Preview

Us Involvement In The Vietnam War Essay

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1010 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Us Involvement In The Vietnam War Essay
Why did the United States get involved in the Vietnam War?

One thing that got the United States into the Vietnam War was the end of colonialism. The European countries were unable to deny the escalating demands for independence in their Asian colonies. In Vietnam, for instance, an independence movement under the leadership of Ho Chi Minh rose to challenge French rule. The United States helped France by giving financial and military aid.

Ho Chi Minh was also a communist, which brings up another reason for the United States involvement with the war. The United States ' top priority would be to "contain" communism and bring it to a halt.

Some people say that the war was an immoral, unjust war, or that communism is not that bad, and not so monolithic or evil (Dudley and Bender, 91.)

Communism is very monolithic, in that, the laws are pretty much stuck one way. You are held in the palm of the government 's hand. You are made to believe what they want you to believe, and that in itself makes it evil. Communism is not a good thing to spread. It causes lots of suffering.

Imagine a world where there was no freedom of speech, no freedom to vote, no
…show more content…
It is terribly divided, politically and philosophically, which has turned it into a big war of survival. The defense of the free world rests in a very important balance. That is what is being fought for every day and in the Vietnam War.

The communists are attempting to prevent the orderly development of independence and to confuse the issue before the world. The scheme is to whip up the spirit of nationalism so that it becomes violent. That is done by professional agitators. Then the violence is enlarged by communist military and technical leadership and the provision of military supplies. In these ways, international communism gets a strong hold on the people (Duiker, 55-56.)

With that note, it is apparent that the U.S. needed to take action before the situation at hand got out of

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Better Essays

    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).…

    • 1547 Words
    • 45 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    * Many supported the involvement in the war but not many understood the political realities of the war.…

    • 2359 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    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’.…

    • 687 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    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.…

    • 303 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Justifying Vietnam

    • 791 Words
    • 4 Pages

    One underlying reason for the early American presence in Vietnam is given in chapter 3, where in McMahon’s first essay Cold War Strategy and U.S. Intervention he states that, “…the initial U.S. commitment to provide military assistance to the French in the context of broader American Cold War priorities” (McMahon 58). I think this means that we were justified in starting a limited war with the Vietnamese to prevent a war with a superpower such as China or Russia. The Truman administration was “convinced that Moscow and Beijing had become even more dangerously opportunistic foes…” (McMahon 67). Vietnam was uniquely placed not far from these Communist countries and with our presence there we could strategically have a military presence closer to that of China and Russia than the United States is. In the Statement of U.S. Policy Toward Indochina, the State Department reviewed that, “This hatred of the Vietnamese people toward the French is keeping alive anti-western feeling among oriental peoples, to the advantage of the USSR and the detriment of the US” (McMahon 51). Our geographical position in Vietnam and subsequent relationships forged during the Vietnam War with Southeast Asian countries was a major contribution to our victory in the Cold War.…

    • 791 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The justification of whether or not America should have fought in the Vietnam war has been unclear for many decades. There are many different opinions that say, we should of fought for Vietnam to be free, we should of remained neutral, but the United States government threw their support behind the French so they could maintain their colonial empire. America did this out of their fear of communism spreading to South Vietnam and to stop the spreading worldwide. Although the Vietnam War and the decisions that happened occurred more than half a century ago, it is still questionable on if our decision was wise. If Vietnam got independence, it would be better for both Vietnam and other countries. They would give Vietnam the same freedom that they were given in 1781 and succeed from Frances power and be able to have a government they were proud of and wanted.…

    • 493 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    This marked the start of Johnson’s downfall as people did not like how he was going against what he preached during his campaign, with only his commitment to fight communism keeping him on some people’s good side.…

    • 775 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    After the assassination of Kennedy, Johnson inherited presidency and immediately introduced the "Great Society" policy, despite being anti-war, and promised US citizens economical and social improvement.…

    • 235 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    US Involvement In Vietnam

    • 1055 Words
    • 5 Pages

    With World War II not being over long, and already being back at war with the Soviet Union, America’s involvement with the Vietnam War became a highly controversial topic. The draft system was being used again and it had a good portion of America’s population on edge. However, the fear of communism and its possible spread to other places kept Americans willing to fight during both the Cold War and the Vietnam War. America’s involvement in the Vietnam War spanned six presidencies. The average age of a solider that left to fight in Vietnam whether they were drafted or volunteers was between 19 and 21. The United States involvement brought up many important questions, “such as should they stay out of other countries business?” “Should the draft…

    • 1055 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    "Johnson had miscalculated: Even the richest and most powerful nation in the world could not do it all" (Turbulent Years: The 60s 36). Lyndon B. Johnson is a president torn to pieces by war. He glows in the passage of bills benefiting American society. He is someone who has suffered through an entire generation of rebellious teens. What impact did Johnson 's foreign policies concerning Vietnam War have on American society?…

    • 2093 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    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…

    • 948 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    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.…

    • 1074 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The war is a necessity now to maintain alliances across the world. War is one of the few ways a country can show its loyalty to its allies. An example of this is during the Vietnam War. During the Vietnam War our allies, the French, where experiencing difficulties keeping Vietnam as one of their colonies. Since we want to keep the allies we have we offered help in fighting against the Vietnamese people.…

    • 112 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The Vietnam War is truly one of the most unique wars ever fought by the Unites States of by any country. It was never officially declared a war . It had no official beginning nor an official end. It was fought over 10,000 miles away in a virtually unknown country. The enemy and the allies looked exactly the alike, and may by day be a friend but by night become an enemy. It matched the tried and true tactics of World War Two against a hide, run, and shoot technique known as "Guerrilla Warfare." It matched some of the best trained soldiers in the world against largely an untrained militia of untrained farmers. The United States' soldiers had at least a meal to look forward to unlike the Communist Vietnamese soldiers who considered a fine cuisine to be cold rice and, if lucky, rat meat. The Vietnam War matched the most technically advanced country with one of the least advanced, and the lesser advanced not only beat but humiliated the strongest military in the world. When the war was finally showing signs of end, the Vietnamese returned to a newly unified communist country while the United Stated soldiers returned to be called "baby killers", and were often spat upon. With the complexities of war already long overdrawn because of the length of the war it is no wonder the returning solders often left home confused and returned home insane.…

    • 1598 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Gathering Blue-Lois Lowery

    • 1975 Words
    • 8 Pages

    In a communist society an individual is limited in their ability to speak freely, their environment, their education, and their future. This is all controlled by the dictator.…

    • 1975 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Good Essays