Essay on Vietnam War and Its Effect on America

The Vietnam war has been referred to by many names, one of the longer ones was 'the cornerstone of the free world southeast Asia'. It was called that by John F. Kennedy. He was talking about Vietnam being and essential country in a non-communist world. He believed that if Vietnam became a communist country, all of the surrounding countries would also become communists. This is the main reason America was involved in the Vietnam war. Another reason was that America wanted to spread their “political ideas around the globe”. They wanted to do this so that their anti-communism stance was clear. The public also wanted to keep communism from spreading. To soldiers, the war was like a crusade, a great journey to purge the communists from Vietnam.

The first thing that one must do when discussing Vietnam is remember the historical context in which the conflict took place. The United States and it's Free World allies were attempting to confine the Communist Bloc, which by this time included both the Soviet Union and China, and keep it from expanding into surrounding nations. The U.S. felt that if the Communists were not allowed to expand, they would eventually collapse under the weight of their centralized economy. So in order to accomplish the policy of containment, the U.S. need to ally itself with nations bordering Communist ones. However, one of the most important aspects of political alliances is the trust each must have in the

The main reason why the US did this was because they didn’t want to be involved in the war. The president during this period, Richard Nixon, didn’t want American troops to be fighting in Vietnam, so he withdrew American troops from fighting there. 17)Communist Vietnam was successfully able to dominate parts of Southeast Asia after the Vietnam War. After the war, communist North Vietnam had conquered Southern Vietnam when the war was over. This was very successful for Northern Vietnam.

Secretary of State John Kerry once said “I saw courage both in the Vietnam War and in the struggle to stop it. I learned that patriotism includes protest, not just military service.” The Vietnam War was a conflict that lasted from 1956-1975 which the United States participated in along with the South Vietnamese who fought against the Communist North Vietnamese. Many Americans strongly disapproved of the war which caused many protests and riots. The war lasted 25 years killing many people and eventually the North Vietnamese won. The Vietnam War was important to Americans back home because it tested the citizen’s right to free speech, effected future foreign policy, and created many issues for returning veterans.

The Vietnam War had so many different strategies. The United States depended on the “Search and Destroy” strategy often. That is where they would do exactly what it wounds like, search for communists then destroy. The more hostile the destroying was getting, made more Southern Vietnamese upset. Not only did that make the people of the United States and South Vietnam upset, so did Ngo Dinh Diem. He became the United States’ next plan. Ngo Dinh Diem, President Diem, “was able to resettle hundreds of thousands of refugees from North Vietnam in the south, but his own Catholicism and the preference he showed for fellow Roman Catholics made him unacceptable to Buddhists, who were an overwhelming majority in South Vietnam” (“Ngo Dinh Diem”). The Buddhists of the south were in a disagreeable state with his choices of the war and beliefs. Not only the people in the land of the war were upset, but most people in the United States were also upset. No one could agree with the choices he made. He never kept his promise of land reform, which is a huge promise to the ones who do not have land. He not only failed people, but his strategies failed. In “Ngo Dinh Diem” it states,“The military tactics Diem used against the insurgency were heavy-handed and ineffective and served only to deepen his government’s unpopularity and isolation.” He just made bigger problems for the United States and Southern

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

Why did the United States Withdraw From the Vietnam War? The United States withdrew from the Vietnam War for several reasons. The Army had to fight in unfamiliar territory, was lacking in moral, were not prepared for the conditions, could not shut down the Ho Chi Minh Trail, and were untrained to respond to guerilla warfare. This combination of disadvantages and the loss of public support led to the United States withdrawing from Vietnam. The United States Army was forced to fight in a new land that had different weather and geography than the U.S., and put the army at a disadvantage from the beginning of the war. Vietnam is a very hot, tropical country, as it is fairly close to the equator. It has jungles over most of the land, bit also

When Rolling Thunder failed to weaken the enemy’s will after the first several weeks the purpose of it began to change. Bombings then tended to be directed at the flow of men and supplies from the north (Karnow). Damaging as it was to the north, Ho Chi Minh still maintained the same course. Operation Rolling Thunder was a desperate attempt to convince the North Vietnamese to initiate negotiations and hopefully a ceasefire. This operation showed that LBJ was ineffective and ignorant. He was blind to the fact that the North Vietnamese were obviously going to retaliate because of Operation Rolling Thunder.

We did not accomplish what we had set out to. Instead, millions of lives were lost in the ensuing conflict. Vietnam fell to communism, much to America's dismay. All in all, our mission there was a complete and utter failure. The war should be a cautionary tale that the military prowess of the United States is not capable of solving any and all conflicts that arises. The Iraq War is a prime example of this. Our reason for invading Iraq was based on false intel, so from the very beginning, declaring war was a mistake. In the aftermath, Iraq was left without a state, leaving its territory to be taken control by terrorist groups such as Al-Qaeda and ISIS. Like with the Vietnam War, many lives were lost. In the future, we need to more cautious and pacifistic in nature when it comes to dealing with foreign affairs. If we do not, then we will cause great suffering such as we did in Vietnam and Iraq. The Gulf War and the 2014 Liberian military relief aid are exceptions to this. We did more good than harm when we intervened in these two instances. This shows that not all military involvement from the United States will lead to turmoil. It gives evidence and hope that peace and prosperity can be achieved. All it takes is the right decision making. We should not have a hawkish mindset; an altruistic mindset is what we should strive

“In August of 1964, in response to the American and GVN espionage along its coast, the DRV launched a local and controlled attack against C. Turner Joy and the U.S.S. Maddox , two American ships on call in the Gulf of Tonkin” (Brigham 2). This resulted in the United States government giving Lyndon Johnson the ability to make war under the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution. President Johnson then gave orders to perform air raids on Northern Vietnam pushing the United States further into the war. Compared to 1962 when only 9,000 soldiers supported the South Vietnamese, by June 1965 82,000 soldiers occupied the country. The number only continued to rise exponentially, and by 1966 370,000 soldiers had been sent in to prop their South Vietnam allies. President Richard Nixon withdrew American soldiers from Vietnam and as part of the “vietnamization” of the war. Over and 60,000 American soldiers had been lost in a war to preserve the status quo, not to win.

For more than 30 years America had been involved with Vietnam, but in those 30 years they turned to suffering for both the Vietnamese and Americans and many more countries. The fighting lasted for 8 years and mainly only happened in Vietnam where land, air, and water battles took place. Bombings, chemicals, and killing turned into a game for many soldiers which led to lasting suffering even after the war ended. Once the war was over, America had just finished their most unsuccessful war to date. That time gave America important lessons to be learned from the many erroneous things that had been done. Learning from the mistakes made are crucial for America if the country wants to win another war in the future. Many lessons were learned

The Vietnam War was a conflict, which the United States involved itself in unnecessarily and ultimately lost. The basis of the conflict was simple enough: Communism vs. Capitalism, yet the conduct of the Vietnam War was complex and strategic, and brought repercussions which had never been seen before. The struggle between North and South had an almost inevitable outcome, yet the Americans entered the War optimistic that they could aid the falling South and sustain democracy. The American intentions for entering the Vietnam conflict were good, yet when the conflict went horribly wrong, and the resilient North Vietnamese forces, or ‘Viet Cong' as they were known, refused to yield, the United States saw they were fighting a losing battle.

The war in Vietnam was a very contestable event for America and an overall major impact of the cold war. Fear of the spread of communism was on the rise again as Ho Chi Minh, the leader of North Vietnam wanted to unite the country under one communist leadership. The United States entered into the war to prevent this spread of communism to further their reputation of containing it as they have done in the past. While there are positives to the war in Vietnam, it seems as if there are more negatives in the situation which include massive casualties on both sides, chemical warfare, and a divided nation back home.

Firstly the political reasons. The involvement in Vietnam started off with the cold war, when Russia and America the emerging super powers after WW2, two different styles of living had emerged the capitalists (America) and the communist (Russia), both with two different beliefs. The cold war was a war of words, America hated the fact more

United States Presidents Dwight D. Eisenhower and John F. Kennedy had spent millions of dollars to aid the non-communist South Vietnamese. Before 1964 thousands of American military advisers were training and assisting the South Vietnamese army. President Lyndon B. Johnson’s decision to bomb North Vietnam put the United States in the center of the longest war in the nations history. The Vietcong (North Vietnamese) grew more aggressive after the incident at the Gulf of Tonkin. On November 1964, they attacked the American base at Bien Hoa and destroyed five B-57 jets while damaging twenty more. Since the increase of tension with the Vietcong continued, draft calls had increased substantially in the United States and American casualties were being felt across the country.