrat and held some fairly liberal beliefs, like helping the impoverished at any cost, it was only natural for him to show compassion for the South Vietnamese by fighting Communism in order to create a better quality life for them even if it meant sacrificing American lives. However, because Nixon held more conservative views and believed in preserving order in one’s own nation before reaching out to others, Nixon implemented the process of Vietnamization in order to bring

In the first essay Fear, Ambition, and Politics by Robert Dallek, he talks about the way that the United States started to really conflict with Vietnam and how some of Lyndon Johnson’s issues led the U.S. into it. One thing was clear and it was that Lyndon Johnson did not want communism to spread. Johnson’s advisors would continuously report to him that things were starting to become more serious in Saigon. Johnson did not want to send troops though, saying the he would “not permit the independent nations of the East to be swallowed up by Communist conquest, and it would not mean sending American boys 9 or 10,000 miles away from home to do what Asian boys ought to be doing themselves.” Clearly his word did not last though. Dallek seems to have a rather negative view of Johnson because he wasn’t taking the precautionary steps to prevent certain events, and he could not keep his word. Johnson seemed to disagree with his own actions about what we should do in Vietnam because it was so unpredictable. He did not want American involvement, but the pressure ended up getting the best of him. He sent one of his advisors, McGeorge Bundy, to Vietnam to talk about what we should do to help alleviate South Vietnam. Bundy thought that U.S. action was a must or “defeat would be inevitable and there is still time to turn it around.” Johnson then decided to start bombing the North on February 8th, but he was not pleased with having to make this decision. This is known as the Rolling

The Soviets were more concerned about the security situation in Europe while China feared being dragged into another Korea style confrontation against the US in Indochina and therefore pressured the Vietminh to accept the division of Vietnam. The result of the tensions at the conference due to behind the scenes pressures and secret meetings was the Geneva Agreement of 1954. It was a compromise which satisfied nobody. This would soon lead to a second Indochina war due to the involvements of the U.S who sought to spread nationalism and anti communist ideas throughout Vietnam and the Soviet and China who supported the Communist North.

Widespread disaster, extreme mobilization, heightened fears and are all characteristics of war. The Vietnam War was a war that spanned almost twenty years, with over a decade of those years involving the United States military forces. During the war, elections so if things aren’t going your country’s way on the battlefront you are going to be on the hot seat. This is exactly what happened for Lyndon B Johnson amidst the Vietnam War. The year was 1968, with the incumbent President, not running for office anymore. The President of the United States was up for grabs and between the Vice President, Hubert Humphrey and Richard Nixon. Richard Nixon, in order to gain the upper hand in this election, would sabotage peace talks in Vietnam and end

The years precluding the Vietnam war, there was a war taking place in Vietnam. It was known as the Indochina War, where the Vietnamese waged war against the colonial rule of France. The French were defeated in the battle of Dien Bien Phu. Following this defeat, there was a peace conference in Geneva, which resulted in Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam to receive their independence. The Geneva Accords officially divided Vietnam into North Vietnam and South Vietnam. Ho Chi Minh and his communist forces led the North. A French backed emperor led the south until elections in 1956. These elections were supposed to reunify Vietnam.

The Vietnam War was the longest war in the history of the United States it lasted from 1959-1975. Billions of dollars was spent trying to win and unwinnable war. Countless of lives were lost and America failed to achieve its objective. The origins of the war stem from the Indochina wars that occurred in the late 40s and early 50s. After many years of colonial war, the Viet Minh a communist group led by Ho Chi Minh sought independence for Vietnam. The French were not reluctant to let go of their crowning jewel without a fight. The French were aided militarily by the Unites States who sought the membership of France to the NATO and were willingly to provide as much aid to ensure that they won the war and Vietnam did not fall to communism. This led to an eight year war which culminated with the defeat of the French at the Battle of Dien Bien Phu. A cease fire was issued and peace agreements known as the Geneva Accords where drawn during the 1954 Geneva Conference. The agreement issued a temporary division of Vietnam along the 17th parallel which created a Communist North Vietnam led by Ho Chi Minh and a democratic South Vietnam led by prime minister Ngo Dinh Diem. Vietnam was supposed to unify after the nationwide election of 1956 which Diem refuse to acknowledge.

However despite this the Vietminh relentlessly used every resource at their disposal to conquer the hill. This was such a humiliating defeat for the French that it persuaded them to pull out of the war. The Geneva Agreement proposed that Vietnam would be split in two, and elections would be held every 2 years to determine who would run the country. But America failed to agree and refused to sign as it believed it was to the benefit of communism. Ngo Dinh Diem was the southern Vietnamese Prime minister, he and his government were supported by the Americans despite being extremely corrupt.

In 1965, the United States of America officially enter the war against North Vietnam. After the Gulf of Tonkin incident where North Vietnamese attacked two U.S. ships on August 2nd and 4th, 1964, this event was a chance for U.S. President Lyndon Johnson to give authority for U.S. to enter war in Vietnam. United State involvement in Vietnam War was an approach to seize the communist aggression. A campaign authorized by President Johnson called “Operation Rolling Thunder” which started on February 24th, 1965 is a series of extensive bombing directed towards the North Vietnamese predicted to be eight weeks long until the North Vietnamese surrender to U.S. power. However, this campaign lasted two years longer than expected.

There was not much serious thought in escalating the Vietnam War until the Tonkin Gulf incident occurred. In the Gulf of Tonkin it was reported “that two American destroyers had been attacked by North Vietnamese PT boats on August 4, 1964,” (Friedman 293). Shortly after these incidents, “Johnson immediately escalated the war by ordering airstrikes on North Vietnam” (Friedman 293). These events made it so Johnson could raise United States involvement in Vietnam without congressional backing on his decisions. Increasing involvement in the war was appealing though because after the Tonkin Gulf incident support of military involvement in North Vietnam raised from thirty one percent approvals to fifty percent approval (Moise 226). Although approval of the amount in favor immediately after the Gulf of Tonkin incident rose, it was a “mistake on Johnson’s part… assuming that the

On the 11th of June 1963 in Saigon, a Buddhist monk named Thich Quang, set himself on fire in the middle of a busy street. Quang did this in protest against Diem’s anti-Buddhist campaign, which did not allow Buddhist to have religious freedom as the Catholics did. (Source B, Photographer: Malcolm Browne.) Despite such a big form of protest Diem did not stop his anti-Buddhist campaign. Diem became unstoppable as many Buddhists were now being murdered (Source E: Author: J. Llewellyn et al, “South Vietnam”, Alpha History.) this could have been a result of Diem’s extreme dislike of the Buddhist. Diem also may have felt like the Buddhists were standing in his way of gaining more political power. This is evidence that shows that Diem was opportunistic as he was trying to get rid of the Buddhists as he believed that they were the