Many people ask the question, “Why did the U.S. even care about the Vietnam conflict, let alone fight a war there?” One Reason for U.S. involvement in the Vietnam conflict was that the U.S. feared the Domino Theory. The Domino Theory is where if one state falls to communism, then all the other states around it will fall into communism too. Because the U.S. feared this, they responded with containment. Containment means to keep communism from spreading to other countries. Another reason for U.S. involvement is imperialism, which was left over from WWI and WWII.
Aiming to win back support from the American’s, as many people did not support the Vietnam war due to the bad media that was publicised. This was the first War to be so publicised and it shocked many of the people back home. This lead to Anti-War protest, which became one of the US governments aims to stop. However they still stuck to the aim to try and contain Vietnam from the spread of communism and supporting the SV defeat the VC in nearby country Cambodia. On the other side the aims of the NV government and their terrorist organisation the VC did not alter as they still aimed to persuade the SV government to vote for Vietnam to become a communist country.
While the United States was nervous of Communism consuming the entire globe. President Eisenhower believed in the “domino effect”, meaning that if you fight and succeed in stopping communism in one country others are sure to rise, stand and follow suit. China became a communist country in 1949, therefore, the United States forked out 2 billion dollars to support anti-communism. The Truman Doctrine was written and put in to effect stating that the United States would do any and everything in its power to put an end to communism spreading to any further country. Following a victory over a battle with the French, North Vietnam in 1954, set ways into communism and in turn proceeded to try and reign over the now divided Southern Vietnam.
After the end of the Second World War the two war time allies THE USA and SU became involved in a war of ideologies the cold war. The US saw communism as a threat to democracy and capitalism. Therefore the US set out a new foreign policy that was of containment of communism in the Truman doctrine. There were however other reasons for the USA’s involvement such as their military confidence, UN agreement, domestic pressure which called for the T admin to be more tough on communism and their economic interest in Japan which led to the US governments decision to use military intervention in the K war. The main reason for the USA’s military intervention in the Korean war was that of containment.
It could also be argued that Truman continued to be involved due to the domestic opinion on communism at the time. The fear of communism was strong in the USA, due to China’s fall to communism; it could be asserted that it was a wakeup call for the president. Truman was slated for his lack of involvement in preventing the spread; as a result the Red Scare and McCarthyism emerged. Truman feared that he may lose elections as many of the population believed he was soft on communism, so he became increasingly involved to show that US was a defender of democracy and capitalism, attempting to ‘keep communism at bay’. The end of WW2 saw the USSR rearm and get nuclear weapons; there was also talk of communism seeking to expand.
By the late 1960’s, the relatively recent established relationship between the USSR and China had deteriorated to the extent that disagreements resulted in armed conflicts. It is believed that this is due to the ideological differences between the two nations. The two leaders of the communist states, Mao and Khrushchev, were both in different depths of the Cold War, to such a point where Khrushchev was hoping for peaceful co-existence, while Mao thought of that as a betrayal. On the other hand, there are many other factors with may contribute to the breakdown in relations, such as their individual personalities and the cooperation of the USA. But which factor played the greatest role in the breakdown of Sino-Soviet relations in the late 1960’s?
Another reason to why America is to blame is after the success of the atomic bomb the members of the Grand Alliance began to see changes in Truman’s behaviour as he started to control the meetings they had and Stalin refused to be bossed around so arguments between Stalin and Truman started, they started. The USSR is to blame for the breakdown of the Grand Alliance for many reasons. One reason is that the USSR wanted to impose big respirations on Germany but America and Great Britain refused as they knew how it would affect Germany and could cause another war. A second reason is that Stalin wanted most of Europe to become communist, Roosevelt and Churchill didn’t agree. After Truman became Americas new President there was a lot of tension at the Potsdam Conference.
If USA didn’t drop the bombs, then it will give the USSR the chance to advance to china and influence those countries to Communism, therefore resulting in possibly sharing the occupation of Japan WITH USA after the war. Besides, it would suggest that the USA was afraid to use it. The US didn’t like that idea as the Americans and the office of Strategic services believed that Stalin have other plots and intentions, such as capturing the land’s resources and land. According to James Byrnes (Truman’s personal advisor), he made a comment in 1945, stating that he is worried and fretful about Russia’s spreading influence in eastern Europe. He also said that it will be impossible to persuade Russia to remove her troops from Poland and China and the island of Sakhalin unless they are shocked and impressed by American military strength.
First and foremost, there was the controversy surrounding his invasion of the Philippines. Many officials believed that such efforts were useless and led to unnecessary bloodshed. However, on the other hand, some believed that this battle helped to end World War II. Next was the controversy surrounding his exoneration of Japanese hierarchies such as Emperor Hirohito from being punished for the attack on Pearl Harbor and, instead, placing the blame on Hideki Tojo. Finally, the largest controversy surrounded his public outcries to invade Japan against the orders of President Truman.
The United States was an alley with Russia so therefore, they wanted to protect China as well. The U.S. was upset at the threat to their allies but they also realized that the Japanese were violating the Kellogg-Briand Pact of 1928. Resulting from this, the U.S. threatens that if Japan does not leave China, they will have no choice but to stop trading oil with them. Japan declined the threat and continued to take over