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How Did The Vietnam War Affect America

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The most important effect that the Vietnam War had on the rest of the Cold War was called “Vietnam Syndrome”. The Vietnam Syndrome was basically a loss of faith and a defeatist attitude”. The war in Vietnam was very unpopular and after it was done, Americans did not want to start another war and came up with “Vietnam Syndrome”. Before the Vietnam war occurred, the idea America had about Communism was called the “Domino Theory” where if one country would fall, it would take down another country around it. This was called “Containment”. This idea led America to invade Korea, Cuba and then Vietnam. But after Vietnam, many things changed. Especially, the way that America approached the Cold War.
Before Vietnam, Americans mostly supported the …show more content…

In the article “How did the Vietnam War Affect America”, Geoff Simons writes “The Reagan doctrine’ of promoting anti-communist insurgencies meant that throughout the 1980s bloody revolts around the third world were funded (and encouraged) by Washington in Nicaragua, Afghanistan, Angola, Cambodia, El-salvador, Western Sahara and Philippines”. This states that because of “The Reagan Doctrine”
Many people all over the world rebelled against their country in order to stop communism. So instead of directly attacking a country threatened by communism, the new plan was to support the “Right-wing rebels” that battled them instead. The public did not revolt this time because they didn’t know all of what was being done.
This new approach by America lasted a long time, even after the Cold War was over. All of Reagan’s wars were fought in secret from the public using “The Reagan Doctrine”. The first real war America had after Vietnam, was the Gulf War against Saddam Hussein. Which mainly transpired because America was part of a large group of countries that invaded Iraq. In the article “How did the Vietnam War Affect America” by Alan Rohn, it states that In March 1991, after the victory, President Bush said, “We’ve kicked the Vietnam Syndrome once and for all!” However, in 1993, President Clinton lost 18 marines in Somalia and immediately ordered a retreat. Then a few months later, he didn’t even bother interfering in the “Rwanda Genocide” in which one million people were killed. So even 20 years after The Vietnam War, American presidents were worried about having long

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