The Vietnam War lasted about two decades. The United States was engulfed in a civil war between North and South Vietnam and wanted to assist the south with preventing a hostile takeover by North Vietnam under the Communism banner. The Vietnam War was not only America’s longest War, but also costliest and deadliest. We spent over $150 billion and suffered close to $58 thousand American deaths and nearly 300 thousand wounded. By the time we decided to withdraw from the war, North Vietnam easily swept through the south and unified Vietnam under Communism. Still to this day, one of the most debated topics regarding the Vietnam War is why the United States got involved and why, when and how we should wage future wars. (Dunn, 2001)…
The war in Vietnam was a conflict that started in the 1950s and ended in the early 1970s. During this time period, the United States became increasingly involved in Vietnamese political, economic and military affairs. There were a combination of reasons as to why the United States became more involved, the most important of which in my opinion were the Domino Theory and the growing influence of the National Liberation Front (NFL).…
In the course of the Vietnam War, there have been many different factors why the USA became increasingly involved. One reason included how they believed it would be a ‘simple’ war to fight and for that reason, they would have the ability to easily win plus the war would not continue on for too long. Additionally they desired to contain communism as they believed they might be capable to stop the growth of communism within Asia. In order to help retain communism, they believed in the ‘domino theory’.…
The United States entered the war to stop the spread of Communism in Southeast Asia. American leaders feared that Communist forces would gain control of Vietnam. After that, nation after nation might fall to Communism. Communism is a political and economic system that the United States strongly opposed. Vietnam had been split in half in 1954, after fighting a war to gain independence from France. When French forces withdrew, Vietnamese Communists gained control of North Vietnam. Ho Chi Minh was the leader of the North Vietnamese Communists. South Vietnam had a non-Communist government. This government was believed to be weak but the United States supported it in order to keep the Communists from taking control of all of Vietnam thus preventing the alleged domino effect.…
The Vietnam War was a consequence of the cold war. Since neither the United States nor the Soviet Union could risk fighting each other directly they did it in other countries indirectly like in Vietnam. One of the main causes of the Vietnam War was the Gulf of Tonkin. In the Gulf of Tonkin the USS Maddox was attacked by torpedoes from the Vietnamese. They confirmed it was Vietnamese by the markings on the shells found. Then later on a second attack happened. When the second attack happened the United States decided to bomb the North Vietnamese. Later on they confirmed that the second attack never happened and it was a misread because there was a storm and it messed with the ship. Another cause of the Vietnam War was the United States domino theory. The united states thought that if Vietnam would become communist so would other countries around it and communism would be everywhere. Since the United States policy of containment was to prevent the spread of communism they felt they needed to step in and save the South Vietnamese from the North Vietnamese attacks. This was a major factor in the United States joining the Vietnam War.…
The Vietnam War was a bad decision made by the United States government. There was no reason for the United States to start a war with this foreign country. The Defense Department released a film in 1965 addressing why the United States had to go to war with Vietnam. They said it was to defend freedom and aggression, and to stop the spreading of communism. In reality, this war was made by choice, it was not a “do or die” situation for America, but the United States saw Vietnam as a major threat and decided to declare war on them, only to lose a lot of soldier, time, and money.…
The United States soon enter the Vietnam War as an effort to prevent communism from spreading to Asia. The United States worked to protect South Vietnam as its freedom was threatened by North Vietnam’s communist threats. The United States became involved in Vietnam before World War II even ended. The United States involvement was due to the containment policy and its aim to stop communism.…
After World War II where they had seen the effects that communism could have on a country and the type of dictators that commonly arose from that kind of power, there new goal was to stop the spread of communism, and eventually get rid of it all together. There was widespread propaganda being used to show the horrors that communism could bring and Americans readily bought into it. This caused them to go to war with the Soviet Union; it was in the middle of the cold war that the rapidly growing crisis in Vietnam was happening. Because of the Americans strong views on communism efforts to help stop its spread in Vietnam was widely supported by the first few presidents that were involved with it. Harry S. Truman was president when the French were trying re-gain control of Vietnam; he had made promises to offer relief and aid with a multi step program. There was virtually no resistance from the United States population. When Dwight Eisenhower was elected president, he gave his infamous Domino effect theory where he stated that if Vietnam fell under communist control then all the other South Asian countries would too. This helped reinforce what the American population already believed. After Dwight Eisenhower’s presidency ended and John F. Kennedy took office, his plan was to stop communism at any cost saying, “Pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, and support any friend to assure the survival and success of liberty”. He agreed with Eisenhower’s Domino theory and had no intentions of letting communism spread (historylearningsite.co.uk). After the assassination of John F. Kennedy, Lyndon John became president and was the first president to send in American soldiers to fight in Vietnam. At first the American people were okay with their troops going and fighting in Vietnam, but as time went on and they saw the bloodshed and destruction that was…
When the Korean War was over communist North Korea had lost minor amounts of territory to American aided South Korea. In Vietnam the American forces lost the war and Vietnam became a communist country. It was necessary to fight both wars to ensure America maintained its reputation as a powerful country. The top priority in fighting the Vietnam War, according to document 32, was to avoid a humiliating defeat to the technologically inferior Vietnam forces. The maintained support of American allies was a factor in fighting the Vietnam War. Had America withdrawn “American allies would be shaken,” claimed Robert McNamara in document 31. To preserve its standing as a formidable country willing to stop at nothing to fight communism it was necessary for America to fight the Korean and Vietnam…
Why is the Vietnam War so significant in American history? How did it really affect America? The Vietnam War was the prolonged struggle between nationalist forces trying to unify Vietnam under a communist government, and the United States attempting to prevent the spread of communism. There are many lessons learned throughout this war that America, hopefully, will never undergo again.…
Although very popular the Vietnam war was huge conflict during the years of 1964 through 1975, this single incident changed many Americans opinions about the nation's role both in foreign affairs and domestic ones. The Vietnam war failed in its primary purpose which was to assists in the defense against north Vietnamese communism, just like the cold war previously this proved to be another example of escalation. The US involvement in Vietnam damaged the us reputation due to very misguided and complex intentions on the part of political leaders like those in the Johnson and Nixon administration which brought upon unhappiness and social unrest among the public. This political corruption along with mismanagement on the economic system and the…
Because there wasn’t a strong government in Vietnam that took control Diem made himself President even though he was losing support. The United States was trying to stop communism from increasing throughout the world. The U.S. didn’t support Diem anymore because of his unfairness towards Buddhist. And not treating everyone fairly. Finally, United States President John F. Kennedy stepped in to help remove Diem from his presidency, and later, the Vietnam army kidnaped Diem and killed him. The Vietnam War was an aggravating war for the United States because people were torn and did not know whether to support the war or support the people affected by the war. Many Americans were drafted, which is a system to require people to go to war. There were a number of American’s that decided to move to Canada or other countries, so that they would not be drafted into the war. People wanted there to be a draft but then it happened and many people were mad because it was forcing them into the war and dragging them away from their families. Many Americans supported those that thought it was unfair to be drafted, and several Americans thought being forced to fight in a war they…
The Vietnam War is referred to as the “longest and most unpopular American War of the 20th century”(Overview), that lasted from 1955 to 1975. In the US, the war began as a result of the U.S. policy of Containment. This policy’s goal was to prevent the spread of communism throughout the world. The Viet Minh is a communist led…
One of the most obvious consequences of the war was the 600,000 men who lost their lives in the fighting, or to disease. In total, upwards of a million men were killed or seriously injured throughout the course of the war. This brought a new problem upon the United States, a large part of the nations capable youth had given their lives in the war. This would have many consequences of it's own, including staggering the growth of the United States. Another result of the war was the massive cost that came with it. $15 billion dollars. That doesn't include some factors such as post was pensions, or interest on national debt. The war did have a few obvious positive effects, such as the emancipation of slaves, as well as the fact that the federal…
The Vietnam war is one of the most talked about events in history. The war made the American people resent their government. At first people supported the government in their plan to stop communism, but as time went on people wanted it to end. There were several reasons that people felt opposition towards the war, such as: the government was shady and was feeding people lies about the Vietnam, thousands of lives were lost and the people saw soldiers watched them do it all, and lastly how much we spent and how much we are in debt. These were the last straw for the American people.…