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President Kennedy's Involvement In The Vietnam War

841 Words4 Pages

Francesca Orr-Yepes
Mr. Mesic
F-Mod
April 30, 2016
The Vietnam War The Vietnam War was a long, torturous, and costly war. America had officially joined the war in the beginning of 1950. They were providing massive military and economic support to France during the French Indochina War, France’s attempt to control Vietnam. The military and economic support was provided by the Eisenhower and Kennedy administrations. Before Kennedy’s death, he announced that he would try to remove the U.S. forces from South Vietnam. After Kennedy’s death, Lyndon Johnson came into office as the new President. His opinion’s and beliefs were opposite from Kennedy’s, as he continued to send large amounts of American troops to fight the South Vietnamese, wanting to …show more content…

Ngo Dinh Diem was the president of South Vietnam who was an anti-communist. President Kennedy increased his financial aid to Diem to diminish the accusations of “soft democracy.” But before Kennedy was assassinated, he claimed that the war was “their war.” In the end, Kennedy wanted remove the troops from South Vietnam. Some Americans agreed with Kennedy’s path, to return home from war, but many others supported President Lyndon Johnson’s approach, to send more troops. By the middle of the 1960’s, more than 180,000 Americans were stationed in Vietnam. The Army of the Republic of Vietnam had stated that they, “cannot stand up to pressure without substantial U.S. combat support on the ground.” This statement caused Johnson’s administration to continue adding more and more troops to the war, leaving there to be about half a million soldiers stations in Vietnam by the end of the 1960’s. The war was becoming more expensive than it needed to be, causing the inflation rate to rise dramatically. By the end of 1967, Americans were split over opposing or supporting the war. Most opposers of the war was the youth of America, who made sure that their voices were …show more content…

With the voice of the youth and more horrific battles, the war had ended, leaving Vietnam to a victory. By the end of 1969, President Richard Nixon was in office. He announced the first troop withdraw. Though he pulled out the troops, he still fought the war with Vietnam. By the beginning of the 1970’s, America’s growing social status and upcoming presidential election led to President Nixon’s administration to change the negotiation policy. All in all, more than 330,000 Americans were either killed or injured. The war left Americans more cautious about foreign affairs and more hostile toward the

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The Vietnam war had been nicknamed ‘Johnson’s war’, which automatically put Nixon at an advantage over Humphrey, who was Johnson’s Vice President and still supported the war. This influenced Nixon’s election as many democrats turned away from Humphrey and used Nixon as an anti-war alternative. Humphrey’s stance led Nixon’s popularity to increase nationwide as, although relatively anti-civil rights, Nixon appealed to Afro-Americans like Martin Luther King, who had clashed with Johnson over the war. Nixon’s anti-war policies caused him to gain support from many unlikely areas of the USA, along with those in the silent majority that he originally targeted, leading him to be elected as President in

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People were saying that his decision to bomb Cambodia was not ending the war, it was making it worse. Many people protested against Nixon’s decisions during the Vietnam War and it did not end well. At Kent State University four students were killed guardsmen because the were protesting against the Vietnam War. On January 27, 1973 the Paris Peace Accords made an end to the Vietnam War and all U.S. military involvement (“Nixon Declares Vietnam”). North Vietnam ended up winning and the United States and South Vietnam lost.

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With the US military helping South Vietnam against the North Vietnam. The South Vietnam didn’t not feel like they had support under the Western’s power, which South Vietnam didn’t because Nixon was trying to help the South Vietnam, but no involving US soldiers to fight in the war. Although, Nixon made the Vietnamization policy to stop US involvement it cause more of a uprise for the US position in the war. The New Economic policy and Nixon Doctrine both policies made by Nixon was only towards his presidency and not actually stopping the US involvement. Nixon said it would make a change in the US involvement to better but instead Nixon didn’t follow up upon his campaign promises.

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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.

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This paper will be discussing how the Vietnam war and Kent state shooting tie together and how it affected lives afterwards. The Kent State Shooting on May 4, 1970 was a culmination of the anti war movement because Four Kent state students were killed protesting the invasion of Cambodia during the Vietnam war. The Vietnam war was fought between North and South Vietnam. The United States, along with other countries such as the Philippines were on the side of South Vietnam.

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President Richard Nixon invaded Cambodia after saying he would bring peace to southeast Asia. He went back on his word when he decided to do just that. He said in his speech that he wanted to drive out the Vietnamese forces and destroy their supplies in hopes of stopping the war from expanding. He also said that this is the future of 18 million in south vietnam and 7 million in cambodia.

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After Kennedy's assasination, the people lost trust in the new president. Lyndon B. Johnson supported the American involvement in the Vietnam War. Due to the backlash though, he didn't even run for re-election in 1968. The next president, Richard Nixon, immediately began with plans to withdraw from Vietnam. But he wasn't going to leave them without trying to bring peace.

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Good morning ladies and gentlemen. After President John F. Kennedy’s death we need to work harder than ever. We have sent troops to South Vietnam to support the government, and to protect eh Air Force base conducting a series of bombing raids on North Vietnam. This series of bombings was starting to escalate the war in North Vietnam. On August 7, 1964 the Gulf of Tokin Resolution was passed to give congressional approval to expand the Vietnam War.

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The war in Vietnam to do this day has gone down as one of the influential and controversial wars in United States history. The war lasted from 1955 to 1975.The nation as a whole began to uproar over the war and the major consequences of the war. There were many reasons why so many Americans were against the war. Public opinion steadily turned against the war following 1967 and by 1970 only a third of Americans believed that the U.S. had not made a mistake by sending troops to fight in Vietnam (Wikipedia). Not to mention, many young people protested because they were the ones being drafted while others were against the war because the anti-war movement grew increasingly popular among the counterculture and drug culture in American society and

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When John F. Kennedy became President of the United States in 1961, his first few months in office were not the greatest. After the “Bay of Pigs” incident, JFK felt that he had to get his credibility back and Vietnam was his way to do so. This war tore the United States into two sides; The “Hawks” and the “Doves”. People argued whether the United States should stay involved in Vietnam throughout the entirety John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson’s presidency. There was no official start to the war, however, the United States had been invested in Vietnamese affairs for many years beforehand.

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