The American involvement in the Vietnam War was a very controversial decision, with many people being for the war, however many people in the United States were also against the war. The Vietnam War was the longest lasting war in the United States history, before the Afghanistan War, in which most people felt strongly about, be them United States citizens, Vietnamese citizens, or just the global population. In order to better understand the ideas of those American citizens that are either for or against the war, one would have to look at the reasons that the United States was involved in the war, the impact of the Vietnam war on the American society, and the impact on the United States foreign policy. The first issue usually brought up when talking about the Vietnam war is the reasons the United States were involved in the war at …show more content…
George C. Herring had addressed one of the more major impact of the war on our foreign policy in “America and Vietnam: the Unending War,” and had stated that “... Success in the Gulf war no doubt raised the nation's confidence in its foreign policy leadership and it's military institutions…” (Document 9). This suggest that the United States foreign policy had at one point gotten somewhat stronger due to the effects of the war, however, Herring goes on to state that it had a negative effect on the nations inhibitions abroad. The U.S foreign policy also had changed because of the war when The United States ended the military draft and switched to an all-volunteer army, as well as when Congress passed the War Powers Resolution, which had set limits on presidential ability to send troops into combat without the consent from congress. This choice had showed the desire for the United States to not be involved in another war like the Vietnam war.
The Vietnam War was an antagonism war that took place in Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia for around 20 years – 1954 to 1975. It was a hostile struggle that not only lasted many years, but also an expensive one. The Vietnam War had radical outcomes for the U.S and the various countries who took part in it. The war was between South Vietnam backed by the United States of America and many other countries that opposed communism ideologies, and North Vietnam backed by China, The Soviet Union and supporters of communism. The reason for the start of the Vietnam War rotates around the notion at that time held by America that communism was extending to all parts of south East Asia. The US government considered American participation in the war as a strategy to preclude a communist seize of South Vietnam. This was a component of a broader restraint strategy, with the declared aim of blocking diffusion of communism and a way to repress nationalist self-determination (Eldridge, 2012, p.18-20).
French involvement in Indochina ended after Viet Minh forces won the Battle of Dien Bien Phu on May 7th 1954. The victory of Dien Bien Phu led to the Geneva Conference in which the Viet Minh and French negotiated a ceasefire agreement. Vietnam was temporarily divided at the 17th parallel due to the terms of the Geneva Accord. During a 300-days period, citizens were able to move freely between two states. In 1956, two years after the battle of Dien Bien Phu, elections were to be held to establish a unified government in Vietnam. The accords of the Geneva Conference were not pleasing to the United States government, who feared that the elections would be unfair and manipulated under the Communist influence. The United States government feared
The Vietnam War also referred to as the Second Indochina War in the East Asia region was a war that many in the United States felt was unnecessary. However during four separate presidential terms the Commander and Chief of the United States made a decision that America’s involvement was necessary. Were these decisions for the betterment of the United States and its allies or a show of how big of a military power house the United States had become?
Eisenhower was not opposed to some form of intervention as evidenced in his belief in the Domino Theory and the Truman Doctrine. Understanding the moral implications of using nuclear weapons in Asia Eisenhower believed it best to use conventional forces. Originating with George Keenan, author of the U.S. containment concept, had recommended in originally dealing with Soviet expansion tendencies. America's policy in Vietnam was based on “long term, patient but firm and vigilant containment of Russian (communist) expansive tendencies”. Further both JFK and LBJ believed in and continued America's policy of containment in Vietnam. However, JFK did order a complete review of how America became involved in Vietnam asking the questions what we thought we were doing and what we think we can now do, tragically JFK was assassinated and never saw the report. LBJ like JFK was reluctant to allow America to be drawn into a major confrontation in Southeast Asia, that being Vietnam. However, LBJ's key advisors were leftovers from the Kennedy administration and supportive of containment policies of the past. With regret, LBJ intensified and escalated the American effort in Vietnam further failing to achieve American defined success. Generally, American involvement in Vietnam was based on Containment combined with The Truman Doctrine of providing help to countries for the resistance of
I do not believe that it was in the best interests of the United States to get involved in Vietnam. It's true that the US was trying its best to stop the spread of Communism and the influence of the USSR (i.e. the Truman Doctrine). While that was an important aspect of the Cold War, the real goal of the Cold War was to "win the hearts and minds of the world." The later aspect was by far the most important, and the main reason why the US should have stayed out of Vietnam.
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 spanned over several decades, included several United States Presidents and caused controversy over the nation. The U.S. involvement in the war began as a fight against the spread of communism. Eventually it became unclear to the people of the United States what the goal of the war was. It caused disapproval and concern among Americans.
The Vietnam War (1955-1975), was a conflict between the communist north and the United States backed south. This war claimed over 3,000,000 lives including an estimated 58,000 Americans and over half of the remaining being Vietnamese civilians. The American population would divide over opinions of U.S. involvement in this conflict and lead to many protests and civil unrest. Throughout the course of this war, the Air Defense Artillery was a cornerstone of U.S. force’s capability and helped shift the tide of battle significantly. This paper will discuss the history of the war, some major conflicts that occurred and the ADAs role during this war.
Going over to Vietnam was a decision made by the U.S. government to go over and stop Communist from taking over South Vietnam. This resulted in a long and costly war. Sending over 500,000 Americans over to help fight this Communist battle. According to The Vietnam War Statistics web page, there were only 1,728,344 men drafted but only 38% of the men actually served. The death toll for Americans was up to 58,000 people, meaning that one in every ten people died.
U.S involvement in Vietnam developed gradually and through a series of steps. Both FDR and Truman took the first step, with Truman providing aid to France in their struggle to retain control in Indochina in 1950, thus; supporting French Colonialism. The U.S had at first, a non-involvement approach, despite claims that they supported self-dependence in countries and having granted independence to the Philippines. Vietnam became the battleground for global powers amidst the Cold War. The decision to provide military power and economic aid to France was dominated primarily by the influence of the consolidation of a communist China, with Mao Zedong becoming China’s ruler. The U.S foreign policy quickly became one of containment. They were determined
The US became involved in the Vietnam Conflict because of the Domino Theory. This theory was cited by Eisenhower and it says that if one country fell to communism then the surrounding countries would also succumb. Simply put the United States joined the conflict in order to stop communism from spreading throughout
First of all the Vietnam War was taking place during this time. It was a war that took place during the years that followed World War 2. These years were characteristic of the cold war era where political and military tension was still at an all time high between the United States of America and its NATO allies and the eastern allies of the Soviet Union. Therefore when war broke out between North Vietnam and South Vietnam the United States with its very anticommunist sentiment saw it as an inevitable necessity to support South Vietnam. They believed it was their duty to prevent South Vietnam’s communist takeover, and to some extent prevent a wider global spread of communism. Obviously any war during any
The Vietnam War also known as the Second Indochina war took place in December 1956 through April 30 1975 to the fall of Saigon. It is one of the most debatable armed forces combats that the United States of America participated in. The United States involvement the civil war that took place in South Vietnam, North Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos, was characterized by numerous conflicting positions. South Vietnam was supported by United States and other anti-communist countries. The Viet Cong or” NFL” a lightly armed South Vietnamese communist fought a “Guerrilla war” against anti-communist forces in the region. The U.S government viewed American involvement in the war as a way to stop a communist take-over of South Vietnam. The North Vietnamese government and the Viet Cong were fighting to reunify Vietnam under communist rule. According to the Domino theory, if one state went communist, then then other states in the region would follow. Many American men and women were instructed to leave their country and travel thousands of miles to Vietnam and participate in this warfare. However, the involvement of the United States in this war was questioned by some members of the international community. The American citizens are also divided in their approval of their countrymen’s involvement in the conflict at Vietnam. The questionable cause or motive of the United States’ government is the primary reason as to why some people are questioning the intention of the country’s intervention.
To this day, the Vietnam War remains as one of the most controversial subjects in modern American history. The main question that revolves around the Vietnam War, or any conflict that took place during the Cold War for that matter, was whether or not American efforts did actually help prevent the spread of Communism not just in Europe, but throughout the world. While other controversies around this time heavily revolved on whether or not the Americans were acting for the sake of others, or to fulfill their own intentions on preventing the spread of Communist rule on the other side of the world. This period in American history proved to be an interesting one given how you had men fighting abroad, yet at the same time you had your own set of
The Vietnam War a long and hard fought battle that lasted from November, 1954 and ended on April 30, 1975, but the United States didn’t get involved until June of 1965. (Vietnam War Statistics) The likely collapse of the South Vietnamese army and the fear for the spread of communism is why America joined in on this war, but joining the war was extremely controversial. Many people believe that the United States involvement In the Vietnam War should never have happened. I believe that since North Vietnam and South Vietnam internal conflicts didn’t affect America, the cost of the war was exponential compared to previous wars, it was an unwinnable battle, and the notional conscience disagreed with what we were doing, that is obvious entering the war was a bad decision.