U.S. Involvement in Vietnam By: Courtney Comstock The Cold War was a war that had many smaller battles that took place in it. The overall two countries at war were the U.S. and the U.S.S. R. The U.S. and the U.S.S.R. were at war because the U.S. had a capitalist government ran country, while the U.S.S.R. had a communist government ran country. The Vietnam War that took place in the Cold War was that the North and South were divided on the 17th Parallel because of communism. 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.
There were many different wars throughout the history and the United States has been involved in many different wars with different objectives and results. During the second half of the twentieth century, when Vietnam War happened, U.S. was involved in effort to stop communism from spreading as it did when Korean War started. The United States was part of the United Nations, and when North Koreans attacked the South Koreans threatening to take over south so they can be under the same law of communism, the United Nation as a whole decided to send military aid to South Korea, and of which the United States supplied a large portion. The South Korea was able to win against the North Korea with the help from the United States and United Nations.
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.
So instead they supported Ngo Dinh Diem in South Vietnam. Diem was an unpopular leader because he was accused of corruption and torture and failed to win over the peasants. Instead, popular support went to the South Vietnamese Communists, called the Vietcong. They sent in aid and increased the number of military advisers. There were supported by Ho Chi Minh, who was backed by the Soviet Union and China.
How effective were the US tactics of ‘search and destroy’ and ‘defoliation’ in the Vietnam War As North Vietnam came to communism the USofA soar this as a threat agent’s capitalism. And if Vietnam “fell” in to communism then the hole of Asia could become communist this is called the “domino effect”. In this time President Kennedy had ‘advisers’. The US were fully involved in Vietnam in 1964 the 4th of august when the NN North torpedoed the USS Maddox in the gulf of Tonkin and the Paris treaty in 1973 followed by the fall of Saigon 1975. Due to the Vietcong’s strategies the US decided to bomb the north into surrendering.
But one of the hardest battle’s for the US was to keep their own countries support. In this essay I will be exploring the main factors of the Vietnam war between 1960-1975, looking at how they changed before, during and after ORT. Before ORT took place the aims of the US Government were to stop communist taking over South Vietnam (SV). As they feared that the Domino Theory would affect countries who were still capitalist. The rise in communist countries was increasing as other countries close to each other would follow the same route as nearby countries.
The hawks and doves were complete opposites, the hawk’s argument concluded that America must win the war in Vietnam in order to contain communism in Southeast Asia and preserve the nation’s prestige (Davidson-Gienapp-Heyrman-Lytle-Stroff, 2005). The doves on the other hand wanted the conflict in Vietnam ended immediately and the troops returned home. The political and social outcomes facing the United States because of the conflict in Vietnam ranged from a growing distrust of the decisions being made by the political leaders to the ever increasing cost of the conflict in Vietnam. The growing distrust helped to fuel the student unrest because the younger generation decided to voice their opinions and take a stand for those
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
Many stated after that they, one day would like to go back to Vietnam and help rebuild the country that the helped destroy. Even though America was and still is seen as one of the world’s most prevailing superpowers, the withdrawal from Vietnam was inevitable. There was no clear way for the military to secure their victory in the War without having to lose thousands of soldiers. The War ended with the exact opposite of what all soldiers had spent the majority of their life fighting for. Vietnam succumbed to the communist rule and the rest of the world watched in
The departure of American and Soviet troops from Korea in 1949- The Russians left the communist government in the North with a strong, Soviet-equipped army. The Americans left the pro-Western government in the south with a fairly small military which was used to suppress internal opposition. The weakness of the south was a strong incentive to nationalists in the North Korean government who wanted to reunite the country again. North Korea attacks: June 24, 1950- The role of Soviet Union in North Korea's invasion plans remains unclear however there is reason to believe the North acted without Stalin's prior approval; this was stemmed from the vulnerability of the South and the fact that the American government implied that it did not consider