One reason Eisenhower shouldn’t be blamed for America’s involvement in Vietnam is that his advisors were too focused on how to win the war in Vietnam rather than if winning the war in Vietnam would actually be beneficial at all. So if his advisors only spoke of strategies to win in Vietnam, this may have lead Eisenhower to believe there weren’t any other options and that continued involvement in Vietnam was the wisest choice. Therefore it could have been the fault of Eisenhower’s advisors and not Eisenhower’s fault himself that America continued its involvement in Vietnam. A second reason that means Eisenhower shouldn’t be blamed was because of the Quagmire theory. By the point of Eisenhower’s presidency, President Truman had already gotten America deeply involved in Vietnam, therefore it would have been difficult for Eisenhower to become uninvolved and it also would appear wasteful of resources, so the only
There is not enough national interest in such actions for the United States to sacrifice the American lives. The Afghanistan might have been seen as a country opened for a democracy, but as the attacks from 11 September showed, the American view of the spread of democracy is not viewed by the affected nations in the same light. Probably because these interventions had not yet ended by the time Kirkpatrick finished her book, she focused only briefly on these issues. She did nevertheless consider the US involvement as potentially unsuccessful. In the case of Afghanistan, there would be a point of trying to institute a democratic regime if it was right after the won Afghan war from 1980’s.
Johnson’s administration tried very hard to keep distain for his policies at bay. “The pressure campaign produced mixed results. On the one hand, the administration succeeded in persuading many domestic dissidents to keep their objections quiet, partly by playing to their patriotism (true Americans do not challenge the commander in chief on global issues in a time of Cold War) and partly by seducing them into thinking their ides were taken seriously.” (Logevall’s, 188) In Robert Brigham’s essay “An Unwinnable War” he believes that the Chinese commitment to Vietnam was strengthened due to Operation “Rolling Thunder” to eliminate American aggressors. He believes that many felt that the Chinese would have “backed away from its military commitments to Vietnam during the Cultural Revolution.”(214) With the aid of China, it was apparently going to be difficult for America to focus on their main objective. It seems that not only did America have to worry about the issues in Vietnam
These feats do not pass by the intelligent American militia, who suddenly see that this supposedly unbeatable British army is very susceptible in multiple ways. When it is time to declare independence, the leaders of the new Country are not overly worried, as they see just how easily the Indians were able to defeat the British, so they hope to recreate this success. Though the British may have been unbeatable in the linear style of war, both Americans and Indians soon realize this is a thing of the past. Not only
Although Kahn adamantly disputed the theories claiming that the U.S. knew of the impending attack because of intelligence, if the theories were true it would support the idea that the U.S. needed an excuse to enter the war without attacking first and so they let the Japanese attack happen without putting up a strong defense. On the other hand, Kahn made the point that “even if Roosevelt had wanted war, he would not have wanted to enter it with his fleet badly weakened” (169). If the U.S. really knew about the incoming attack and wanted to use it as an excuse to enter the war, there would have been some defensive preparations to stop the destruction of the majority of the Pacific Fleet. Adkison 6 In the end, although the attack on Pearl Harbor was devastating, it lit a fire under Americans to join together and fight for victory, not only in the Pacific War, but the war in Europe as well. In Akira Iriye’s Pearl Harbor and the Coming of the Pacific
It is not acceptable to go beyond legal, moral, and/or ethical boundaries when the nation is at a risky time of war, but only on certain conditions. Some issues discussing this are the neutralism of U.S., the Executive Order #9066 declared by FDR, and the decision to drop the bomb. These issues greatly impacted America’s standing in the world and history immensely. It was recorded into history for the mistakes that we did and the damage we caused. The U.S. struggled with each issue and did what they thought was right, even if damage was caused.
They had little choice but to surrender and accept the terms of the treaty no matter how harsh they were going to be. Germany had reason to believe the treaty would not be a majorly harsh one. Due to Germanys defeat the Kaiser had gone and they had a new democratic government put in place during 1919. This new government where not to be blamed for the war and would expect to receive support from the other countries involved in the treaty of Versailles but this did not really happen. The newly formed German democratic government saw the Versailles Treaty as a dictated peace (Diktat).
Propaganda is used regularly in news stories, sometimes in light-hearted topics so its publics don't even realise it's there and it has no significant effect on society, though with more powerful topics, such as media coverage of a war, propaganda has the ability to change how a society views it. It is so important that it can often be used as a weapon because of the power that comes with public support. The ability to win public support can be just as important as the ability to fight the war. From my research I found examples of war propaganda from as early as around 330 BC, when Alexander the Great was forced to retreat in battle, so as to not show weakness he had his army build oversized armour and left them behind, the intent to intimidate the enemy to not follow them as the armour made his army look like giants. (Labash, 20 Dec, 2001).
It would also not have been popular amongst the American people as the majority did not despise communism so much that war was a possibility and so the idea did not have the peoples backing. Another factor which meant that the cold war was not inevitable by 1945 was the fact that the current leaders Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill were holding peaceful negotiations including the naughty document a document that was drawn up in Greece between Stalin and Churchill before the end of the war to divide of the land they had won. This suggests that at this time cold war was completely avoidable. Not only were the countries willing to be peaceful but they even began negotiating the terms of their victory and were able to agree on the division of Europe temporarily. Though they began they agreed upon the divisions they had made after 1945 this became a large cause of tension the most famous being the berlin wall which was an attempt by the communists to starve supplies from western berlin.
They also believe that ever since the terrorist attack on September 11, we should have a national defense that shows true precautions. Furthermore, the Democrats say there is not really much of a need for a national defense, unless of course we have no choice but to go to war. They want to reduce the big amounts of money that has been getting spent on military intelligence. They also feel that the soldiers should not be at war in a foreign country, or anywhere else for no particular reason. The democrats believe that true precautions come from