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Vietnam War Justifiable Essay

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The U.S. was unwarranted to fight in the Vietnam War.

In 1946, Vietnam requested the U.S. to help them fight France in a war for their independence. The U.S. helped France instead, in fear that if Vietnam won, it would become a communist country. In 1964, the U.S. claimed that they were attacked by Vietnam in the Gulf of Tonkin Incident, however, it was later revealed that the attack was just a storm. Because of the supposed threat after the Gulf of Tonkin incident, the U.S. government gave the president full jurisdiction over the conflict. He used that power to start bombing and attacking Vietnam, which began the war. Some might say that the decision to fight in the Vietnam War was justifiable because if Vietnam became communist, many Southeast …show more content…

"In 1969, over half of the public did not support the war," according to polls taken (Stempel, 1988). Yet in 1969, over 280,000 Americans were drafted for the war. This was bad because the government was forcing Americans to serve in the Vietnam War, where they had the chance of injury and death, yet most people did not support the war. It isn't right for the government to force people to die for a cause they did not support. With each year, support for the war kept going down, which caused many protests and riots fighting for peace. In 1967, there was a protest in Washington D.C. with 100,000 protestors (History.com editors, 2009). It was clear to the government that the public did not support the war, yet they still forced Americans to sacrifice for the war by raising taxes and drafting men to fight. It was not justifiable for the government to abuse its power and take from the people when there was such a big protest against the …show more content…

The U.S. was worried that if Vietnam fell to communism, the rest of Southeast Asia would, too (Stur, n.d.). When the United States lost the war, Vietnam became communist, as well as many other Southeast-Asian countries, proving this was a legitimate concern. However, America was not concerned with the well-being of Vietnam. Stopping communism in Vietnam was more of a political statement against the USSR than caring about the lives of the Vietnamese people. America was preaching for democracy, yet inserted Ngo Dinh Diem into the South Vietnamese government, proving that they did not want true democracy for

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U.S. involvement escalated in the early 1960s, with troop levels tripling in 1961 and again in 1962. U.S. involvement escalated further following the 1964 Gulf of Tonkin incident, in which a U.S. destroyer clashed with North Vietnamese fast attack craft, which was followed by the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, which gave the U.S. president authorization to increase U.S. military presence. Once the reinforcements arrived the Unites States held power of what was South Vietnam, which is was they desired for. Once U.S troops were in South Vietnam the Vietnamese people felt support and comfort. They were being attacked by their own people which was North Vietnam, all because they wanted them to become a communist party.

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The Vietnam War was between North and South Vietnam, and their allies like America. The Americans goal was to prevent communist insurgency. Eventually “…Henry Kissinger and Nixon made a policy called ‘Vietnamization’” (History.com). The policy entails “American troops [to] be withdrawn while South Vietnamese soldiers [would be] backed by continued American bombing…” (Foner 1016).

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Americans wanted their lives to be secure, not to fight a war they weren’t really in. The U.S. had to decide what it would do in order to protect Americans, contain communism, and keep their government from falling to corruption all at the same time. The War Powers Act of 1973 was passed in order to keep the President’s power to commit to war under checks. In the act [Doc I] The President must remove armed forces unless “Congress (1) has declared war…”. The U.S. did not want to enter any more wars that would prove to be a waste of

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Also in 1969, when student body presidents of 253 universities wrote to the White House to say that they personally planned to refuse induction, joining the half million others who would do so during the course of the war. The conflict had a substantial effect on the economy as well, with unemployment and soaring prices adding to a sense of fear. The war also had a long-lasting effect on American culture, with many works of literature, music, and film capturing the agony and despair of the time. With continuous discussions over the place of the United States in the world and the use of military action to further foreign policy goals, the impact of the Vietnam War is still felt today. The Vietnam War's effect on the soldiers who participated in the fight was another significant aspect of the battle.

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The government passed a law stating if men went to college, they couldn’t be drafted for war. This was unfair because a lot of families couldn’t afford to send their children to school so they didn’t have a choice whether to go to war or not. Many men tried escaping to Canada and other countries just to avoid the draft. A person should be made to go fight. It should be their choice.

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Also, it showed how war could affect the common citizen using the term “Vietnam syndrome”. “The War Powers Resolution mandated that U.S. presidents inform Congress within forty-eight hours of a troop commitment in the absence of a declaration of war. If Congress does not declare war within sixty days of the commitment, the president must terminate the use of U.S. military forces, unless he has sought in writing a thirty-day extension of the deadline. ”(Political Lessons - the Vietnam War and Its Impact).The introduction of the War Powers Resolution made the United States Congress in line with the President of the United States if he or she wanted to declare war or complete a skirmish for an enemy. The difference in War for example in World War II, Congress under Roosevelt knew that Japan attacked Pearl Harbor and it was an act of War.

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