The Vietnam War is a very arguable subject for Americans. People were either for the war or were against the war. Some people think that there was no reason for the United States to be going into this war and that it was not our problem to try and fix. The others think that we were doing a good thing trying to helping the Vietnamese. Even though a lot of people thought positively of the war to begin with a lot of people soon realized that the government was lying to Americans, the war strategies the Vietcong used were harsh, and this war killed so many innocent people. There are many reasons why Americans think that the United States going into the Vietnam War was a careless idea. One of those reasons for the United States/us not liking the war was that the Vietcong’s had many advantages …show more content…
The war took place in the jungle and Vietcongs had already adapted to the environment there unlike the United States. The Vietcong’s would use a strategy called “Guerrilla” where they would gather in small skirmishes then attack and run, they thought they should “wear the enemy down” so they would “collapse” and give up. The Vietcong also had underground tunnels where they could hide and the United States had no clue about them. Americans also did not like the fact that the government were keeping the bad news/things about this war from them. Americans thought that they were trying to get out of the war but instead the government were still supporting the war. The government also would not allow certain bad things about the war to be shown on the media. This was until secret documents were leaked in 1971 revealing Kennedy and LBJ had
The U.S. Involvement in the Vietnam War Was Justified. The Vietnam conflict has been known to be the most unpopular war in the history of the United States. The war of 1812, the Mexican war and the Korean conflict of the early 1950's were also opposed by large groups of the American people, but none of them generated the emotional anxiety and utter hatred that spawned Vietnam. The Vietnam war caused people to ask the question of sending our young people to die in places where they were particularly wanted and for people who did not seem especially grateful.
It was a very bloody war, with more than 58,000 American soldiers having perished in combat. Also, during the decade of direct U.S Military participation in Vietnam, during early times of the year, 1964 the U.S treasury spent over 140 billion dollars on this war. “This was enough money to fund urban projects in every major American city” (history.com). As this war affected the American’s, it affected the Vietnamese people too. This war affected both the American’s and the Vietnamese, because in the year 1973 the United States began withdrawing troops.
In conclusion, I think that the United States became increasingly involved in the Vietnamese War because of the policies they had made as a promise to fight communism, and because they had sorely underestimated Vietcong’s ability to fight back using Guerrilla warfare. They refused to pull out of the war in fear of losing face before the world, but this pride factor scored them massive losses in the war. In the end, with both side sustaining heavy losses, the US were still seen as mutilators in the war, with advanced showing what their intervention had costed, and Vietnam was still fully taken over by Communism – they had achieved nothing and lost a lot.
The Vietnam War was one of many. One reason some people argue the US should have been in the Vietnam War is because of the belief the US was trying to help establish a democracy there. The Vietnam war helping America win the cold war was another reason people believe the US was justified in the Vietnam war. Others believe that the US should not have been there because they were supporting a corrupt government, another reason is that American warfare was excessive and abusively killed many innocent civilians and ruined the land. While it appeared that the US was trying to spread democracy and win the cold war, but in truth, the US was supporting a mini Hitler, and our strategy had little chance of
Eventually they negotiated a treaty with the North and completed the process of Vietnamization (“Vietnamization”). Overall, US involvement in the Vietnam War polarized American citizens into two categories. They either supported involvement in the war against the communists or they disapproved of US intervention in the war. Points against the war included the heavy economic debt, thousands of lives lost and soldiers wounded, and events like the My Lai Massacre. Points for the war included the desire to prevent the spread of communism, avenging the shot fired at the US ship, and evidence in the public opinion wars that showed Americans, overall, supported US involvement in the war.
Firstly, This war took place from 1962 and finished in 1975 (Australian War Memorial, n.d) and saw a “welcome home” for the soldiers like never before. The Prime Minister at the time was Robert Menzies who believed that we should send troops to Vietnam to help America stop the ‘domino theory’, a theory in which America believe that when one country becomes a communist, surrounding countries will become communist as well, causing the world to become communist and America would no longer be able to trade any material or weapons to other countries to make money, forcing America to become a communist country as well. However a differing view of the Opposition Leader, Arthur Calwell, was equally passionate against sending troops to Vietnam to fight. In Arthur Calwel’s speech, Calwel stated in the Governments’s announcement “We do not think it will help the fight against Communism” (House of Representatives, 1965). The Public opinion was divided over this war and had never been displayed as overtly as it was during ...
The Vietnam War took place in between 1947- 1975. It consisted of North Vietnam trying to make South Vietnam a communism government. The United States later joined this conflict because of the stress North Vietnam was putting to South Vietnam to become a government that America did not want. The main reason why America joined was because of a theory called the Domino Effect. America and Russia were going through what has been dubbed the Cold War. The Domino Effect is the theory that communism will spread form one country to another. United states does not want this because our government is a democracy and communism opposes everything we stand for. America fearing communism was growing, stepped into Vietnam with America’s interest in mind, instead of Vietnam’s. There are several reason why American should have not gotten involved with this war. The most important reason was that America government officials made to much of a big deal about communism. This might sound cynical, but America to a certain degree did over react. Let it be said that it is much easier to say this after the fact. By looking back at McCarthyism, we can see the silliness of this fear. There is a serious side though. Thousands of people dies for a government that has no impact of their daily life. What regime Vietnam was going to change over to had no effect on the every day cycle of the United States. So truly, one can say, this can not one thing to do with America, its government and people.
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.
The Vietnam war has been referred to by many names, one of the longer ones was 'the cornerstone of the free world southeast Asia'. It was called that by John F. Kennedy. He was talking about Vietnam being and essential country in a non-communist world. He believed that if Vietnam became a communist country, all of the surrounding countries would also become communists. This is the main reason America was involved in the Vietnam war. Another reason was that America wanted to spread their “political ideas around the globe”. They wanted to do this so that their anti-communism stance was clear. The public also wanted to keep communism from spreading. To soldiers, the war was like a crusade, a great journey to purge the communists from Vietnam. Sadly, this is not what happened. The Viet Cong (VC) had far better tactics than the US. The VC was told to 'nibble at the enemy' so that he could 'neither eat or sleep'. This worked very well. Another demoralizing tactic the VC used was their landmines; they were designed to blow the limbs off the soldiers without killing them. This tied up hospital beds and meant the soldiers had to carry the wounded back to the base.
The Vietnam War has had its effects on America, both good and bad. We can ridicule it, we can deny it, we can say it was for the best, we can say we shouldn't have even gotten involved, but the one thing we can't do is ignore it. Because it's become an unforgettable part of history, and we all need to remember Vietnam.
The Vietnam War was one of the longest and most expensive wars in American history. It started from 1955 till April 30, 1975. This war lasted for almost 20 years. According to the article "How the U.S Got Involved In Vietnam" by Jeff Drake the U.S attacked Vietman and this wasn't supposed to happen. This war could have been avoidable. The 58,000 Americans didn’t have to die, nor did the 2,000,000 Vietnamese. The U.S government was responsible for their deaths. What the government told the public from the very beginning was that they were going to war because they had to stop the communist menace in Vietnam or other countries would follow suit; that they had to defend the democratic South Vietnamese government against the gathering Red hordes. While other people say it was an attempt by the U.S to suppress a heroic Vietnamese national liberation movement that had driven French colonialism out of its country (Drake, 1993).
The Vietnam War was a horrific war between North Vietnam and South Vietnam. There were many causes for the Vietnam War from both the North and South side. There were also many emotions during the war for United States citizens, Vietnam citizens and soldiers of the war for both Americans and Vietnamese. United States couldn’t help but get into the war. They had to intervene which brought tons of good and bad things to the United States. The Vietnam War wasn’t only affecting the North and South Vietnam it also affected the United States and the citizens of the war from both the United States and Vietnam.
The Vietnam War was the first major war American’s had suffered defeat. The Vietnam war was a war of confusion, competition and biasness. The outcome of the war was far greater than an upset American nation, but a severe breakdown of the Vietnamese culture, economy, environment and government. It also had a tremendous impact on American society even up to present day. It was unclear from the beginning of the war if the American’s should even be involved. It was a war between Northern and Southern Vietnam but the U.S saw it as an indirect way to challenge the USSR’s sphere of influence in Southern Asia and to prevent the domino effect and the further spread of communism. The Vietnam War completely changed the way the United States approached military action and helped establish the role of the United States within the new world order.
Vietnam was a struggle which, in all honesty, the United States should never have been involved in. North Vietnam was battling for ownership of South Vietnam, so that they would be a unified communist nation. To prevent the domino effect and the further spread of communism, the U.S. held on to the Truman Doctrine and stood behind the South Vietnamese leader, Diem.