Evolution of the Vietnam War

Why the United States Became Increasingly Involved in the War in Vietnam In the years after the Second World War, it became necessary for the Allies to decide the future of the French colony, Indochina, when the Japanese who had been occupying the country, surrendered. Prior to the Second World War, the French had ruled over the regions of Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. The French ruling was unpopular, forcing ideas of democracy upon the Vietnamese people and the French overthrew any efforts of resistance.

The Vietnam War had discredited the United States’ stereotype of being the strongest world power for being “undefeatable” in war by trapping the most powerful foreign nations into a merely undefeatable war, and by destroying any hope that the United States had for institutional change in Vietnam. The United States’ involvement in domestic affairs had again proved that the nation felt confident enough to present itself as the “problem solver” in issues regarding foreign policy. The main intention of Americans was to bring forth an established democracy to Vietnam that would overpower

The growing perceived ineffectiveness and illegitimacy of America’s role in Vietnam was the product of what was viewed as little more than an anti-communist crusade in which neither logistical concerns nor the nationalist motivations of a people who had yearned for sovereignty over centuries carried significant weight. Less and less Americans were willing to bankroll, much less have their sons paying “any price” or bearing “any burden” for what was becoming a quagmire. Bodybag after bodybag was being filled with American boys on a daily basis, not to mention that every dollar of damage incurred by the Communist enemy in Hanoi cost the United States ten dollars , helping to quickly bring an end to an era of unprecedented American prosperity.

Vietnam War DBQ Rough Draft The United States became involved in Vietnam affairs after the end of World War II, during the Cold War. The French were trying to colonize Indochina, which included Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. America wanted to have the French as allies against the Soviet union, so they proceeded to aid them in their colonization. Vietnam pressed for independence, and war broke out. The U.S. involvement in the war remains controversial.

To understand the US involvement in Vietnam, it is necessary to understand the background of traditional independence and opposition to larger powers throughout Vietnamese history. The Vietnamese had a long history and tradition of opposing invading powers. This opposition and culture was to draw the U.S. into the longest war it has been involved in. This was an indirect but vitally important cause of US involvement in the Vietnam War. As early as 500BC, Vietnam was a country that held a strong sense of nationalism, and endeavoured for the goal of autonomy, independence, and self-rule. Up until modern history, there have been several events that have contributed towards intensifying this sense of nationalism and resistance against foreign powers. National resistance against the Chinese empire was one of the earliest examples of resistance against nationalism. Throughout the period of pre-modern history from 210 BC to 1789, resistances against foreign control and rule such as that against the Nan Yue, the Song, the Ming, and the Qing, were frequent. These attempts at national resistance came down to the basis that the nationalist Vietnamese did not want foreign influence determining the political future, culture, or customs of their country. Another main example that increased a sense of nationalism was French Colonialism. The French, who were appealed by Vietnam’s unique location, natural resources, and the extensive economic opportunities

The war dragged on from 1946 to 1954. The French had a certain deal of

The Vietnam war brought many changes to the United States in the 1960’s and the 1970’s. Some of the changes were for the better of the country, take the rediscovered Women’s Rights movements and the ever growing Free Speech movements inspired by New Left, while most of the other changes brought on tensions between government and their people. The Domino Theory pushed our leaders to the edge. In order to stop the Domino Theory in Vietnam, the U.S. invaded. The war was useless for the American government to get involved with. Even Robert Kennedy described our presence in Vietnam as ‘... sending a lion to halt an epidemic of jungle rot.’ (Doc E) From new groups forming to rebel, to inflation and loss of trust in the Government, from 1960’s to

“Anyone who commits American Forces to a land war in Asia, ought to have his head examined,” averred the World War II hero and late five-star general Douglas MacArthur, assaying the United States ' involvement in Vietnam with President John F. Kennedy in 1962 (McDougall 2013, 251). Apprehensive about a Communist drive in Asia, the United States Congress radically dissented from MacArthur 's perspective while the vast preponderance of Americans wallowed in ambivalence. The Vietnam War was a war on two fronts for the United States, one at home and one abroad. As public opinion canted, domestic tensions became substantiated through inexorable antiwar protests across the nation. With a mounting resistance movement in the United States knocking on Washington 's door and a North Vietnamese foe devoted to a protracted guerrilla-style war, the most inimical adversary of the American war effort was the clock.

French who still wanted to keep hold of Vietnam as it was very rich in

Fighting in Vietnam started well before the actual “Vietnam War”. The Vietnamese people had been under French rule for several decades until Japan invaded in 1940. In 1941, when Ho Chi Minh came back from his travels there were two foreign powers occupying the Vietnam territory, the French and Japanese. Ho Chi Minh established the Viet Minh in hopes to rid Vietnam of these two powers. On September 2, 1945 the Viet Minh established the Democratic Republic of China after getting support in northern Vietnam. This action spawned the French to fight back to keep control of their colony. Ho Chi Minh wanted support from the United States against the French; he went as far as to supply the United States with information about the Japanese during WWII. The United States kept with their Cold War foreign policy of containment as to prevent the spread of Communism, fearing the “Domino Theory” that said “if one country in Asia fell to Communism then surrounding countries would soon fall”.

During the Lyndon Baines Johnson presidential administration, both those policy makers who supported America’s involvement in Vietnam and those who opposed the war were part of the “containment generation.” They had reached political maturity during World War II and the early years of the Cold War and had experienced the intense anticommunism of the McCarthy era of the early 1950s. These leaders understood and applied the lessons of American nationalism, which had the primary message that the U.S. was the dominating nation that had to embrace its responsibility to aid and improve nations in America’s image. Therefore, when they saw that there was a threat of the spread of communism to areas of Southeast Asia, a majority of the

The Vietnam war destroyed american life as we know it. More than 58,000 men and women made the ultimate sacrifices; billions of dollars spent on the conflict in an attempt to “contain” Communism. America went into the war as the world’s largest allied superpower, following a victory during WWII against the axis powers. Despite being the world's largest military power, America left Vietnam with a humiliating defeat, with high casualties. The nation’s longest war, the only war the U.S. ever lost, it had many consequences and impacts on most aspects of American life, from the economy, politics, the american people, and veterans of the Vietnam war.

The Cold War era proxy war known as the Vietnam War wrecked global havoc during 1955-1975. Although the destruction on the ground occurred in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos, the bloodshed of the war was just one part of a much larger worldwide communism versus capitalism battle headed by the United States and the Soviet Union. For the U.S., diplomatic and military policies had never before been so tightly intertwined with domestic policies. The war in Vietnam had such an impact on the home front in America that the term, “The Vietnam Syndrome” is still repeated to this day. The war, which is sometimes seen as a part of the larger anti-communist policy of ‘containment’, is largely to blame for the near destruction of three presidencies, as well as causing numerous political and social divides, a detrimental effect on the U.S. economy, and a credibility gap that caused distrust between government and the people. The focus on the war meant that many domestic issues such as the civil rights movement, the war on poverty, and Johnson’s ideology of the ‘Great Society’, were neglected by the government and therefore limited in their progress. The overall domestic impact of the war in Vietnam was largely negative and extremely divisive.

The United States intervention in Vietnam is seen by the world as America’s greatest loss and longest war. Before the start of the war in Vietnam, the thought of the United States losing this war was unheard of because America was technologically superior, no country in south East Asia could contend with them. Lyndon B. Johnson announced that he would not be the president to allow South East Asia to go Communist . Why the United States lost the war has been a huge debate since the end of the war, because there were so many factors affecting why they lost; the war was a loss politically, after losing support from not only the American public but also the South Vietnamese and losing a political mandate for the war by 1973, when the last

he United States became involved with the Vietnam War to stop communism spreading throughout Asia. At first, the US only assisted France with military aid, but after a attack on US destroyers in the Gulf of Tonkin, they became more involved in direct action. The US also got involved with Vietnam because they didn’t want another country going to communism after what happened to China. Another factor was the pattern of what had happened in Korea. Northern communists pushed to put the whole country under communism, then America helps the local anticommunists to push them back. President Dwight D. Eisenhower brought a “New Look” into the national security policy in 1953. The domino theory is, if one country went to communism, the surrounding countries