Nearly 60,000 Americans lost their lives in Vietnam without a true reason why (Relin, 1990, p. 1). In war, all lives are at stake. America’s decision making is crucial to determine who will live and who will die. America is one of the biggest politicians of war with the most military power. It has been a debate in the U.S. on how much we should intervene. Some believe the United States is responsible to stop the war and suffering in foreign counties. Others think the U.S. should avoid foreign situations unless they threaten the homeland. Either way, the morale and physical responsibilities fall in the hands of the government (Relin, 1990).
The U.S. has a long history of intervening in faraway conflicts that pose no immediate threat to American
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A total of 150 billion dollars worth of supplies and artillery was used to try and beat the Vietnamese (Relin, 1990, p. 1) Vietnam was facing a communism takeover. The Cold War was going on and America was terrified of communism. For a while, the U.S. had sided with France and was just paying for their military expenses. They then decided to take the war upon themselves. In 1964, President Johnson announced that Vietcong had attacked U.S. ships. This allowed the President and Congress the permission to go ahead with war. This event, however, has little to no proof of it even happening. In 1965, the U.S. Air Force conducted roughly 5500 bombing missions a month on North Vietnamese. The goal was to break the Vietcong’s will to fight. In the end, it only killed many enemy soldiers as well as thousands of civilians. The war never ended in a victory, but more with a mutual draw. In 1970, Richard Nixon would bring the majority of soldiers home. Millions of people died in this war whether they were involved or not. This creates debate on whether this war should have happened. Because people’s lives are at stake, America must make the right decisions during war (Relin,