US Involvement In The Vietnam War

Vietnam War During the time of 1959 to 1975, The United States had entered in a controversial conflict and war with Vietnam. There were hidden controversies that lay beneath the Vietnam War about whether it was worth fighting. Some views suggest that it should have not been considered a war. President Kennedy had plans to remove all troops in Vietnam up until his tragic death, whereas President Johnson, when becoming head of office, had plans to hold off any of North Vietnams attacks on the South Vietnamese. The American public learned about the Massacre in Mai Lai caused by Charlie Company that occurred in November 13, 1969, in which “over the next three hours they killed as many as 504 Vietnamese civilians. Some were lined up in a
began bombing villages in Vietnam and Cambodia. After the country had been bombed and raided day after day for years, the United States began pulling out troops in 1973, and shortly after in 1976, was declared unified as the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. So what exactly led to the U.S. involvement in Vietnam? What caused the war to last such a long time, and cost the lives of thousands of innocent villagers and American soldiers? The answer is that there is no outstanding reason. The United States slowly entered Vietnam, until one day it had become a full war without ever being declared one.
One of the biggest reasons for going to aid South Vietnam was President Truman’s “containment” policy in 1947, “ ‘I believe that it must be the policy of the United States to support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures… I am confident that the Congress will face these responsibilities squarely’ ” (Goldman). In other words, the United States would supply any necessary materials or funds to any nation under the pressure of another totalitarian
Guerrillas assassinate more than four hundred South Vietnamese officials. Thirty-seven armed companies are organized along the Mekong Delta. In 1959, Thirteen Americans working for MAAG and US Information Service are wounded in terrorist bombings in Saigon” (Nelson).
North Vietnam did indeed start the aggression on South Vietnam, the United was quick to act, and some say too quick. North Vietnam also started the Ho Chi Minh trail that passed through Cambodia in 1959 which “would become a strategic target for future military attacks” (Nelson). That would later bring up the U.S. controversy for starting bombing raids in Cambodia.
In 1970, President Nixon started order the bombing of Cambodia and other Vietnamese villages. The purpose being a strategic war plan, but the American people became aware of the plan, it was considered unethical, and also a crossing of boundaries of the U.S. government power, in bombing any country it saw fit to stop the advancement of the North Vietnamese, “Nixon attempted to slow the flow of North Vietnamese soldiers and supplies into South Vietnam by sending American forces to destroy Communist supply bases in Cambodia. This act violated Cambodian neutrality and provoked antiwar protests on the nation 's college campuses”