The Vietnam War In The 1950's

The Vietnam War is one that is not remembered proudly by most. Many Americans today actually believe that in hindsight, U.S. troops should never have been brought in to keep South Vietnam contained from Communism—since it ended in complete failure. Over half a million Americans ended up losing their lives, many adolescent Vietnamese were killed, and the efforts of our troops appeared to be in vain. However, in the 1950s, there is no way that a lasting outcome such as this could have been foreseen—and, at first, support pointed in favor of the Vietnam War.
To begin, at the time, war seemed to be the most appropriate measure to take, especially while under such dire circumstances. By this point, the world had witnessed China being taken under
Nixon. He was the president who eventually ended up pulling soldiers out of Vietnam, little by little, believing that after four long years, it had reached well past time to end this madness. Nixon had quickly realized that the consequences of this war were extremely upsetting for the citizens back at home, for many reasons. Nixon is quoted stating that “the war was causing deep division at home and criticism from many of our friends as well as our enemies abroad,” and stressed the importance of American support in saying that, ”North Vietnam cannot defeat or humiliate the United States. Only Americans can do that.” The people were missing their soldier family members, outraged by leaked documents concerning the cover-up of lies regarding the war, and were disgusted by cruelty of incidents such as that in Mai Lai. In order to calm their tension, Nixon assured them that he did have a plan to gradually withdraw troops from Vietnam and return them home to their families as the opportunities would arise, and that the war would soon be over. Instead, we would attempt to arm the Southern Vietnamese so that they could defend themselves, but to no avail. The people were exhausted, and had little morale to fight any longer. The plan had
It would protect South Vietnam and the rest of Asia from falling under Communist rule, preserve materials that could be used in Capitalist economies, and prove our loyalty and willingness to protect South Vietnam, or any other country in conflict—ultimately making our country as a whole look powerful and moral. In the end, citizens of America regretted ever going to war in the first place, and resented the military action for its hypocrisy; saying the troops are protecting South Vietnam, while they are causing thousands of deaths in innocent children, women and elderly. The American troops were disgusted with themselves for the innocent lives they ended during the war, particularly the thousands of children—earning them their prevalent nickname as “baby-killers.” Not to mention the fact that many American families at home were left having to face the tragic loss of their own son, husband, brother or father who was drafted in to the war. The overwhelming lack of support from people back at home is one of the biggest factors that Nixon considered while making the decision to ultimately end the Vietnam War, which was officially the first war in history that America did not come out victorious, and resulted in widespread distrust between the Americans and their government and military,