Vietnamese Massacre: United States Taking Advantage of Its Resources

“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.

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.

Many people felt that this was a war of money that the U.S. didn’t need to interfere in and was being fought by North and South Vietnam, therefore we had no business getting in the middle of it. The United States should've thought of themselves and done what was best for them as a country. When Dwight D. Eisenhower left office, a new President came in with the name John F. Kennedy. JFK warns the American public about “Military Industrial Complex”. This affected Americans because we didn’t want all of Vietnam to become communist. From the beginning, the United States was not aware of what they were getting themselves into. Furthermore, they didn’t understand the nature of the war on who and why they were fighting.

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

The Vietnam war brought many changes to the United States in the 1960’s and the 1970’s. Some of the changes were for the better of the country, take the rediscovered Women’s Rights movements and the ever growing Free Speech movements inspired by New Left, while most of the other changes brought on tensions between government and their people. The Domino Theory pushed our leaders to the edge. In order to stop the Domino Theory in Vietnam, the U.S. invaded. The war was useless for the American government to get involved with. Even Robert Kennedy described our presence in Vietnam as ‘... sending a lion to halt an epidemic of jungle rot.’ (Doc E) From new groups forming to rebel, to inflation and loss of trust in the Government, from 1960’s to

Howard Zinn says it best when he writes that “from 1964 to 1972, the wealthiest and most powerful nation in the history of the world made a maximum military effort, with everything short of atomic bombs, to defeat a nationalist revolutionary movement in a tiny peasant country – and failed” (Zinn, 460). Zinn does not mince words when expressing his thoughts about the Vietnam War, because as Zinn says, Vietnam was basically a modern portrayal of David vs. Goliath. One could even go as far as to say that Vietnam was in essence a case of mass genocide in Vietnam. Thousands and thousands of Vietnamese and America soldiers were killed along with thousands upon thousands of innocent, Vietnamese citizens. War is an infectious disease and the Vietnam War is a perfect example of how deadly of a disease war can be. Everybody involved in the Vietnam War was affected, whether it was Vietnamese citizens, Vietnamese soldiers, American soldiers, or even American citizens back home. The disease that was the Vietnam War infected the hearts and minds of two countries half way across the world from each other.

The Vietnam War was a mistake carried about by United States leaders who overstated the influence of communism and underestimated the power of nationalism, he also states how it wasn’t actually a mistake rather a proxy conflict. (Michael Lind). This shows that the Vietnam War was one that didn’t need to happen and yet the United States leaders wanted it. By early 1965, when it became clear that South Vietnam could not fight off the communist countries, the United States commenced a major escalation of the war.

Many people believe that the Gulf of Tonkin Incident is responsible for increased U.S. escalation in Vietnam. President Johnson and his administration claimed that the incident involved unprovoked attacks on U.S. destroyers (Herring, 165). People had questioned what had actually occurred even back then. I believe the Johnson administration was looking for a reason to escalate American involvement and that the Gulf of Tonkin Incident provided the perfect opportunity. American policy in South Vietnam was not as effective as many had thought.

The Vietnam War was seen by all as horrible and by many, senseless. War has the ability to change people, countries, and even the harmony of the planet. After the Vietnam War’s end, many Americans didn’t want to hear or speak about the war. Many of the citizens in America wanted to forget it ever occurred. The United States had lost their invincibility to their negligence; the nation believed it could do anything. They especially thought they could end the war quickly in Vietnam and stop the spread of communism. The United States had joined the Vietnam War with hopes of becoming an alliance with France. This alliance would help turn the tide easily for them on what they thought was a naïve,

The causes of the war in Vietnam are rooted in events that took place before the United States finished World War II. Before WWII started, Hitler was taking over territories that had been taken away from Germany after the First World War. The nations that allowed Hitler to regain those territories were appeasing him thinking that he would stop after the next territory he took. Eventually appeasement had to end but by that time, it was too late; Germany was once again a strong world power, ready to fight a war to regain its position in the world. In part because of the immense fighting that resulted, the United States took it upon itself to not appease the spread of Communism with the Soviet Union. This was best put into light when President

The Vietnam War was one of the bloodiest wars in the history of Vietnam. Vietnam use to be a peaceful country until the idea of communism started spreading across Vietnam. Many wanted to stay democratic but saw what happened to the Germans and started to lean towards communism. Many also wanted to stay democratic and still had it hopes high that it will soon get their lives and economy back on track.

Firstly, the invasion of the Vietnam War cannot be justified when the US 's ally in the war is a corrupt democracy. When the Vietnam War began the United States’ puppet state was Ngo Dinh Diem’s South Vietnam. Diem was a dictator or the President supposedly of South Vietnam that took power for himself there, and threw all of his civil and political opponents into violent concentration camps. The South Vietnamese President had also oppressed those of different religions specifically Buddhism ("NGO DINH DIEM, FIRST PRESIDENT OF SOUTH VIETNAM."). Eventually, the Viet Cong who would rather support a communist regime formed due to the oppressive nature of Diem’s ruthless democracy. By the time North Vietnam sought to unify the country Diem had opposition from all perspectives, including his most trusted peers. Even with his mockery of a democracy, the United States believed it had to support his efforts in the defense of democracy in South Vietnam. The United States did want a change of power, but were willing to continue with Diem if deemed necessary to win. Benjamin Frankel states this by stating “advised the State Department that the United States should begin to search for an alternative to Diem. On 1 November 1963 South Vietnamese military officers overthrew Diem, and he and his brother were shot to death” ("Vietnam War: Was U.S. Military Intervention in Vietnam Justified?"). Democracy is about everyone having fair trials, civil liberties, and the right to free speech.

As President, Diem managed to alienate everyone, arresting thousands of dissidents and condemning scores to death. In 1956, he was accused of blocking the elections, adding fuel to a growing brushfire of rebellion.

Vietnam was a country divided into two by communism in the North and capitalism in the South. The Vietnam War, fought between the years 1959 and 1975, was, in essence, a struggle by nationalists in the north to unify the nation under a communist government. This was a long standing conflict between the two sides that had been occurring for years. It wasn’t until 1959 when the USA, stepped in, on the side of southern Vietnamese, to stop the spread of communism. It was a war that did not capture the hearts and minds of the American people as it was viewed as a war that the US army couldn’t win and so the government lost the peoples support for the war. This ultimately led to the withdrawal of the US army from Vietnam. Some people, like

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