Us Involvement In The Vietnam War Analysis

The United States army was very involved in the Vietnam war. The United States did not get involved right away, but when the threat of a communist takeover arose they jumped in. When they became involved they only had one goal, to stop communism. Over the course of the war their efforts grew, but they were all directed to the efforts of the main goal. The United States became involved in the Vietnam War to stop the expansion of communism. The United States had an irrational fear of communist subversion. This fear was caused by the high state of tension between the United States and the communist Soviet Union (US Enters the Korean Conflict). The United States government feared that the Soviet Union would try to spread their belief of communism to the surrounding nations (Dig Deeper: Why did Americans fear communism?). As this fear spread among the American people, the media picked up the story and began portraying the Soviet Union as a superpower bent on world domination.
Gradually the U.S. began to withdraw its troops from Vietnam (English Online). This was done as a part of Vietnamization, which was the effort of ending the U.S.’s involvement in the war, and transferring the war back to just being between North and South Vietnam (English Online). These withdrawals started in 1969 after Richard Nixon became president of the U.S (Vietnamization). His plan of reducing the number of American troops in Vietnam was called the Nixon Doctrine. In this doctrine it was stated that “the United States would assist in the defense and developments of allies and friends,” but, under no circumstances, “undertake all the defense of the free nations of the world (Vietnamization).” This meant that the United States would help their allies if they were requested, but they would not take over that allies’ defense entirely. They would let the ally stay in charge of its own security