The U.S.A. views this war as a war against communistic aggression, but in reality they viewed it as a civil war struggle. News coverage was biased against the American aggression, which did more to defeat their army than the enemy soldiers. Both sides were glad to have this conflict over and done with, but for different reasons. Vietnam was not a glorious conquest, that the American public was use to obtaining and demanded. It was an early wake-up call for Americans to resolve issues on their home front prior to taking on another country's problems,
The consequences and the lives lost in the Vietnam War classify as bad judgment by the masterminds of it. McNamara and all the others involved were clueless about Vietnam; all they thought they had to do was use their military superiority in the correct way to keep communism from spreading. The most crucial mistake McNamara made was when he had doubts about the United State’s possibilities of actually winning the war and did nothing about it. He did not want to argue to John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson that we should have withdrew from Vietnam. By doing this, more cities were destroyed, approximately 58,000 dead American causalities, and countless more Vietnamese.
It has been argued even further to say it was time well worth spending in Iraq and Vietnam. When analyzing these points one must understand that at that point in time America was deathly scared of communism and instilled an idea in their heads that if not for entering the war at that moment, then communism would make its way around to other countries and finally reach America. However, our government made the fatal mistake of failing to look in the long run and see that America was already a strong nation and by entering a war that would not certainly end communism the government weakened every aspect of the economy. In accordance, Iraq was completely uninvolved in the terrorist attack on 9/11, the accusation of concealing “weapons of mass destruction” was completely false, and having now realized that the only weapons they did have were from a purchase from the United States to them several years
1 The USA was deeply hostile towards the Soviet Union and fearing a spread of communism, adopted a policy of containment. 4 In Vietnam the target of containment was Ho Chi Minh and the Vietminh front he had created in 1941. Ho and his chief lieutenants were communists with long-standing connections to the Soviet Union. 5 Hoping to halt a takeover by the communist North Vietnamese (led by Ho Chi Minh) 6, US officials chose to support the anti-Communist prime minister of South Vietnam, Ngo Dinh Diem1,. As opposed to the other superpower, America got directly involved, sending not only financial aid1 but actively participating in the military effort.
This was mainly all because of the Cold War ideology; neither side wanted to back down. The North Koreans, under the power of Kim Il Sung wanted to reunify Korea and make it all Communist. The South however, under the anti-Communist ruling of Syngman Rhee (who detested Kim Il Sung) was obviously against this. An example of this ‘see-saw’ fighting was near the beginning of the war – troops in the South were unprepared and were pushed back into a small corner of South Korea when North Korea attacked. This situation was very quickly reversed when the United Nations landed in North Korea and cut off their supply lines, which caused the North Korean armies to flee back north.
But in that case, all the other Heads of State that made decisions involving Vietnam should be held responsible. Johnson did not get them involved in Vietnam; that was Eisenhower during the Geneva conference that got them obligated to support the South Vietnamese government when there was no need to. From then on, no American government could back out of the conflict without being seen as weak on communism. In the same way, Johnson was obligated to follow Kennedy’s policies, and especially after Kennedy had been assassinated by (allegedly) a communist supporter, the country could see is as immoral to retreat from communism. Unfortunately, Kennedy’s policies in Vietnam largely escalated US involvement, and Kennedy’s losses in the entire cold war context explain a pretty desperate need for a US “win”.
In order for the world to be free, the Truman Administration suggested that Indochina no longer be communist. America getting involved into Indochina ran into its tradition of anticolonialism however, it ignored this somewhat to support France. After the French army won, America then wanted Indochina’s independence. America came up with “Operation Eggshell” in which France was urged to give Indochina independence while continuing the anticommunist war. By 1952, the National Security Council formalized the Domino Theory by describing a military attack on Indochina as being dangerous.
• It has its roots in the Truman doctrine and its goal of containing communism. • Vietnam was a major zone of cold war tension after it defeated the French colonialists and created a new government in the north. • President Kennedy and Johnson thought it was a barrier to the spread of communism throughout the regions, perhaps the world. • Secretary of defense Robert McNamara warned Johnson that failure in Vietnam would result in a “complete shift of world power” with the “prestige and integrity” of the US severely damaged. This lead Johnson to continue with the fight.
After major losses by French forces in Vietnam, U.S. became involved in trying to ensure the success of the non-communist South Vietnamese government. American presidents believed in the domino theory, that if if one country in Asia fell to the communists, the others would also become communist. Thus the United States intervened actively in Taiwan, Vietnam, Thailand and Laos. 2. "How the U.S. Got
The Vietnam war was between North Vietnamese versus the United States and the South Vietnamese army. The United States became involved in the Vietnam war because it believed that if all the country fell under the Communist government, Communism would spread throughout Southeast Asia and beyond. This belief was known as the “domino theory” . The US therefore supported the South Vietnamese because there beliefs where non-communism. The government they set up was failing so in 1965 the United States send in troops to prevent collapse of it.