Preview

Vietnam War Legacy

Better Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1854 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Vietnam War Legacy
The Vietnam War and Its Legacy The Vietnam War is one of the most shocking eras in American history. Not only did the utmost world power in the world get bested by an almost third-world country, but we lost badly. This war could have been won, or even prohibited in the first place. The United States should have won this war, with a blend of better weapons usage, better maneuvers, and better support from their home country. Many people do not know the reason for the U.S involvement in getting into a war with Vietnam. Vietnam used to be controlled by the French and gained its independence after the battle of Dien Bien Phu. Communism at the time was a popular thing back then and was growing although the Asia region. The U.S opposed communism …show more content…
The Ho Chi Minh Trail was the only advantage the Vietcong had on the U.S. Not only did the trail stop the U.S victory over the Vietcong, but the U.S did not want to invade the north so other surrounding countries would not get involved such as china. If the other neighboring countries got tangled in the war, that would have been world war III. We have already lost enough of our soldiers. This war could have lasted much longer if the U.S did not resign from the war and come to an agreement with North Vietnam. The war could have escalated to another level no one knows, but it was a good idea that the U.S took the defeat. On 1973, the Paris Peace Accord was signed. The terms of the accords titled for a complete truce in South Vietnam, allowed North Vietnamese forces to retain the ground they had captured, released U.S captives of war, and called for both sides to discover a political solution to the battle. All soldiers left over in Vietnam were able to emanate back home. With US forces left from the country, South Vietnam stood unaccompanied. The situation degraded in 1974, when Congress approved the Foreign Assistance Act of 1974, cutting off all military assistance. This act disconnected the threat of air strikes should North Vietnam break the terms of the accords. Soon later the act’s passage, North Vietnam activated a limited offensive in Phuoc …show more content…
"John Prados, The Blood Road: The Ho Chi Minh Trail and the Vietnam War." Armed Forces & Society: An Interdisciplinary Journal 26.2 (2000): 350. Expanded Academic ASAP. Web. 6 Nov. 2012.
Document URL http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CA61557358&v=2.1&u=txshracd2907&it=r&p=EAIM&sw=w Manning, Steven. "Legacy of a lost war." Scholastic Update 6 Apr. 1990: 14. Academic OneFile. Web. 6 Nov. 2012.
Document URL http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CA8962073&v=2.1&u=txshracd2907&it=r&p=AONE&sw=w Lamb, David. "Revolutionary Road." Smithsonian 38.12 (2008): 56-66. Academic Search Complete. Web. 6 Nov.

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Powerful Essays

    The Vietnam War lasted about two decades. The United States was engulfed in a civil war between North and South Vietnam and wanted to assist the south with preventing a hostile takeover by North Vietnam under the Communism banner. The Vietnam War was not only America’s longest War, but also costliest and deadliest. We spent over $150 billion and suffered close to $58 thousand American deaths and nearly 300 thousand wounded. By the time we decided to withdraw from the war, North Vietnam easily swept through the south and unified Vietnam under Communism. Still to this day, one of the most debated topics regarding the Vietnam War is why the United States got involved and why, when and how we should wage future wars. (Dunn, 2001)…

    • 1462 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    The most important reason as to why the United States became involved in Vietnam was the long term cause of the Domino Theory. The Domino Theory was the belief that once one country had fallen to communism, its neighbours would do the same. It was devised by John Foster Dulles, the US Secretary of State, during the 1950s. The Domino Theory would be a an obstacle for the Americans if they were to win the Cold War, as they had to keep as few countries from going communist as possible. If South Vietnam were to fall communist, its neighbours in South East Asia may do the same- including India, a country with a billion inhabitants and around 90% of its people living in poverty. Communism may look an attractive prospect to South East Asia’s poor, which increases the likelihood of the Domino Theory, and would have a dire effect for American economic interests in the region. American companies would be nationalised by the state under communism, and trade would be badly affected because Americans would not be able to sell commodities in communist countries. This would not only harm America’s economy, but also its military- it would not be able to sustain a well trained, well equipped army without the money to do so. Eventually, this would also have dire political effects for America- its President would look weak, and the Soviet Union would be the dominant global power, due to the United States’ inferior military, economy and financial system. Moreover, if the…

    • 1547 Words
    • 45 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    Michael Lind takes the approach that this war was something America could not have avoided if we had any hope to eventually win the Cold War over the Soviet Union and emerge as the world’s number one super power. He acknowledges that the administrations involved with the conflict did little to clearly explain our involvement to the public, and would often change their reasoning over time. But he goes on to explain that we had a very real reason to get involved in a conflict that many believed did not involve us. To easily explain why, is to simply bring up credibility. “Credibility, in power politics, is a country’s reputation for military capability combined with the political resolve to use it in order to promote its goals.” (Lind, 1999) In a sense credibility, or perceived power, was one of the most important tools in the Cold War. Allies and small dependent countries had to believe that America would be able to support them in a crisis, and enemies had to be under the impression that we would be able to back up any threats. To back out of Vietnam would have only prepared America to enter another battlefield later. A main reason of entering Vietnam was to avoid a humiliating defeat to our own reputation as a powerful country. Keeping South Vietnam out of Chinese control and permitting the South Vietnamese to enjoy a freer lifestyle were lower down on the…

    • 1192 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Anti-Vietnam Movement in the U.S. The antiwar movement against Vietnam in the US from 1965-1971 was the most significant movement of its kind in the nation 's history. The United States first became directly involved in Vietnam in 1950 when President Harry Truman started to underwrite the costs of France 's war against the Viet Minh. Later, the presidencies of Dwight Eisenhower and John F. Kennedy increased the US 's political, economic, and military commitments steadily throughout the fifties and early sixties in the Indochina region.…

    • 2893 Words
    • 12 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Abc Clio

    • 271 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Marking one of the most traumatic periods of U.S. history, the Vietnam War spanned more than a decade and caused massive disruption both in Southeast Asia and on the American home front. Although U.S. leaders were often ambiguous about American involvement in Vietnam, they nevertheless pursued a fairly unbroken policy of interference in the country in an effort to halt the spread of communism during the cold war. In the end, the U.S. defeat in Vietnam proved costly, both financially and in terms of the number of lives lost, and diminished America's reputation as the defender of democracy and freedom throughout the world.…

    • 271 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Vietnam was a war like no other and the nature of the fighting in this war had great impacts on the soldiers. At this time, communism was seen as a great threat, especially by Western countries, and so extreme emphasis was placed on the domino theory that when one country falls to communism, others would follow and that forward defence would be the only solution to this issue. Also during this time, Vietnam was artificially split into the communist South, led by Ho Chi Min who defeated and drove out the French, and the government led South, which was in the power of Diem who was clearly corrupt and had little supporters so the spread of communism was quite likely. In response, American and Australian troops were sent to fight for the South and stop this spread of communism but there were many difficulties.…

    • 819 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The government had underestimated the enemy, leading them to believe they could easily defeat the communists. Vietnam experienced a strong will to rid their country of foreign rulers and The U.S presidents were not ready to lose. However, simply because of the increasing pressure from the military industrial complex arms industry, the U.S got stuck in what was referred to as a ‘Guerrilla Warfare’. Strategies which the Vietcong used included attacking as soon as the enemy tires, retreat whenever the enemy attacks, pursue the moment the enemy retreats and raid when the enemy tires. The guerrilla tactics they used caused it to be impossible to defeat Vietnam.…

    • 687 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The United States entered the war to stop the spread of Communism in Southeast Asia. American leaders feared that Communist forces would gain control of Vietnam. After that, nation after nation might fall to Communism. Communism is a political and economic system that the United States strongly opposed. Vietnam had been split in half in 1954, after fighting a war to gain independence from France. When French forces withdrew, Vietnamese Communists gained control of North Vietnam. Ho Chi Minh was the leader of the North Vietnamese Communists. South Vietnam had a non-Communist government. This government was believed to be weak but the United States supported it in order to keep the Communists from taking control of all of Vietnam thus preventing the alleged domino effect.…

    • 303 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Past War In Vietnam War

    • 255 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The Vietnam War was a bad decision made by the United States government. There was no reason for the United States to start a war with this foreign country. The Defense Department released a film in 1965 addressing why the United States had to go to war with Vietnam. They said it was to defend freedom and aggression, and to stop the spreading of communism. In reality, this war was made by choice, it was not a “do or die” situation for America, but the United States saw Vietnam as a major threat and decided to declare war on them, only to lose a lot of soldier, time, and money.…

    • 255 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    In conclusion, the US’s decision to take part in the Vietnam war was a mistake. They should of remained neutral and let other countries handle their own business instead of encroaching into international affairs. From the Americans citizens perspective, the involvement was unnecessary and it lost the trust of…

    • 493 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Shulzinger Vietnam War

    • 1324 Words
    • 6 Pages

    As I stated before, America basically turned the conflicts of Vietnam into ones of their own and made it now an American war not the Vietnam war anymore. American officials entered on false assumptions, as many believe. During the time of the Nixon administration, it became well known that the United States spent billions of dollars in military expenditures and held thousands of deaths before the realization that the war was not and could not be won.…

    • 1324 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Vietnam war is an incredibly controversial topic; some say America won, while others say that they lost. In this case, America took a major loss, they were never winning at any point. The reason the Americans officially lost the war is because they were unable to achieve their goal which was to stop the spread of communism in Vietnam. In fact, the exact opposite happened, after the American forces left South Vietnam in January of 1975, communism immediately overran it. Along with the reasoning behind why the Americans lost are 3 points which will give a deeper explanation on why the U.S lost the Vietnam war. First of all the Americans lost because the North Vietnamese wanted to win more than they did. Following this is the American’s bombing strategies that proved to be horrendously ineffective because they were choosing to bomb locations that would end up giving them no real advantage. Thirdly, and quite possibly the biggest reason that lost America the war was their attempt to fight a war of Attrition against the North Vietnamese strategy of Guerilla warfare…

    • 911 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The vietnam war was a great war that was tough and had many struggles there was many obstacles in the way to beat the vietnamese many argue that we won because we backed out of the war but a lot of people think we lost the vietnam war and here is a few reasons the united states lost the vietnam war . The united states of america lost the vietnam war because of lack of allied support, lack of support at home, lack of ballistic or nuclear bombs and finally the lack of real military objectives . The first reason why the united states lost the vietnam war was because of lack of allie support.the leader of the south was president diem…

    • 564 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Vietnam War DBQ

    • 672 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Vietnam war was the longest war in American History which fought between 1964 to 1975 and the most unpopular war for the American of the 20th century. This is the only one war that United States lost the war but no one knows the truth because the US government had not told about this war yet. The resulted in nearly 60,000 American deaths and in an estimated 2 million Vietnamese deaths. It seemed like the American won the war but actually they were not. The experience for the American soldier in Vietnam was long and painful one for the nation. During the war, the Vietnam is spilt in the two groups; the South which was Capitalism and the North which was Communism. To support the South Vietnam’s government, the American sent the soldiers…

    • 672 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    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…

    • 948 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays