United States Involvement In The Vietnam War

In contrast to other wars, the United States escalading involvement in Vietnam divided the American people like none other causing an anti-war sentiment in the US, and caused old sown ties from the United States developed in WWII to be tested. Even though many of the effects of this war can still be seen today, Diem’s assassination, the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, the policy of gradual escalation, and the bombing campaign lead the increasing power of the United States intervention, as UN power, to be set in the middle of full blown Vietnam War. The Vietnam war began in the mid twentieth century where a majority of conflict centered around the communist forces of North Vietnam, including the Viet Cong, and its opposition of Southern Vietnam
As stated in Walter Lippmann article of A Study in U.S. Foreign Policy, “We shall be acting once more in the great American tradition which is to foster the independence of other counties, not to use other counties as the satellites of our own power, however beneficent, and as the instrument of our own policy, however well meant” (25-2). In August of 1964 the U.S. involvement in Vietnam become heated and gave more expansion to military planners to create locations for attack on North Vietnam as a preparation if the U.S. felt more threaten. However, President Linden Johnson waited on this for as long as possible since the American public was not prepared for a full on war, nor did the public support the intervention to begin with. That threat was eventually reached in the Gulf of Tokin where after an attack on the North Vietnamese by the South Vietnamese ships causes a U.S. destroyer named Maddox to be fired upon multiple times through out there presents spending over a few days of the coastline of North Vietnam. This action was never officially recorded, yet President Johnson did not hesitate to take action and order more involvement within Vietnam and initiated all previous plan to be put into action against North Vietnam. Even with senate approval, it was later found that that this expansion was an unnecessary one and was made into a boiling point for not the best reasons given at the time. The Gulf of Tokin Resolutions main significance in today age is how much power it gave to Johnson in the decision making during war time efforts. As time passed so did the amount of gradual escalation, and made the bombing campaign a major effect of this policy. The following expansion was named Operation Rolling Thunder. This operations main purpose was to limit the expanded of control of North Vietnam