Vietnam and The Cold War
It is impossible to accurately describe the major events that occurred during the cold war without mentioning the war in Vietnam. From its start, this war has been very controversial concerning its purposes and effects on the countries involved. Both sides of this war lost a great number of soldiers and most of these men and women were not even sure why they were fighting. To this day, there is still a lot of uncertainty about the events that took place during this heated time in south Asia. One of the biggest questions raised is why the United States felt it was their responsibility to ever got involved and what were they trying to gain by sending in their troops. A look at the history of the cold war and its relation to the Vietnam War can answer a lot of these uncertainties. Many of the decisions made by the officials involved in this war would not have been made if it were not the cold war and its effects on the countries involved.
The problems in Vietnam began in 1954 when, still in the aftermath of the Korean War, Vietnam and France signed the Geneva Peace Accord. This accord caused Vietnam to temporarily divide into two separate regions at the 17th parallel. North of the line the Viet Minh would be in control. France would control the region south of the line. This separation would then be discontinued after the national elections of 1956. The Communist superpowers were not pleased with this agreement because they feared it would upset the United States and its European allies. The United States, however, had other ideas. They were more interested in the creation of the South East Asia Treaty Organization (S.E.A.T.O.).
In 1955, with the help of SEATO, U.S. president Eisenhower managed ...
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...e fight against communism placed a great responsibility on United States and its European allies. In order to back their beliefs, they were responsible to help in the fight against communism. Each country believed strongly in their individual views concerning communism and they were willing to do anything to stop the advancement of this particular form of government. This eventually led to the deaths of thousands of U.S. troops in a war that was being fought for controversial reasons.
Works Cited
- Herzog, Tobey C. Vietnam War Stories: Innocence Lost. New York: Routledge, 1992.
- Hunt, Michael H. Lyndon Johnson?s War: America?s Cold War Crusade in Vietnam.
New York: Hill and Wang, 1997.
- Lee, Steven Hugh. Korea, Vietnam, and The Cold War in Asia, 1949-1954. Montreal fF
Kingston (Canada): McGill Queens University Press, 1995.
Oh right, because we were blinded by our fear of communism” (Green). It was the U.S. fear of the spread of communism that propelled the motion to war forward.... ... middle of paper ... ...
In 1954, French involvement in Vietnam ended and led to the Geneva Conference where a ceasefire agreement was negotiated. From the Geneva Accords, Vietnam was divided into two portions, North and South, at the 17th parallel. At the time, North Vietnam was communist and was gaining followers quickly (Rogers). The United States had previously created something called the Truman Doctrine, a policy to counter communism and allowed the US to provide political, military, and economic assistance
Pearson, Lester B. "Documents on the Korean Crisis." University of Manitoba. January 24, 1951. http://www.umanitoba.ca/libraries/units/archives/canada_war/tribune/website/clippings/korea/Documents_on_the_Korean_Crisis1.shtml (accessed December 18, 2011).
The Vietnam War was the longest war in America's history of involvement. Twenty years of hell, land mines, cross-fire, and death. Vietnam was divided by the Geneva Accord. The north being communist run by Ho Chi Minh. The south being anti-Communist run by Ngo Dinh Diem. Before Vietnam was separated, it was run by France. France had ruled most of Indochina since the late 1800s. The Vietnamese were unhappy with the way the French were controlling, therefore, many of them took refuge in China. When in China, they began to follow the lead of Ho Chi Minh, who wanted to model the Vietnamese Declaration of Independence as that of the U.S. version. In the 1940s, Japan had taken over Vietnam which upset Ho Chi Minh and his revolutionaries when they had returned a year later.
It has been known that the Vietnam War affected many American soldiers who were involved in the war physically and psychologically. The Vietnam War was one of the most memorable wars in history. Many Americans’ lives lost for no objective at all. Chapter 10 informed us about how the Vietnam War started and what really happened during that time. It also gave us background information about Vietnam Veterans and nurses who were involved in the war and what they went through during the war. I had the opportunity to interview a Vietnam Veteran also.
Thesis statement: The US objective was to keep all countries from turning to "communist" and being controlled by primarily communist governments.
(4)The U.S. used realpolitiks in The Geneva Conference because the United States negotiated with a communist country over another country. (5) On April 27, 1954, the Conference produced a declaration which supported the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Indochina thereby granting it independence from France. In addition, the Conference declaration agreed upon the cessation of hostilities and foreign involvement (or troops) in internal Indochina affairs. Northern and southern zones were drawn into which opposing troops were to withdraw, to facilitate the cessation of hostilities between the Vietnamese forces and those that had supported the French. The Viet Minh, awaited unification on the basis of internationally supervised free elections to be held in July 1956. Most of the French Union forces evacuated Vietnam, although much of the regional governmental infrastructure in the South was the same as it had been under t...
Jervis, Robert, ‘The Impact of the Korean War on the Cold War’, The Journal of Conflict Resolution, 24, 4, 1980, p. 580
This bond was broken after the war, due to the countries’ perceived differences and the apparent rivalry between them. The main American fear was the actual spread of communism and the fear that a domino affect would occur; after one country having turned communist, there would be a knock on effect and more would follow suit. In March 1947 the Truman doctrine declared that America was going to be extensively involved in world affairs, primarily to stop the spread of communism. A few months later the Marshall plan was set up aiming to aid war torn countries, however it’s other significant aim was to stop the spread of communism. The United States followed the policy of containment whereby it remained ‘friendly’ in order to track the movements of other countries and halt the spread of communism.
What was so big about the Vietnam War? Have you ever been to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall in Washington DC? Many causalities happened during the war but what was so significant about it? The main conflict was Communism against Democracy. This conflict split Vietnam into two different sides; North and South Vietnam. Similar to the Korean War, which lasted from 1950-1953, the North was for Communism while the South was for Democracy. The US aided South Vietnam, while the Soviet Union (Russia) and China aided North Vietnam. The Vietnam War is the longest war in American history. It was the only war that the USA has lost. Many were surprised that the US, the biggest country with a mighty economy and military resources, lost against a small country like Vietnam. How did this all happen, though? What sparked the Vietnam War?
A. A main reason why the US became involved was because the US wanted to stop the spread of communism.
The Korean War was a war between North Korea and South Korea that involved the support of the world’s most powerful countries. “ It was the only occasion in the Cold War when the military forces of the People’s Republic of China (PRC), the Soviet Union, and the USA (plus its Western allies) met in combat” (Malkasian 5). The Korean War was the first “hot war” of the Cold War which ended in a stalemate creating the two Koreas.
During the Cold War, the United States was deeply concerned / involved in the spread / threat of communism throughout the world. This is why American went to war with Vietnam in trying to defeat the communist leader Ho Chi Minh. At this time, Congress was focused on putting foreign policies in place in order to have widespread control and containment of communism. Also, other communist countries such as the Soviet Union and China, were competing with the U.S. globally on an economic, political and military level. Both countries push for communism, which America saw as a threat to world peace. In fighting the Vietnam War, America's concern for the spread of communism back then, is similar today with the War in Afghanistan to preventing
...eva Accords partitioned the country in two, with the promise of re-unification and democratic free elections. Unfortunately rather than peaceful re-unification, partition led to the Vietnam war, where former neighbors were at war with each other. Meanwhile the Geneva conference had begun again in April. Vietminh general Giap decided to commence his attack on Dien Bien Phu while the conference was under way. The September before the U.S had agreed to give the French a grant of $385 million to begin the ‘Navarre Plan’, a plan to destroy the Viet Minh forces by 1955. The French were in desperate need of the aid by that time.
Within the war the U.S had the intention to keep South-Vietnam free for communism, and that was also the intention under the war until 1965, where it more than less was gone. In the mid-nineteenth century, France had the control of Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. But in 1954, France was forced out of Vietnam and therefore there were no one left to be the anticommunist in the region, except South-Vietnam.