Vietnam War Portfolio

Vietnam War portfolio
Causes
The Vietnam War was a consequence of the cold war. Since neither the United States nor the Soviet Union could risk fighting each other directly they did it in other countries indirectly like in Vietnam. One of the main causes of the Vietnam War was the Gulf of Tonkin. In the Gulf of Tonkin the USS Maddox was attacked by torpedoes from the Vietnamese. They confirmed it was Vietnamese by the markings on the shells found. Then later on a second attack happened. When the second attack happened the United States decided to bomb the North Vietnamese. Later on they confirmed that the second attack never happened and it was a misread because there was a storm and it messed with the ship. Another cause of the Vietnam War was the United States domino theory. The united states thought that if Vietnam would become communist so would other countries around it and communism would be everywhere. Since the United States policy of containment was to prevent the spread of communism they felt they needed to step in and save the South Vietnamese from the North Vietnamese attacks. This was a major factor in the United States joining the Vietnam War.
U.S involvement
In 1961, South Vietnam signed a military and economic deal with the United States that allowed the United States to send troops to Vietnam. This formed the U.S Military Assistance Command. With the United States being unsatisfied with the corruption of Diem’s government that the United States accidently funded, Diem was then assassinated. When a leader was finally established in South Vietnam, the United States military aid increased. Especially because the U.S Senate passed the Tonkin Gulf Resolution that was proposed by Lyndon B. Johnson. In 1965 the United States used air raids on North Vietnam and communist areas in South Vietnam. North Vietnam was being aided by the Soviet Union and other communist countries. The United States military aid then was enlarged along with more massive bombing attacks and more United States military commitment. There was some political stability in South Vietnam after the election of Nguyen Van Thieu in 1967. The United States and South Vietnam were unable to defeat the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese forces. There were more than 100 towns and cities attacked and a month long battle for Hue in South Vietnam. This made the United States military reports look bad and as if the war shouldn’t have been entered.
Setting
The Vietnam War was fought in Vietnam. It was between the North who was communist and the South who was Capitalist. In 1954 there was a cease fire and Vietnam was officially divided into North and South by the 17th parallel but shortly after the war began again. When the United States got involved in the war they decided to bomb the North Vietnamese. They would do this by flying planes over that had bombs attached to them and then let them go on North Vietnamese forces that were invading over the 17th parallel. This was an effective way of fighting because it made it easier to see the enemy and it prevented casualties on the United States side. Most of the reason there was a lot of air bombings from the United States was they didn’t know the land. It also didn’t help that the North Vietnamese used guerrilla warfare tactics to surprise the United States troops that were on the ground. The North Vietnamese did not have a strong army like the United States but used their knowledge of the land to make it a struggle to fight the North Vietnamese army. There was also the Tet Offensive were the North Vietnamese army and the Viet Cong attacked thirty U.S targets and cities in South Vietnam.
Home Front
The United States as a country was torn whether or not we should have troops fighting in Vietnam. There were two sides in America. The one side was the hawks that supported the war and the other side was the doves who wanted peace. The hawks were for Johnson’s war policy. They thought the Vietnam War was crucial in winning the cold war. It was also seen in the hawks that it would be a good way to help out our allies. They thought that it would strengthen bonds between our allies and if we won maybe South Vietnam would repay the favor someday. The doves on the other hand did not support Johnson’s war policy. They also thought that the Vietnam War was more of a civil war between the north and south and we shouldn’t get involved. People who supported the doves thought it was an unwinnable war because we did not know the land and of the guerilla tactics used by the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong were to powerful. People thought we should focus on ourselves and our problems not someone else’s. This war and whether or not we should be in it almost started another war within the people of America.
The End At the end of the war president Nixon promoted the policy of Vietnamization of the war. This promised the withdraw of United states troops gradually and let the south Vietnam put effort toward the war on their own. Nixon engaged in diplomatic maneuvering with China and the Soviet Union and stepped up the bombing of North Vietnam to pressure the North Vietnamese into a solution or settlement. A cease fire was officially signed on January 1973 and the last troops of the United States military left in March 1973. The United States government continued to fund the South Vietnamese army but it quickly stopped since the United States was no longer engaged in the war effort. President Nixon then resigned in august 1974 and the north Vietnamese’s stepped up their attack on the South Vietnamese and had an all-out attack in the spring of 1975. On April 30, 1975 the capital of South Vietnam Saigon fell to North Vietnamese control. Then the country was reunited under the communist rule as the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, that ended the Vietnam War. A lot of the American people were happy that the war had finally ended and the United States was no longer divided about it.
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