The United States of America first acquainted with the Indochina area in 1954 after it began supporting France in its effort to reestablish control over its Vietnamese colony of which the United States’ main reason for supporting was to keep the idea of communism from spreading to another country’s government from Communist China.
Containment, is the term in which describes the government United States’ attempts to limit the ever-expanding grasp of communism. This ideal developed during the early days of the Cold War, and gained momentum because American policymakers “learned from the pre-war era—that appeasement of aggression merely fueled increasingly more strident and unreasonable demands from dictators” and also from the “domino theory”,
Furthermore, United States’ support in Vietnam was initially supposed to be limited to training support (source A). As even United States president, Lyndon Johnson, was aware of the potential escalation of the war in Vietnam if American military forces were to involve themselves in the Vietnamese conflict. President Johnsons statement that “… we could get tied down in a third world war” (source A) substantiates the idea that America feared the worldwide consequence of American support in Vietnam (Source A). Contrary to this however,
The Tet offensive, which took place on the 31st of January 1968, had huge significance on the political landscape of America, and public opinion on the war in Vietnam. After the Tet offensive, public support for the war plummeted, and with ever increasing support in the anti-war movement and protests, the war in Vietnam was no longer justifiable to the American public. As a result of this president Johnson stepped down from running for re-election, leaving an anti-war democrat running against an anti-war republican. This meant that Nixon was elected, which arguably ended the Vietnam War, due to his change in tactics.
As the Cold War raged on, the United States continued to try and contain the spread of communism. A popular belief during this time was the domino theory, which stated that if a country fell to communism, the surrounding countries would also fall. Therefore, the United States began sending aid to the South Vietnamese in order to resist the communist North. However, this quickly escalated into more and more troops being supplied, and the Vietnam War began to take shape. The Vietnam War would be marked by failure in both military and political leadership, angering the American public at every turn.
In an attempt to contain the reaction this decision will have between organizations of veterans and among the families of the more than 50,000 Americans killed in that war, Clinton said that lifting the embargo was “the best means of resolving doubts about the fate of those who are still missing.” More than 2,200 US soldiers involved in the war are still in the category of missing in combat. Clinton explained during a brief ceremony at the White House that this initiative does not mean full normalization of diplomatic relations. He said that to get to that point is necessary for the Government of Hanoi collaborate more actively in the investigation into the fate of missing persons. Vietnam’s communist regime has traditionally argued that there
The attack comes without warning and President Harry Truman, with the help of the United Nations, vows to defend democratic South Korea. The Containment Policy stated that the US would support any nation that are being oppressed by communism and cannot protect themselves from it. This became America’s major reason to intervene in the Korean War. However, the policy of containment came under attack due casualties and economic issues that the policy created. One of the major effects that over extended the powers of American foreign policy is that it gave the US a reason to interfere with any war they wanted as long as it involved communism.
The Vietnam War took place during the cold war era, which lasted many years and could be described as the clashing of two conflicting ideologies between the communist eastern countries and the capitalist western countries. The Americans aimed at stopping the spread of communism in Vietnam, based on the their policy of containment, which was set up to stop the spread of communism to any other country in the world. Many American citizens opposed the sending of their own troops to fight in a war that was not even theirs to lose. Many of the soldiers being sent to Vietnam were members of the youth, which led to increasingly rapid protest action amongst students, as well as the parents of the young men being conscripted. These American troops were being placed to fight in unfamiliar and harsh terrain – as the majority of Vietnam was overgrown with forests and dangerous wildlife - which negatively affected the Americans morale and diminishing their possibility of success in the war.
Other reasons why Americans were dissatisfied had to do with the draft, The Tet Offensive, Hamburger Hill, and My Lai The Tet Offensive occurred in 1968 which happened to be the worst year in the 60s. Tet was a Vietnamese holiday to celebrate the new year. It was suppose to be a seven day seize fire to purely celebrate. North Vietnam lead surprised attacks all across South Vietnam. Although we had beaten the Vietcong in the Tet offensive, it was not considered a success.
Trent Ogden 3/22/18 History Vietnam Vietnam was one of the most vicious wars ever encountered by the United States. In Vietnam there were over 58,000 americans that were killed in the war. More than 3 million in total people died in the Vietnam war.
The United States military has had one of the most effective Rules of engagement in the world. But in the past couple of years the ROE have provided ineffective when fighting this new type of enemy. Rules of engagement are defined as “a directive issued by a military authority specifying the circumstances and limitations under which forces will engage in combat with the enemy.” If you look at in the military point of view “I can only engage the enemy when certain criteria is meet or approved. Whereas a civilian would view them as soon as a guy says shoot you go into a type of firing squad mode.
Essay question - Research any two individuals or groups who served in the Vietnam War. What was their role and contribution? Why is it important to honour their service and remember this part of Australia’s wartime history? The role of Royal Australian Engineers (RAE) during the Vietnam War involved conducting vital work that prevented thousands of fatalities and made certain equipment available to the troops to utilise.
The Manhattan Project was designed to research about integrating science into war. The Manhattan Project occur during World War II. The Manhattan Project were created by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Chemists were gathered to develop an atomic bomb. General Leslie R. Grove is the head of the projects.
To what extent did the United States involvement in the Vietnam War impact America socially, politically, and economically? In document 1, this shows the major bombing and fighting campaigns of the Vietnam War. The bombing and fighting started in north Vietnam and went down South Vietnam, which includes the Ho Chi Trail and the Sihanouk Trail. These trails and these bombing were an important part in the Vietnam War.
One of the wars that we had was the Vietnam war. One way this war helped was it inspired more people to voice their own oppinions and not be scared. This war also helped create social movements for people like women and Indian Americans. One bad thing that happened in this war was people started not to trust the goverment as much but that could probably be a good thing. Those were the effects of the Vietnam war.
America’s fear of communism stretched beyond the western hemisphere; the Domino Theory became popular in the 1960s as the Vietnam War was increasingly seen as a threat to democracy in Asia. The Domino Theory is the belief that a communist victory in one nation would start a “chain reaction of communist takeovers in neighboring states. ”(Domino Theory) In the Vietnam War, this theory was used as a justification for American involvement. Communism, as understood by the American people, was a threat to peace and liberty.
The United States believed that it was their responsibility to contain Communism. They wanted to stop the spread of communism across the world. They saw that Vietnam as the start of the spread of Communism so it contributed as one of the reasons of going to war. The Domino theory was a theory that if one country in a region falls to Communism that the surrounding countries would fall to communism as well. The U.S. also saw the Domino Theory in Vietnam.