United States And The Cold War

Hess argues that the threat of the USSR and Communism “left the US no choice but to stand up to the challenge posed by Vietnam”. Direct confrontation was impossible as the USSR was a nuclear power, therefore the only choice available was “a policy of containment”; previous success in Korea gives validity to this view. Hess states Vietnam was the centre of the “Domino Theory”, that a communist Vietnam “would inexorably lead to the collapse of other non-communist states”. All communist states were believed to be puppets of the USSR so an increase in Soviet allies would tip the global power balance against the US.

In her book The Vietnam Wars, 1945-1990, author Marilyn Young examines the series of political and military struggles between the United States and Vietnam, a nation that has been distinctively separated as the South and the North. Young chooses to express the daily, weekly, monthly progresses of the affairs collectively called the Vietnam Wars, focusing on the American interventions in the foreign soil. She seeks to provide an answer to a question that has haunted the world for years: What was the reason behind the United States interfering in the internal affairs of a foreign country in which it had no claims at all? Young discloses the overt as well as covert actions undertaken by the U.S. government officials regarding the foreign affairs with Vietnam and the true nature of the multifaceted objectives of each and every person that’s involved had.

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

For the sake of conciseness, and in order to focus the bulk of the content on the main topic, this essay will make certain assumptions. Most importantly, the essay assumes that the conflict in Vietnam was, indeed, lost by the US. It also presupposes that � due to the political climate in the US � the war itself was unavoidable. Finally, the essay takes for granted

The Vietnam War lasted longer, bloodier, and more hostile than any U.S. President or American citizen imagined. Lyndon Johnson faced many other enemies during the war such as the duration, the immense number of deaths, and for the first time in most American’s history, failure. Through deep evaluation of Lyndon B. Johnson’s foreign policies as President during the Vietnam war, failure was a recurring outcome, as he faced military and political difficulties over having complete authority over political decisions made leading to the misuse of his respective power, receiving split support through torn Americans at home, and his accord to deport so many troops into combat in Vietnam.

In the reading entitled “The Impossible Victory” by Howard Zinn he discussed the events during the time of Vietnam War. “When the United States fought in Vietnam, it was organized modern technology versus organized human beings, and the human beings won.” Before United States interfere, in 1945, under the leadership of Ho Chi Minh, a communist leader, Vietnam fought against Japan and won their independence. However, as Zinn points out “the Western powers were already at work to change this.” United States sent troops to Vietnam to stop the spread of communism all over Asia. During this year President John F. Kennedy was assassinated and Lyndon B. Johnson succeeded as the new president. United States knew that fighting against communism was

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

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.

To prevent Communism from spreading any further, Johnson quoted a phrase from the Bible, “Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further”). Johnson saw US as a protector of peace, and saw North Vietnam as the aggressor—and that it was up to the US to stop the advancement of Communism. Why the US? It was because they had a promise to keep—resulting in this fight becoming a fight of duty and obligation.

The Cold War era proxy war known as the Vietnam War wrecked global havoc during 1955-1975. Although the destruction on the ground occurred in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos, the bloodshed of the war was just one part of a much larger worldwide communism versus capitalism battle headed by the United States and the Soviet Union. For the U.S., diplomatic and military policies had never before been so tightly intertwined with domestic policies. The war in Vietnam had such an impact on the home front in America that the term, “The Vietnam Syndrome” is still repeated to this day. The war, which is sometimes seen as a part of the larger anti-communist policy of ‘containment’, is largely to blame for the near destruction of three presidencies, as well as causing numerous political and social divides, a detrimental effect on the U.S. economy, and a credibility gap that caused distrust between government and the people. The focus on the war meant that many domestic issues such as the civil rights movement, the war on poverty, and Johnson’s ideology of the ‘Great Society’, were neglected by the government and therefore limited in their progress. The overall domestic impact of the war in Vietnam was largely negative and extremely divisive.

The War in Vietnam remains to be a blemish of American foreign policy today and remains as a crisp thought to those who lived it. As the decades pass away through the sands of time, historians and civilians alike further their wonder of who was truly responsible for this calamity. Verily, this war was the full responsibility of Lyndon Johnson because he failed to learn from former presidents of why fighting was happening, he accrued some of Kennedy’s inept advisors and, he was selfish in terms of the reason why he gave the approval for war.

In the mid-1960s, Lyndon B. Johnson tacked his name onto a long list of U.S. presidents presiding over conflict in Vietnam. More so than his predecessors, however, President Johnson’s involvement was arguably more significant, because he was the first U.S. president to commit the United States to a ground war in Vietnam. His escalation of the war in early-1965 came as a surprise to many, considering his pledge to deescalate the conflict during the 1964 election campaign against Republican Barry Goldwater. However, in analyzing declassified executive documents, the Johnson Administration had, by the summer of 1964, decided that escalation in Vietnam was the only course of action which could feasibly end the conflict and establish stability in the region. Following President Kennedy’s assassination in 1963, Johnson felt it necessary to continue his predecessor’s legacy in Vietnam, although his reasons for doing so were less refined than were Kennedy’s. Unconfident in foreign affairs, Johnson was assured in one thing: his alarmist views on the spread of communism. Spurred on by the criticism of his contemporary Republican opponents, Johnson took a hardline stance at the beginning of his presidency, declaring that he would do whatever necessary to stop the spread of communism in Southeast Asia. Furthermore, understanding that a withdrawal from Vietnam would undercut the legitimacy of U.S. foreign commitments, Johnson—albeit reluctantly—ignored the suggestions of political

Despite US efforts Vietnam was not totally successful against pro-Communist. By 1963, faced with a catastrophe, “Kennedy was convinced that he had to choose between his own destiny (and reelection) and the interests of Vietnam.” The US was forced to increase their military involvement from approximately 800 to 16,000 and provide additional resources and advisors, but they maintained their position to not intervene with troops. Kennedy had no intentions of abandoning the cause he felt was his hope for a second term. After meeting with his advisors and facing reality it was clear to the Kennedy Administration that Diem was incapable of running the government and it was time to take action. The course of action was to encourage a coup to overthrow President Diem. However, there was confusion within the camp because not everyone agreed this was the correct choice of action. Did the tactics used to solve problems by the Kennedy administration cause the US to move forward when in fact we should have remained still?

One of McNamara’s central claims in this book was towards how his exceptional group of coworkers and he managed to get it all wrong in Vietnam. The problems made by the administration were not a matter of intentions or calculation, but rather those of judgments and capabilities of the region (McNamara, XIX). They should not have started a war with traditional military strategy with an enemy prepared to take a significant number of casualties. Vietnam had no political stability to conduct a peaceful and stable operation; it was simply not possible (McNamara, 49). Kennedy and Johnson believed that the loss of South Vietnam to the Communists would lead to the spread of Communism across Asia. To stop Communism from spreading, the United States

In 1947, President Harry Truman made a vow to the nation, later known as the Truman Doctrine, to contain communism in Europe and elsewhere. President Truman’s successors continued to make the vow that they would do whatever it took to stop the spread of communism and prevent the “domino effect.” President John F Kennedy increased the number of military advisors and Special Forces in South Vietnam but President Johnson made the decision to engage in full warfare in the region. Because Johnson decided to engage in full warfare, it is fair and truthful to dub the Vietnam conflict, “Johnson’s War.” After President Johnson finished JFK’s term, he was in a bit of a “pickle.” Johnson wanted to stay the course in Vietnam but he feared that a