4. So much people supported the US in Vietnam because of communism. The US wanted to prevent the communist takeover in Asia and South Vietnam was in trouble of being taken over…
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 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…
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…
At the time, Vietnam was part of the French colonial empire in Indochina. The United States sent France military help but the French was easily defeated in 1954.This conflict then split Vietnam into two. The United States aided France and later on non-communist South Vietnam. The Vietnam War was a conflict between the forces of the South Vietnamese and United States military against the North Vietnamese government, army, and the Vietcong. This Cold War led to many casualties to both sides of the factions.…
Their arrogance also contributed to US being increasingly engaged with the war. One significant good reason that America became increasingly involved in the Vietnam War was containment. This was arranged to contain the spread of communism. In which the U.S government (Presidents Truman, Kennedy Johnson and Eisenhower) followed. USA feared communism and were troubled of communism finding its way to Vietnam.…
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.…
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.…
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…
The United States supported Diem and wanted him to win the election. The Vietnam War began as a result of North Vietnam and the Viet Cong wanting all of Vietnam to be communist. The United States was worried that he would make the entire Southeast Asia communist. The U.S. was worried that Ho Cho Minh would win the election (Benoit 9). In order to stop…
However in 1949, when communists took over China and began to give help to Ho Chi Minh, the USA became afraid that the Viet Minh were the puppets of China. The Americans then became increasingly involved in Vietnam because they hated communism and were very much afraid of a communist spread. They feared the Domino effect, which meant that if Vietnam fell to communism, they expected nearby countries such as Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Burma and India to become communist one after the other, very quickly. The USA had a policy known as the Truman Doctrine, which meant that they would send money, equipment and advice to any country threatened by a communist take over. Therefore, they provided Ngo Dinh Diem, who was helped to set up the anti-communist Republic of South Vietnam, with $1.6 billion in the 1950's.…
The first reason (which I believe is the most important) was the media. The media broadcasted live footage of the war in Vietnam to the public which meant that this was the first war ever to be watched on live TV. The footage was shown without any censorship or watershed which meant kids could watch it. Everyone was able to see it as the footage interrupted any programme that they were watching. The footage devastated American civilians by the terrifying images and the fact that they had to watch villages being destroyed, Vietnamese children burning to death, and American body bags being sent home. At the beginning the media coverage generally supported U.S involvement in the war, but television news dramatically changed its frame of the war after the Tet Offensive. Images of the U.S led massacre at My Lai dominated the television, yet the horrific things that were committed by North Vietnam and the VC rarely made the evening news. Celebrities added to this by singing songs about the war such as Elton John and some celebrities refusing to join the army by ripping up their drafts such as Muhammad Ali. All of these things increased the support of the anti-war movement which leads on to the next reason.…
When the French forces were defeated by the army of Ho Chi Minh in the mid-fifties, the American president Dwight. D. Eisenhower refused to accept the peace retreat of France. and the division between South and North Vietnam. The US president chose to help South Vietnam in fighting with the communist movements in Southeast Asia .The US fear of too strong Soviet Union led them to get involved in Vietnam War, with purpose to avoid the communist spread in Asia and then in Europe, what Berman called the “Domino thesis” .In 1950 the US started to support France economically and sent military advisors. Soon after the French troops were defeated, the US took the mission to prevent Ho`s plan of a communist country. In the following…
The first reason was to try to stop the spread of communism. The U.S is a capitalist country who believes in the Domino Theory. Americans believe that of one country falls to communism the rest will fall too. The second reason was to help the French because they were getting raped. The third reason was to support South Vietnam because they couldn’t handle North Vietnam army or Vietcong. President Johnson did not do good leading the country during that time because he failed to lead the nation out of the quagmire of the Vietnam War. He had impressive domestic achievement but that wasn’t good enough.…
Like a moth to a flame, the United States has always been attracted to international affairs. In this particular case communism in Vietnam was the flame that leered American bugs in, not knowing that they would be brutally burned by communism in the end. From 1953 to 1961, all the initial decisions involving Vietnam were made by President Dwight D. Eisenhower, who once served as the Supreme Commander of the Allied forces in Europe as well as the first Supreme Commander of NATO. Thus, Eisenhower was very knowledgeable about war issues and was prepared to tackle pending conflicts and avert the dispersal of communism when he came into office. Communism was an immense fear of this great patriot, who witnessed to the “Red Scare” during the Truman Administration, and he felt that Vietnam was at great risk as more countries in Asia found communism as an opportunity for independence. The sudden alliances that Ho Chi Minh, President of Vietnam, made with the Communists kindled a fear in Eisenhower, and he felt as though the United States’ capitalistic lifestyle was in jeopardy. Eisenhower preached that in order to save Vietnam, their people, and the security of the U.S. as a known power, the only solution was intervention. Motivated by economic profit and the imminent threat of Soviet influence, the Eisenhower Administration acted upon the “Superman Complex” by supporting Ngo Dinh Diem, and divided Vietnam to impede the globalization of communism between 1945 and 1964.…