Was US involvement in Vietnam Justified? US involvement in Vietnam was to large extent unjustified. Even though the United States. Even though the United States, and other western countries, alleged that American involvement in Vietnam was morally justified (Source B)
Many students were taught in their U.S. History class in high school that United States went to war with Vietnam because they wanted to prevent the Vietnam from becoming communists, and if Vietnam were to fall it could result in the whole region of Indochina to become communists (domino theory). In Howard Zinn’s essay gives a different perspective to its readers and he raises questions in minds of his reader such as, “what was the real reason for U.S to invade Vietnam and how come a wealthiest and a powerful country lose war, so miserably against a third world country?” According to Howard Zinn the hidden reason for U.S. entering and supporting French in the Vietnam War was because “Communist had control over all of Southeast Asia, which
In addition to general exhaustion from war, the American people wanted to focus on domestic equality before moving forward with global equality and democracy. Anti-Vietnam War protests were not necessarily unwarranted, as the anti-democracy Tet Offensive of North Vietnam resulted in the deaths of thousands of American soldiers, with the vast majority of states reporting over 100 war casualties in 1968 alone. (Document E) Economically, the Vietnam War was challenging to manage, as the department of defense budget once again rose to today’s equivalent of 450 billion dollars, adding to an already quickly growing, massive national debt. (Document G)
It was a perception that was widely accepted in the United States particularly in the years that led to the Vietnamese War. Vietnam was divided into North and South with North Vietnam being a communist population and South Vietnam a capitalist population that hoped for a democratic system of government and the consequent reunion with the North part. Though President Lyndon Johnson held the view that it was the responsibility of the United States to stop the war and crush communism before it extended to Southeast Asia, he, however, lacked any good motivation to join the war; in spite of everything, North Vietnam had not offended the United States openly or directly. Therefore, North Vietnam continued to send streams of soldiers against the South Vietnam part to transform South Vietnam to communism. The United States, on the other hand, had no option but to observe these occurrences from across the ocean in
The Vietnam War was fought between the North and South Vietnamese over Communism. The North pushed for a communist regime while the South favored a more democratic government. During the time of this war, the U.S. was pushing towards containing Communism, and vowed to support any nation resisting communism. Although America’s policy of containment had good intentions, this often led to the support of corrupt leaders and governments. President Ngo Dinh Diem of South Vietnam was Catholic and did not lead well.
The Vietnam War, which lasted from 1955 to 1975, was one of the most divisive and controversial conflicts in American history. It was a military conflict between the Communist North Vietnam, and South Vietnam, with the United States and other Western powers supporting the Southern Vietnamese. The war was fought in the context of the Cold War because the United States feared that Communism would spread throughout Southeast Asia if North Vietnam managed to take control of the entire country. The war had such a profound impact on American society, and still remains a subject of intense debate and analysis today. After World War I, Vietnamese leader, Ho Chi Minh, expressed many grievances against the French colonialists.
If countries were to unite with the understanding of the stance of freedom, they could take down the walls that build up communism. As is becoming obvious, the American goal was to assist and help countries in the need of freedom from the barriers and people that were held over them. President Truman emphasizes the importance of freedom during this time. It also stands for our everlasting promise the nation symbolized. In order to keep our promise the nation has to defend South Vietnam from the communist hands.
The Vietnam War is considered one of the most controversial wars in United States history. The United States is one of the greatest superpowers at the time and were seen as the helping hand for doing the right thing. The United States were dragged into this war in order to stop the spread of communism throughout the Democratic South Korea. Many Americans saw this as the United States intervening in another country’s civil war which is not our duty. Americans also used the draft in a poor way affecting the young and African American population.
November 1, 1955 marked the beginning of the conflict in Vietnam. The Vietnam War was a fight against the Domino Theory, or the idea of the spreading of communism. Northern Vietnam was a communist territory, and the United States government feared that Southern Vietnam would soon become a communist state as well. In order to prevent this from happening, the US government drafted many young Americans to fight against Northern Vietnam. At first, many Americans supported the country’s involvement, though as time went on, many people became weary of the country’s involvement in the battle.
The Vietnam war was preceded by a very turbulent time in our history with problems here in the states such as racism, women’s rights, and a president being shot. But in Vietnam they were going through a civil war, which they had done before, but not to this extent, this time they got the U.S.S.R. involved. It was communist Russia and North Vietnam against South Vietnam. The U.S. started to get
In 1955, the United States entered the Vietnam War, a war that would last twenty years. This war had proved to be one of the deadliest wars of the time. During this time, it brought a great divide throughout the country. People felt as though the war was unnecessary and the government was sacrificing innocent lives. There were riots and peaceful protests throughout the country because many people wanted to war to end and were beginning to stand up for their rights.
It has been a long, chaotic 21 years since the start of the Vietnam War. Not wanting to be embarrassed, each of the presidents prolonged to, so that the next had to take on the pressure. Due to the anti-war protests on the streets, the presidents became very tensed, therefore have to secretly increase United States involvement in the war. ___________________________ The six presidents of the Vietnam War: Harry S. Truman, Dwight Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard Nixon, and Gerald R. Ford.
It was for the containment of communism that the United States played a vital role in the Cold war. Thereafter, the United States saw the rise of communism in North Vietnam and were determined to keep it contained. Realizing their neighbors reverting to communism, South Vietnam made the first move starting a Civil war within Vietnam which marked the beginning of the Vietnam war which lasted from 1955 to 1975. As was their norm, the United States quickly intervened Vietnam's Civil war and despite their tremendous efforts, they fell short due to the lack of support from home, the Vietnamese’ familiarity with their own land, and their successful effort to destroy American morale during the 1968 Tet Offensive.
What caused America to join the Vietnam war and was it our war to join in the first place? Some believe that it in our best interest to join the war, while others think that it was a bad idea to get mixed up in the war effort, look where it got us? America was nearly split, causing a lot of tension between us. All of this because of communism; which is scary for anyone who believes in a democracy. It had the United States fighting amongst itself and caused so many other wars.
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.
