Why Was The Vietnam War Necessary

Freddie Zises

United States History

Second Semester Paper

America in Vietnam: Was the United States’ Involvement Necessary? In the midst of the Cold War, a civil war broke out in Vietnam, and Vietnam was divided into two parts: North Vietnam and South Vietnam. In the wake of Vietnam’s struggle for independence from France, a nationalist/communist agenda sparked from a revolutionary, Ho Chi Minh, who also played a large role in gaining Vietnam’s independence from France. The United States’ involvement in Vietnam’s civil war was motivated by American strategic interests in Indochina and their fear of the domino effect; however, those same factors, along with overconfidence in military capabilities and lack of objective that directly benefited the U.S., led to political turmoil and the U.S.’s ultimate loss. Despite having one of the world’s largest militaries, the war was unwinnable because they severely underestimated the Viet Cong’s home soil advantage combined with their guerrilla warfare tactics that ultimately overwhelmed an already

was even getting involved in the first place. Defense Analyst, John McNaughton, claimed that 70% of the U.S.’s aims for the war were to avoid a humiliating U.S. defeat, 20% was to keep South Vietnam and the adjacent territory from Chinese hands, and only 10% was to permit the people of South Vietnam to enjoy a better, freer way of life. There was pressure on American leaders to come out victorious in one way or another because of all of the sacrifices that were made to fight. They needed something that would convince people that America’s involvement was successful and worth all of the lives that were lost. America had a reputation to uphold in the world that they were the most powerful country, and to lose to a much more underdeveloped country with a much smaller military would be an embarrassment to the nation on the world