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.
The Vietnam War The Vietnam War was considered by the U.S. a part of their containment policy and to be a way to prevent the communist takeover of South Vietnam. U.S. involvement grew over the years due to the military draft. Many people opposed the war during the peace movement and some even took to the streets in protests of their opinions. There were basically two viewpoints that began to evolve during this time. One group of people felt that there were good ideas for getting involved in the conflict, however they thought it would be a useless battle with too much burden on the economy.
This idea that they were dying for an ideological dream of freedom that wasn’t even extended to their homes began the attitudes of people to change and when the attitudes of people change the government has to mould to keep the people appeased. After the war there was a huge crisis facing the American Government the booming war time economy was over, many black people were fired and left unemployed. Many of the soldiers returning home were demoralized and tired of fighting for a fake representation of freedom. Harry Truman was elected President at that time and he was seen as quite a racist figure by many historians as he famously and publically joined the KKK. Despite this the changing mood surrounding civil rights inspired Truman to make a difference.
The spread of communism throughout china, Russia, Korea and Eastern Europe put a lot of fear and pressure on the US as they didn’t want another war and they didn’t want communism to spread. The withdrawal of the French led to the division of Vietnam with the prospect of future elections that would unite Vietnam under Communist rule; this increased the fear of the spread of Communism and led to US political involvement. Moreover, the domino theory was the main factor in the formation of SEATO as it believed if one country fell to communism in south-east Asia then the next country would and the next and so
Their main goal was to stop communism from spreading all around the world, and in Vietnam, but they destroyed their economy in the process of accomplishing their goal. America lost more than $173 billion dollars due to the cost of the war, and heavily armored machinery. If used right, these amounts of money could have benefited the American economy, and could have played a major role in world economy today. Each day, the price of the US dollar decreased dramatically. This was also a big reason why the American citizens were against the Vietnam War.
The USA and their involvement in Vietnam. The USA used money to control the spread of communism into Vietnam after French forces were struggling in Vietnam and France had just been involved with the Second World War so they were struggling so to stop Vietnam turning communist, they give France $500 million dollars a year to help them with the war effort. This was so that Vietnam didn’t turn communist like many of the surrounding countries. If this had happened then America would have been in a very difficult position. Americas politics, America used Diem as a way to stop to spread of communism in Vietnam, they supported him in becoming Vietnams first president and to set up an Anti-Communist government at the same time, this was another way for the us government to stop the spread of communism the American government also stopped a Vietnam vote for either capitalism of communism America when to extreme measures to stop this from happening.
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.
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.
Another reason feudalism lost power was the mercenaries that fought for the English king. After the first of the many treaties during the war was signed in 1360 by France, the English king did not want to release his unruly soldiers on his own land. Instead, they were loosed on France where they were free to loot and pillage as they pleased. Castles that belonged to lords took a beating as the mercenaries took them over and then sold them back to the lords for a large price. New weaponry made in the war made the king stronger against nobles.
The South Vietnamese Allies had poor morale, they were badly paid, and they exploited US aid for financial gain. The US military had poor leadership from officers, they were frustrated because they had a lack of knowledge of the area and they had an inability to identify their enemy. These are the main reasons that the US failed to defeat the North Vietnamese Communists. The US became gradually involved in the war in Vietnam. Truman supported the French in the battle against Ho Chi Minh and the Vietminh.