The Vietnam War is thought of as one of the most significant events in United States history. It was fought over the course of two decades and three United States presidencies. American involvement in the Vietnam War is one of the most highly debated topics discussed today. The United States began their involvement by supporting the French with one billion dollars per year to assist in containing the chaos in Vietnam. Once the French failed, the United States continued to supply money, firearms, and military advisors to aid the South Vietnamese. Americans remembered their promise to support any country fighting against the spread of communism. That promise was hard to keep when government lies were exposed, the number of American graves grew, and the matter of draft issues became too overwhelming to ignore. Along with the promise to help the South Vietnamese fight against the Vietcong and North Vietnamese military, the United States promised her people the war was nearing an end when it was only the beginning. Sources reported, “By the end of 1965, there were 189,000 American troops stationed in Vietnam. At the end of the following year, that number doubled. Casualty reports steadily increased,”. Americans were being fed lies to keep their support for the war in Vietnam. In 1972, The New York Times published the Pentagon Papers, which exposed military …show more content…
The analogy, “It was David vs. Goliath, with U.S. playing Goliath,” was used to describe the two forces. The war strategy used by the Vietcong was an unfamiliar fighting style to the American troops. The Vietcong set booby traps such as: panji traps, side-closing panji trap, spike board, door trap, arrow trap, mace trap, tiger trap, whip trap, venus fly trap, grenade trap, and the cartridge trap. These traps were used to eventually cripple the United States military beyond
During the Vietnam War, United States involvement was for personal reasons and fear of communism. Neither the United States or the Soviet Union should have been involved. The War was just used as a cover up for the actual silent, passive aggressive war between the United States and the Soviet. The Vietnam war was started by the North “Viet Cong” and their desire to unify Vietnam under communist rule. The South was against communism, making tensions grow until eventually, a war broke out on November 1, 1955. Five years later in the 1960s, the war was escalated with the involvement of foreign countries. While the North was supported by its communist allies such as China and the Soviet Union. The South was supported by the United States of America. The Americans wanted to halt or prolong the spread of communism. The “domino theory” compelled the U.S. to get involved as soon as possible because if not, the rest of Asia would fall to communism like “dominoes”. The U.S. involvement only started with Eisenhower administration when Vietnam split in half. This action of the United States was only for their own well being and their main goal was not for the good of Vietnam. During this time period the Vietnamese had just united and established the state of Vietnam. The war ended up lasting 9 years with long periods of bitter guerrilla warfare in the rugged jungles of Vietnam which would eventually result in the victory of the North and longed unification of Vietnam
The Vietnam war has been referred to by many names, one of the longer ones was 'the cornerstone of the free world southeast Asia'. It was called that by John F. Kennedy. He was talking about Vietnam being and essential country in a non-communist world. He believed that if Vietnam became a communist country, all of the surrounding countries would also become communists. This is the main reason America was involved in the Vietnam war. Another reason was that America wanted to spread their “political ideas around the globe”. They wanted to do this so that their anti-communism stance was clear. The public also wanted to keep communism from spreading. To soldiers, the war was like a crusade, a great journey to purge the communists from Vietnam.
The Vietnam War was the first major war American’s had suffered defeat. The Vietnam war was a war of confusion, competition and biasness. The outcome of the war was far greater than an upset American nation, but a severe breakdown of the Vietnamese culture, economy, environment and government. It also had a tremendous impact on American society even up to present day. It was unclear from the beginning of the war if the American’s should even be involved. It was a war between Northern and Southern Vietnam but the U.S saw it as an indirect way to challenge the USSR’s sphere of influence in Southern Asia and to prevent the domino effect and the further spread of communism. The Vietnam War completely changed the way the United States
The Vietnam War was, and continues to be, one of America's darkest moments, one that nearly tore the nation apart. In order to stop the spread of communism in Europe and Asia, the United States aided French imperialists and their reoccupation of Vietnam. At first, the U.S took a position of neutrality to both countries, but by early 1947, they began fighting in support of France. This war, lasting over 20 years, became the longest and most unpopular war in the 20th century. Overall, the Vietnam War was detrimental to the United States because it caused a massive debt from the 1960s to the 1990s, turned the American people against their government, and many troops were neglected and despised upon their return.
Kara Hinson The war in Vietnam started in 1955 and lasted until 1975. Many Americans believed it was a pointless war that had no meaning. The United States became involved in the Vietnam Warbecause they wanted to stop the spread of communism. This war took 50,000 lives and wounded 300,000 American men. Due to the My Lai massacre which killed hundreds of innocent and unarmed Vietnamese civilians, protests about the draft start all over the country, because of draft dodgers and draft deferment, and the government misleading people back home, this was known as the credibility gap, Americans are turning against the war in Vietnam. This leads to anti-war protesters, known as doves springing up across the United States demonstrating their opposition to the war.The Vietnam War is one of the most known wars in history, many innocent people were killed that had no involvement. United States soldiers came up with strategies to kill off the Vietcong, but occasionally the United States was not sure who were Vietcong and who were not. Napalm was a jellied gasoline that explodes when dropped in large canisters the napalm was usually dropped on villages. When the napalm was dropped on the villages, the Vietnamese houses and vegetation were destroyed. Napalm burned men, women, and children who were in the villages the clothes would burn completely off their bodies. Agent orange another substance used this was sprayed by an aircraft over the jungle. Agent
The American involvement in the Vietnam War was a very controversial decision, with many people being for the war, however many people in the United States were also against the war. The Vietnam War was the longest lasting war in the United States history, before the Afghanistan War, in which most people felt strongly about, be them United States citizens, Vietnamese citizens, or just the global population. In order to better understand the ideas of those American citizens that are either for or against the war, one would have to look at the reasons that the United States was involved in the war, the impact of the Vietnam war on the American society, and the impact on the United States foreign policy.
Vietnam was a divided country with the North supporting communism and the South opposing it. The United States was an ally to South Vietnam, with the goal of assisting them to avoid a communist takeover. The United States involvement may have started out with an honorable intention; however, there are many reasons the United States should not have become involved in the conflict, such as it was no business of the United States, it was very costly, many lives were lost, there was no victory in sight, and it went against the United States ethics and standards. Many would argue that the U.S. involvement was crucial, but many more would
The Vietnam War was a very long and messy war that started in 1954 and ended in 1975, although the United States joined in 1965. The united states projected the idea of stopping a Communist takeover of Vietnam as their main reason for joining the war. Soldiers fighting in the war were about two thirds volunteer and the rest were selected through the draft. This sparked outrage in many military aged men and was the beginning of the defiance towards the war. (thevietnamwar.info) With so many people fighting the war it was really supported overall by Americans at the start of the war. The Vietnam War affected the relationship between Americans and the government in many ways, some people it strengthened the idea of the government, and many people who were against the war rebelled in many ways to test the governments powers such as skipping the draft, protesting, or anti-war marches.
During the Vietnam war, there were many reasons why America got involved in the war. First of all, America was against any country being communist and they wanted to ‘contain’ communism from spreading from china to the rest of IndoChina and eventually spreading across the world and reach America. That also leads to the ‘Domino Theory’ that President Johnson had. The ‘Domino Theory’ is basically a theory that if one country becomes communist then that disease of communism will spread to other countries. Also, this essay will talk about the cold war with Russia and how that is one of the many reasons why America got involved.
The Vietnam War was the longest and the most unpopular American war of the twentieth century. The United States was involve in the Vietnam from 1944 to 1973, but it was only during the last years that the U.S deployed ground troops (Lawrence 1). For the first time the United states was the aggressor. Vietnam is situated thousands of miles from the United States, so Vietnam was not a direct threat to the United States’ safety. The Vietnam leader Ho Chi Minh seem to look up to the United States, their declaration of independence is prove of that. The United States involvement was so controversial because to some people the U.S was trying to stop heroic Vietnamese national liberation movement (CITE). Tim O’Brian was a university graduate
Within one generation, The United States have experienced The Second World War, The Korean War and fifteen years of The Cold War crisis. The Vietnam War was the last drop into the cup of American patience. The costs of The Vietnam War were intolerable, because they contravened traditional American values and hopes.
The Vietnam War started as the US assisting the French to keep its colony in the region called Indochina but became a war that symbolized everything wrong with the cold war and the United States. The conflict in Vietnam was a contentious considering that it was an undeclared war that used American men to control a third world country and resulted in a bloodbath of civilian deaths. The death of civilians and body count policy was a byproduct of the pressures created by the Cold War on the US government toward its military, and the guerilla tactics of the Vietcong pressuring US military to use deaths as a measure of success, which was helped by their rejection of the rules of engagement. All these pressures created an army of young men that was
Over thirty years ago the Vietnam War ended, and the U.S. came back home with their tails between their legs and nothing to show for other than a high number of casualties, and a huge pile of debt. The U.S. underestimated the North Vietnamese army, and it was costly. Many believe that the Vietnam War was none of the U.S. business, but on the contrary, many believe we should have tried to stop the spread of communism. The long-lasting Vietnam War was unnecessary for the U.S. to be a part of; it put many people through unneeded stress and hard times.
The Vietnam War is one of the most controversial wars the United States participated in. Communism in the 20th century, was a huge threat to the U.S. It become a priority of the U.S. to stop the spread of Communism. In the late 1940s, the French struggled to control its colonies in Indochina - Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos (history.state.gov). The U.S. saw that the French were struggling in south Vietnam so they decided to come and help France. They tried to support France and the South Thus leading the U.S. into what most consider a pointless war. The Vietnam war was the biggest failure of the 20th century because the United States failed to win, the war created a divide between soldiers and civilians which led to riots, and the war also caused great distrust of the government.
The Vietnam War was a conflict, which the United States involved itself in unnecessarily and ultimately lost. The basis of the conflict was simple enough: Communism vs. Capitalism, yet the conduct of the Vietnam War was complex and strategic, and brought repercussions which had never been seen before. The struggle between North and South had an almost inevitable outcome, yet the Americans entered the War optimistic that they could aid the falling South and sustain democracy. The American intentions for entering the Vietnam conflict were good, yet when the conflict went horribly wrong, and the resilient North Vietnamese forces, or Viet Cong' as they were known, refused to yield, the United States saw they were fighting a losing battle.