Beginning in the 1950s, maintaining a non-Communist South Vietnam became crucial in American efforts to contain communism. What was the nation's justification for its actions in South Vietnam in the 1950s and its determination to abide by the outcome of free elections there only if those elections yielded a non-Communist leader? For a long time the United States were in fear of the threat of communism stemming from a direct attack and the aspect of the Cold War, played a vital role in the fears. In the beginning the Vietnam War was first thought to be just another Cold War between northern and southern Vietnam. While the United States was nervous of Communism consuming the entire globe.
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.
The conflicts between the North and the South Vietnam increased along with the Viet Cong rebels. The North Vietnam threatened South Vietnam that they will take over and make the communist. Even with the help of the United States, the South Vietnam wasn’t able to win. For both wars, the main reason for U.S. involvement was to follow the policy of United States that they will stop communist from spreading. There are many differences between the two wars.
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.
After the end of the Second World War the two war time allies THE USA and SU became involved in a war of ideologies the cold war. The US saw communism as a threat to democracy and capitalism. Therefore the US set out a new foreign policy that was of containment of communism in the Truman doctrine. There were however other reasons for the USA’s involvement such as their military confidence, UN agreement, domestic pressure which called for the T admin to be more tough on communism and their economic interest in Japan which led to the US governments decision to use military intervention in the K war. The main reason for the USA’s military intervention in the Korean war was that of containment.
The American Government leaders were afraid that the Communist forces would take control over Vietnam. If Vietnam fell, it would then lead to nation after nation falling to Communism. The United States strongly opposes to the political and economic system that Communism encompasses. After fighting the war for independence from France, Vietnam was split in half in 1954. After France withdrew from Vietnam, the Vietnamese Communists took over control of North Vietnam.
Causes and Effects of the Tet Offensive in the Vietnam War When asked about the United States’ involvement in Vietnam Charles de Gaulle responded by saying, “I predict that you will, step by step, be sucked into a bottomless military and political quagmire” (Wills 29). The Vietnam War should have been negotiated to an end, and troops removed directly following the Tet Offensive, because by that time, it was made evident that further fighting would only cause more unnecessary harms. Often in history nations try to justify their actions any way they can whether they are valid or not. Vietnamese intervention was reasoned to be necessary because of the possible implications of the domino effect. Just as it happened in Eastern Europe,
American strategy remained torn between simply containing Communism or rolling it back by actively supporting the Soviet Union’s opponents. For historians of the Cold War, the great debate has been between traditionalists who tend to see the United States as the defensive power in the Cold War (and the Soviet Union as the aggressor) and revisionist historians who tend to see the United States and the Soviet Union as equally aggressive and equally at fault. Revisionists (those critical of American foreign policy) are usually accused of forgetting the ‘lessons of Munich’. It is argued that World War Two arose partly because too many historians thought Germany was unjustly treated after World War One by the Treaty of
The Vietnam War or Vietnam conflict to some was perhaps one of the most intriguing conflicts in the history of modern America. Some suggest it was justified in stopping the spread of communism, while others feel that it was a waste of American lives that encourage an age of civil rebellion. To first understand the war one must first understand, the history leading up to the conflict. Prior to Americas involvement in the war in 1960 the French occupied what was then called indo-china up until 1954. In 1950 communist nations such as china recognized the Vietminh state, which in turn gave support to the viet-cong.
President Nixon's Watergate scandal only seemed to fortify this distrust. Congress, in an effort to prevent another conflict like Vietnam in the future, passed the War Powers Act. This stated that Congress had to be informed that troops would be into possible combat situations, and had to take action of those troops within 60 days (Schulzinger, 1999). It would seem as though the Vietnam War and all of the battles our nation had to endure at this fragile moment in history would help define our nation. The United States was torn in many factions at that time period, Civil Rights Movement being a major one.