The images that were broadcasted all over America did not please the public and before long riots and protests were being held in the streets to end the war. This was because hundreds of American soldiers had died in a war they thought was coming to an end. The Tet Offensive proved otherwise and caused a major disagreement between the public and the American government. Many people believe that this almost forced the government to end the war because without the moral support from their own country there would be no chance in another. On the other hand, the Americans actually won the fight and in doing so managed to kill thousands of Vietcong’s, unmasked Vietcong’s, which they had not been able to do very well until this point.
Some people believed that the Vietnam conflict was a threat to global peace. Therefore, it was necessary for the United States to use its capabilities to end the conflict. His opponents believe that his forceful approach led to the deaths of many innocent people. A forceful approach would have been adopted after exhausting other
The war was pointless in the American’s eyes and they thought that America had no right to impose its views on Vietnam. Napalm, a jellied gasoline, was used in the Vietnam as tactic for the Americans. As they drop Napalm onto Vietnam, it lures out the Vietcong from their hiding places due to the black smoke spreading from the explosion. But by doing that, the bomb killed many innocent villagers, children and women that had nothing to do with the war. Source A suggests that US used the air raid for chasing out the Vietcong that were hiding because it shows in the source that many Vietnamese Children are running away from the danger that the American troops are causing.
This is a really hard argument because if you attack the enemy army which is attacking you, you have to think about the deaths of your own men. Since bombings where so unaccurate they might have missed and hit themselfs. But if you do attack factories you can slow down the production of weapons. The attack on Japan was not acceptable. The U.S did not have to kill millions of innocent civillians just to make Japan surreneder.
When the war started many American people was against it and want this to end son as possible. They were against it because United States didn´t have any trade with Vietnam or something like that. Many people give their opinions about the war in Vietnam. In the next paragraphs I am going to talk about two American groups fell about the war, the two groups are the American public and the soldiers. The first group the American public at the beginning of the war agreed with the fact that Us was helping South Vietnam, this because the president of the united States in this year told the people that they need to go to war and they have to go even if they don´t like the idea.
He created the Vietcong, and soon he followers began to grow and grow. Ho Chi Minh was the leader from the North of Vietnam, although using vicious methods, majority of the Vietnamese people agreed with him and his views for Vietnam to be an independent state- to be left alone by larger countries, such as France (twice) and China, who had already tried to dominate over them but alas had lost. But America persisted to assist the South, due to President Truman, helping the French, which he believed it was their duty so that ‘Indochina does not go behind the Iron Curtain’ (Vice President Nixon). Soon, the Vietcong were faced by a greater threat- America. A great force, with riches, soldiers and weapons pumping all these good into South Vietnam, however; Khrushchev (Russian leader) aided the nationalist turned communist North.
Additionally the conflict in Korea allowed the USA to demonstrate its military capabilities to the world, as Kennedy said, he wanted to prove America’s credibility and Vietnam was the perfect place to illustrate this and, in the bigger picture, help to increase UN credibility. However, despite US concession to accept containment as an accomplishment, North Korea remaining communist can be seen as an American failure. In 1950, the US made the decision to invade North Korea. This switch to rollback policy shows that their goals were higher than just containment. They were defeated by Chinese ‘dragon’ attacks, which in December 1950 caused the most humiliating retreat in US history, totalling 300 miles.
This is known as Ridgeways revival as he got the UN forces back in the war and stalemate for the rest of the war. This was a success as the Chinese attack overwhelmed the US/UN forces meaning they had to retreat, but Ridgeway got them back into the war. The main military failure was Macarthur Provoking the Chinese. As he ordered the troops to push further north towards the Yalu River, China saw this as the beginning of an attack on them so they intervened. Not only for this reason did China attack the US, but also Mao Zedong wanted to strengthen his position in china and thought attacking the US would do so.
Many Americans believe that the Japanese deserved to be bombed based on how they had previously treated the United States, which is another reason why it might have been justified. It was also a way for the United States to show the power and knowledge it possessed to the rest of the world. Devastating things came to be because of this monumental moment in history, but the debate is whether or not these horrible things were justified. It’s a matter of Machiavelli’s famous saying; does the end justify the means? For starters, fewer American soldiers and Japanese civilians died.
It can be argued that by this stage, US objectives in Vietnam had not been completed and any further involvement would have only been causing more damage to the current situation. However, it is important to understand the factors leading to failure in this period in the war. Throughout US involvement in Vietnam, the military faced the clear problem of destroying Vietcong insurgency in the South. This was no easy task as the enemy they were up against was resilient, and highly intelligent in many aspects that were not initially recognised. The first major engagement in Ia Drang may have proved ultimately to be an American victory, but it presented the fact that fighting the VC would not be won through area wars, but purely a through test of which side could drain enemy troop numbers fastest in an attritional war.