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Groupthink Vietnam War

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The Vietnam War is a war that America is not ready to forget and maybe the longest war in the US history. With a death toll of

more than 50000 Americans and over 2 million Vietnamese, the Vietnam War was considered a failure by default. Many still

wonder how President Lyndon Johnson could have undertaken such a bias decision in terms of this war. Surprisingly, according to

Janis L. (n.d.), this was the fruit of groupthink that created the escalation of this war. Today we are going to narrate more about

the groupthink effect that caused this war and how it could have been tackled otherwise.

Base on Janice L. research, the decision was not only President Johnson 's, but a small group of influential people, bearing the

caliber to advise him. The group included White house assistant McGeorge …show more content…

The unanimous decision of

going to war with Vietnam was all the cause and effect of groupthink.

To avoid such a vicious circle, the best thing to do is to keep oneself in check all the time. This group should have had a neutral

person to counter their decisions when wrong and to voice his unbiased opinions when needed. The best rule when dealing with

groups is to make it a rule to be honest and be free to speak out when needed (Bacevich J., August 3rd, 2014). It is always good to

analyze each and every idea and dissect it to find the flaws to work on. In this situation, sending other parties on field and really

making an account on what was going on there could have helped them decrease their coldness and take the appropriate action

to stop the troubles. Before engaging into a crucial decision, it is very important to learn more and use the help of media to

educate oneself and the whole group on what exactly is the issue out there. And last but not least, it is always a good practice to

understand the concept og groupthink before engaging in a group decision

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