The French had occupied the region for centuries and was strongly militarily involved through most of the 19th century. The French started to feel a strong push from communist party in the north during the Eisenhower’s first term, and asked the United States to become more involved. The French military strategy was becoming flawed because they dramatically under-estimated the strength and desire of the communist nation to secure South Vietnam; coupling this with the fact French moral and leadership were very low the cause was diminishing. The French felt strongly that if the United States became more involved they could win the conflict within month following the military involvement.…
The reports in this novel are prefaced with a quote by Robert Shaplen, which sums up the feelings of those Americans involved in the Vietnam conflict. He states, "Vietnam, Vietnam . . .. There are no sure answers." In this novel, the author gives a detailed historical account of the happenings in Vietnam between 1950 and 1975. He successfully reports the confusing nature, proximity to the present and the emotions that still surround the conflict in Vietnam. In his journey through the years that America was involved in the Vietnam conflict, Herring "seeks to integrate military, diplomatic, and political factors in such a way as to clarify America's involvement and ultimate failure in Vietnam."…
The first verse likened the soldiers of the opposing sides. Although they fought in support of two different poles, that did not make them any different in nature; they were still ordinary human beings who did not wish to take part in the fighting. Yet, though they were not the ones who chose to enter into a war, they were the ones giving up their lives, while their leaders called out the orders comfortably from the…
Portable helicopter landing mats designed for Vietnam have been reused to build large sections of the US–Mexico border wall. The Army Corps of Engineers provided institutional links between these two geographically distant imperial projects. After documenting the historical connections between war and wall, I shift the analytic lens to show how mid-century modernism and imperial foreign policy were entangled aesthetically. General Westmoreland, Agnes Martin, Sol LeWitt, and Richard Serra all draw from the same social imaginary. Substantive political disagreements notwtihstanding, geometric grids animated aesthetic affinities that have made it more difficult to perceive, let alone critique or dislodge, the long tentacles of American…
Tormented. Beaten. Herded like cattle. Imprisoned within walls lined with barbed wire. Cowering with fear when in the shadow of a tall, strong soldier. All hope depicting escape has faded away and been replaced with dread. No one would dare attempt to abscond from the camp for it would result in immediate death. Blood spilled on the dirt floors, living in filth and scars.…
Q6: The Vietnam War was a war between the Southern Vietnam and Northern Vietnam. The reason why they has this war was because it was originally between Northern and Southern Vietnam because they had disagree on different beliefs. Northern Vietnam was more of a communist-based nation. While Southern Vietnam was a nationalist-based nation. Since Southern Vietnam had United States for support. They became more involved in the Vietnam War. More than 500,000 soldiers from the United States fought against Northern Vietnam. Soon after, they had to withdraw because they didn't know the terrain and Southern Vietnam starting losing its population. That's mean they were losing people to fight in the war so the United States gave up and withdraw from the Vietnam War. The containment policy means it not have…
In the course of the Vietnam War, there have been many different factors why the USA became increasingly involved. One reason included how they believed it would be a ‘simple’ war to fight and for that reason, they would have the ability to easily win plus the war would not continue on for too long. Additionally they desired to contain communism as they believed they might be capable to stop the growth of communism within Asia. In order to help retain communism, they believed in the ‘domino theory’.…
The focus of this investigation is the theory or concept of just war, and what makes a just war “Just.” This investigation will explore the question: To what extent can the Vietnam War be justified as a just war? Throughout this investigation, the philosophy of a just war will be broken down into its fundamental components. The purpose of this is to identify the extent of which…
With World War II not being over long, and already being back at war with the Soviet Union, America’s involvement with the Vietnam War became a highly controversial topic. The draft system was being used again and it had a good portion of America’s population on edge. However, the fear of communism and its possible spread to other places kept Americans willing to fight during both the Cold War and the Vietnam War. America’s involvement in the Vietnam War spanned six presidencies. The average age of a solider that left to fight in Vietnam whether they were drafted or volunteers was between 19 and 21. The United States involvement brought up many important questions, “such as should they stay out of other countries business?” “Should the draft…
Although very popular the Vietnam war was huge conflict during the years of 1964 through 1975, this single incident changed many Americans opinions about the nation's role both in foreign affairs and domestic ones. The Vietnam war failed in its primary purpose which was to assists in the defense against north Vietnamese communism, just like the cold war previously this proved to be another example of escalation. The US involvement in Vietnam damaged the us reputation due to very misguided and complex intentions on the part of political leaders like those in the Johnson and Nixon administration which brought upon unhappiness and social unrest among the public. This political corruption along with mismanagement on the economic system and the…
During the time of 1959 to 1975, The United States had entered in a controversial conflict and war with Vietnam. There were hidden controversies that lay beneath the Vietnam War about whether it was worth fighting. Some views suggest that it should have not been considered a war. President Kennedy had plans to remove all troops in Vietnam up until his tragic death, whereas President Johnson, when becoming head of office, had plans to hold off any of North Vietnams attacks on the South Vietnamese.…
The Vietnam War was a defining moment in American history, due to the fact that the American people where concerned about the war and the actions of President Johnson. The lack of trust kept on growing between the American people and the government, which left a lot of unanswered questions. After the country’s involvement in two world wars and the cold war, America felt the responsibility of imposing its way of life on the world to stop the growth of the communists. War has an impact on all the parties involved, and the Vietnam War was the most expensive and longest war in American history. The country did not just suffer financially, it cost the people involved greatly, physically and mentally.…
The 1960's were a time of radical change in the society of America. A sense of liberalism could be felt though out the counting during the middle of the decade. The infamous Vietnam War and the new alternative culture were pushing the United States towards a time of liberalism and a nationwide rebellion against the social norms. The first combat forces were sent to Da Nang in 1965, by a formally anti war President, Lyndon B Johnson. The question of why the United States was engaging in a war between North and South Vietnam was raised. Anti war rebellions sprouted up all across the country, all asking the same question, “What are we fighting for?” This alternative culture started to develop though out America. Men, women, youth and adults started to rebel against the normality of society. This shift was described as a shift to the “new left.” The 1960's were a time of change and growth though out the youth of America, with the involvement in the Vietnam War helping to push this forward. The development of the this alternative culture influenced the country from conservative views, to more liberalistic and free minded views.…
Vietnam is full of complex geographical features that make navigating Vietnam a challenge. These land features include thick jungles, swamps, rivers, river deltas, rice fields, and mountains with the occasional city or village. These made guerilla warfare easy for the Viet Cong while remaining difficult for an army, the U.S. in this case, to navigate. On top of the difficult geographical features, some soldiers decided that they would rather end their life than fight a war that a majority of the United States people did not want any part of. If the Vietnam War was so rough and depressing for these soldiers, the government should have known better than to stay involved in such a war. Unmotivated soldiers could, and did, lead to a defeat of the United States. The Viet Cong, the name of the forces that the United States were fighting, used a guerilla style of fighting. This style of fighting was not well known by the U.S. which quickly became an obvious problem for military personnel. Suzanna McCabe wrote an article that included information from soldiers that said, “American soldiers found themselves fighting a very different kind of war than the U.S. had ever experienced. To a large extent, they were engaged in guerrilla warfare -- against fighters who didn't wear uniforms, roamed the countryside in small groups, and could blend into the civilian population. It was sometimes hard to know who the enemy…
The vietnam war was and still is a painful memory to most people in America which had and still has monumental significance today. Socially at the time the vietnam war was divisive and caused protests and marches.Also economically it was just too much money in the wrong place.My third reason for why the war was so significant historically is vietnam syndrome a non medical yet political term referring to Americas aversion to overseas conflict due to the vietnam war.My final reason for the vietnam’s historical significance is politically with the drop in trust domestically. When i talk about significance i need to use a scale and for that i am going to use “Partington's 5 criteria for historical significance”.The scale itself is made from…