Us Imperialism in Indochina

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Essay The bloodbath that was the Vietnam War, and the atrocities that came with it, was simply another example of American exceptionalism that has been seen numerous times since the US’ rise to supreme power during and at the conclusion of World War II. The war in Vietnam was, at its base a level, a war of imperialism waged by the US, who had been intervening in Vietnam indirectly since earlier French colonialism. American indirect involvement in the colonialist French Indochinese Union in the early-mid 1900s opened the pathway for the US to attempt total imperialist control of Indochina, seen in their occupation of South Vietnam after France’s departure. The reasoning behind this imperialist intervention was masked by the US administrations of Kennedy and Johnson as liberal, democratic regimes fighting against the expansionist communist bloc. However, credible sources support the fact that this was, in fact, merely a façade for the economic benefits present in Indochina, such as raw materials and cheap labour which the US required in order to maintain the current balance of power of the time. This attempted occupation of Indochina in fact achieved an opposite effect, in that the aggressive actions displayed by the US in Indochina backed Vietnam into a corner, giving it no choice but a socialist revolution. The Vietnam War was the pinnacle of US imperialism in Indochina, beginning with its aid and support of French colonialism in the early 1900s. Throughout the Western occupation of Indochina, it became increasingly evident that there was a clear link and alliance between French colonialism in Indochina and American imperialism and that the US intervention in Vietnam was the born as a result of this link. One stark similarity between the two systems was the overall infrastructure of both nations’ interventions into the region. Due to the mass exportation of
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