Just War Theory In Vietnam

W. Averell Harriman as his ‘personal representative for such talks,’ asking Harriman to ‘search for peace.’” The North Vietnamese agreed to meet at the peace talks.
However, negotiating peace would not be easy because South Vietnam's President was unwilling to talk with the North on any issues. He feared that the North Vietnamese would try to create a new coalition government. On May 5th, 1968, President Nixon used the term “honorable peace” for the first time. Previously the term he would use when referring to peace was “victorious peace”. However, all of the peace proposals offered to the North Vietnam were rejected as of January 25th, 1972. The North Vietnamese began their largest attack of the Vietnam War on March 30, 1972. It was an attack that was designed to inflict a
devastating blow to the Republic of Vietnam's army. The assault would last until September of 1972. President Nixon met with the National Security Council on May 8th, 1972. He showed them plans for the mining of Haiphong Harbor. He also planned to restart the bombings of Hanoi and Haiphong. The National Security Council was told that President Nixon would address the nation on these matters by a televised speech later that night. Shortly after meeting with the national Security Council, President Nixon addressed his cabinet. The next day President Nixon told Henry Kissinger that “he wanted to go for broke and to go to the brink to destroy the enemy's war making capacity.” President Nixon was hoping to avoid the same mistake that he and President Johnson had already made. That was to let up on the bombing of North Vietnam. “Those bastards are going to be bombed like they've never been bombed before,” gloated Nixon. Beginning in May of 1972, some of the best use of America's air power during the Vietnam War occurred. In May, “one of the largest aerial bombardments in world history—Operation Linebacker” occurred. “Targeting roads, bridges, rail lines, troops, bases, and supply depots, the attack was the first large-scale use of precision-guided laser bombs in modern aerial warfare.” The Agreement on Ending the War and Restoring Peace in Vietnam was signed at the International Conference Center in Paris on January 27, 1973. The agreement mandated for the United States to stop all attacks and for the removal of all United States troops in Vietnam within two months. The agreement did not allow the United States to send any more weapons to South Vietnam. The United States and North Vietnam agreed to hold elections in South Vietnam which would be under international supervision. When peace talks began to break down on December 13th, Nixon resorted to bombing in hopes of bring them back to the peace table. On December 18th, operation Linebacker II began. It started with B-52 bombers and fighter-bombers on the Hanoi-Haiphong area. “The day prior to the start of the Christmas bombing, Nixon told Admiral Thomas Moorer, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, ‘I don't want any more of this crap about the fact that we couldn't hit this target or that one. This is your chance to use military power effectively to win this war, and if you don't, I'll consider you responsible.’ Admiral Moorer called for expanded air attacks with an objective of "maximum destruction of selected military targets in the vicinity of Hanoi/Haiphong." He ordered that B-52s carry maximum ordnance with pre-approved restrikes of targets.
Henry Kissinger believed that the North Vietnamese committed a major error in dealing with President Nixon. That error was that they cornered him. The B-52s were his last attempt of winning the Vietnam War. On January 27, 1973 at the International Conference Center in Paris, the Agreement on Ending the War and Restoring Peace in Vietnam was signed. The agreement ended all fighting and began the removal of American troops. In the agreement the United States promised to end all air and sea actions against the North Vietnamese. They also agreed to deactivate all mines that had been placed in the waters of North Vietnam. Part of the agreement was that before two months after signing it, all American troops and their allies' troops would be out of Vietnam. During those two months, prisoners and foreign civilians would be exchanged as well. The United States was not allowed to send any new war materials or supplies to South Vietnamese army. They were also required to destroy all of their military bases in Vietnam. Both the United States and North Vietnam agreed to allow free and democratic election in South Vietnam under international supervision. "Even more unusually, the treaty called for a Four-Party Joint Military Commission to be constituted by the four signatories for implementing and monitoring compliance with the provisions on withdrawal, cease-fire, dismantling of bases, return of war prisoners, and exchange of information on those missing in action." The commission consisted of Canada, Hungary, Indonesia, and Poland.
"In No Peace, No Honor (2001), Larry Berman utilized recently declassified records to show that Nixon had little faith in the Paris accord and expected that the accord would be violated, which would trigger a brutal military response. Permanent war (air war, not ground operations) at acceptable political cost was what Nixon expected from the signed agreement. President Thieu received repeated assurances that when the communists violated the accord, the B-52s would return to punish Hanoi, but the Watergate scandal prevented such retaliation." Once the POWs were exchanged neither the North nor the South Vietnamese followed the Paris agreements. The United States troops left sixty days after the agreement was signed. However, there had been no decline in the fighting.”

With the help of this historical context and other facts, I will now attempt to prove my thesis.
Jus Ad Bellum There is a certain part of the just war theory that judges whether or not a country’s actions before partaking in the war are just.
The part of the just war theory is called jus ad bellum. There must be a just cause, right authority, proportionality, the goal of peace, with war as a last resort. A country cannot attack another country for more wealth or for more respect. They must attack on behalf of an innocent third country or group. Right authority means that war must be declared by the proper authorities and not by private companies. Proportionality means that the potential war must be assessed regarding the cost of the war and the benefits from the war. The country must also decide whether or not the potential gains outweigh the loss of human lives and the cost of the war. Next, “will the destructiveness of the proposed conflict outweigh any enhancement of other human values?” That means will the war any enhance aspects of the human life more than the violence that will occur during the war. The purpose of the war must be for peace, not solely to win glory. Finally, the war must be a last resort, meaning that all other methods for peace must be attempted before resorting to
war. People who opposed the Vietnam War would argue that there was no just cause in beginning a war with the North Vietnamese. However, it is my position that their judgement is incorrect. One of the main reasons that the United States entered the Vietnam War was because of the “domino theory”. A short summary of the domino theory is if one country falls to communism then many more countries, in that area, would fall to communism soon after. When North Vietnam declared its independence from the French in September 1945, it had a communist North Vietnam and French backed South Vietnam. Many politicians believed that if South Vietnam fell to communism then many more countries in Asia and Europe would follow. President Eisenhower said this while referring to communism in Asia, “The possible consequences of the loss [of Indochina], are just incalculable to the free world.” Once the French backed out of the war with North Vietnam, the United States helped create Southeast Asia Treaty Organization also known as SEATO. SEATO was a group of countries who agreed to take action against security threats in that area. At the time the United States government was using a containment policy regarding communism. They thought that if they could contain communism then they could stop the spread of communism before it could have a chance to grow. Some would argue that the domino theory is not enough of a reason to enter a war in a foreign country. They assert that the theory was incorrect to state if one country would fall to communism then others would necessarily fall. History proved those people right, as communism did not spread in Asia after taking over the government of Laos, Cambodia, and North Vietnam. However, at the time, the United States policy regarding communism was to contain it and to not allow it to spread. There was no way to disprove the domino theory at the time of the Vietnam War and so the United States believed that it needed to fight in order to stop the spread of communism and this was believed seriously enough that, in my judgement, it constituted just cause. In addition, since the United States was a member of SEATO they would