Preview

Why Did The Us Enter The Vietnam War Summary

Satisfactory Essays
Open Document
Open Document
164 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Why Did The Us Enter The Vietnam War Summary
Kallie Szczepanski is the author of the article “Why Did the US Enter the Vietnam War?” She is an Asian Historian who resided in Asia for 5 plus years. In 1997 to 1998 she was a Peace Corps volunteer in Turkmenistan. In 2003 Szczepanski became an English teacher in South Korea for four years. She holds a Bachelors degree in History from the Western University as well as a Masters in History.

In this article, Szczepanski, explains the reason the United States joined the Vietnam War. She also writes that the fear of communism was spreading throughout the country causing the Red Scare, which was a fear of communist taking over the federal government. The author explains how communism has not gone the way it was intended and how it actually works.

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Powerful Essays

    My Lai Massacre Essay

    • 1475 Words
    • 6 Pages

    From 1959-1975, America was involved in a prolonged conflict to prevent the spread of communism. Opposing forces were attempting to unify Vietnam under a communist government. In 1954, at the Geneva conference, Vietnam was divided at the 17th parallel, splitting the country into communist…

    • 1475 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    The war in Vietnam was a conflict that started in the 1950s and ended in the early 1970s. During this time period, the United States became increasingly involved in Vietnamese political, economic and military affairs. There were a combination of reasons as to why the United States became more involved, the most important of which in my opinion were the Domino Theory and the growing influence of the National Liberation Front (NFL).…

    • 1547 Words
    • 45 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    1. The two Red Scares The Red Scare refers to two distinctions of anti-Communism sentiment in the US, it resulted from the fear of spreading communism during the early and middle 20th century. The First Red Scare occurred during 1919-1920, the Second Red Scare lasted for decades after World War II. According to Fitzpatrick (2009), during the World War I period, the US Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer and Rising Justice Department star J. Edgar Hoover began to take on a “red menace” to radicals, anarchists and Bolsheviks, and by 1920, they had arrested up to 10,000 alleged subversives. The American fears of the Communist world seemed to be endless in the 20s century, the tensions between the two main powers also kept highly tight all the way. When time went to the post-WWII era, a newly hysteric period came together. With the reorganization of Western power and through various issues like Truman Doctrine, Marshall Plan, NATO, the Korean War, HUAC and McCarthyism, the post-war world more seemed like an peaceful underway battle, between the two super powers: the United States and the Soviet Union. After the Cold War time, scholars’ opinions on the Cold War and general Red Scare had changed a lot, which can be roughly divided into 3 different stages. At the offset scholars tended to believe that America’s involvement in the armament competition and conflict was imposed by Communist pressure generated by Soviet Union and other Communist force in the world. In the middle stage, scholars began to change their mind and to believe that all the things the US did is to display its power other than anything else. When stepping into the 1990s and 21th century, academic views became more rational to rethink that the Red Scare and Cold War could not only be owed to each of the US or SU, it’s more complicated than what people thought before, both of them were to some extent drifted into the Cold War under a large scale international diplomatic…

    • 2098 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Vietnam War involved many decisions and outcomes, many of which have latter been reviewed with more uncertainty then confidence. With this Michael Hunt, the author uses both American and Vietnamese resources, some which before the book were never heard from. He uses these sources to try to explain how the United States of America was sucked into involvement with Southeast Asia. The overall conclusion of the book does not bring to many new views on why the United States involved itself with the issues of Vietnam but more confirms already believed views that they began in the conflict with comprehension of Vietnam’s problem other than the issue of the cold war.…

    • 724 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Vietnam War was the U.S’ longest and most exhausting war- the only war the U.S had ever lost, had far-reaching consequences and impact on most American life from the economy, culture to domestic politics and foreign policy- some of which continue to do so today. The American military had entered Vietnam as a world superpower from World War 2 but left Vietnam with a humiliating defeat, shockingly high casualties, the American public sharply divided and its leaders uncertain of who to trust with its foreign policy. The Vietnam War was from 1955 to 1975 and fell under 5 different presidents filled with scandals and conspiracy theories. After World War 2, North Vietnam declared itself as an independent nation with Communist Ho Chi Minh and the Viet Minh gaining control over the nation. The Geneva Accords called for a…

    • 620 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    After the end of the Second World War in 1945 another war emerged, this war was the cold war. The cold war was a power struggle between Communism and Capitalism. Capitalist Americans were terrified of communists and the chance of being hurled into a nuclear war. The American fear of communism, “the red scare”, caused many citizens to become paranoid. This paranoia lead many Americans into…

    • 742 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    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.…

    • 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
  • Better Essays

    Red Scare Research Paper

    • 1477 Words
    • 6 Pages

    When news broke out that communism was in America, the public was astonished and feared what communism in the U.S. government would do. Many politicians baffled on why they were even trying to run for office. What they did not see coming was the popularity that would follow communism in the future. The fear did not come from the Communist Party itself, but the obsession of a small group of people with power to stop the Red Scare that spread rapidly in the America in both the early 1900’s and 1940’s.…

    • 1477 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
  • Good Essays

    Therefore, America trained the South Vietnamese army to fight the Viet Cong and in 1963, 16,000 advisors were training troops in South Vietnam. Many of these troops were not professionals. These men were young, inexperienced, and were from America's minority groups. This was one of their first mistakes - using troops who were not experienced or highly skilled. All they had was basic training behind them.…

    • 611 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Red Scare

    • 2647 Words
    • 11 Pages

    It was November 18, 1918, the day WWI had officially ended. The last cry of help had been heard and peace was supposedly coming to the United States or it had seemed. An ideological war which prompted mass paranoia had caused, among many other things, what would be known as the Red Scare (****). The Red Scare was the label given to the actions of legislation, the race riots, and the hatred and persecution of "subversives" and conscientious objectors during that period of time. The purpose of this research is to explore the threat that plagued the United States in its’ time of great panic and anxiety, during the “first” Red Scare which lasted between 1919 to 1921. This powerful threat turned out to be Communism and it was greatly feared by almost every U.S. citizen. Communism is “system of social and economic organization in which property is owned by the state group, to be shared in common or to be disturbed among members of the community equally or in proportion to their respective needs. In 1919, no more than one-tenth of the adult American population belonged to the newly formed communist movement, and even this small percentage were greatly persecuted.…

    • 2647 Words
    • 11 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Causes Of The Red Scare

    • 711 Words
    • 3 Pages

    During this time, innocent people were jailed for expressing their views, civil liberties were ignored, and many Americans feared that a Bolshevik-style revolution was at hand. The reason behind the Red Scare lies within WWI. During the war, many people were extremely patriotic and supported the war. However, there were some who believed the war was unnecessary. Two main Socialist groups stood out at the time-the International Workers of the World…

    • 711 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Vietnam War

    • 622 Words
    • 3 Pages

    In this paper it will explore lessons learned when dealing with diplomatic negotiations, presidential leadership, and cultural/social contexts. During the Vietnam War the United States did not realize the high level of intelligence that the Vietnamese people had and how much their culture and nationalism meant to them. They did not want the United States interfering with their country but some of the leaders in charge felt that the United States could help since they were offering monies and military advisors in regard to the conflicts between North and South Vietnam.…

    • 622 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Events like that of the Vietnam war have already happened. The U.S has been fighting all across the middle east, in wars started by misinformation, greed, and a simple misunderstanding of the kind of enemy we were fighting. Which were the same problems that caused us to invade Vietnam in the first place. But really what else could be expect, those who don't learn from history are doomed to repeat it.…

    • 71 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays