Preview

What Was The Role Of America's Involvement In The Vietnam War

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
590 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
What Was The Role Of America's Involvement In The Vietnam War
Vietnam had a hard time facing foreign invasion which happened quite frequently. After World War I the French and Chinese had a large influence in Vietnam and Ho Chi Minh was one Vietnamese who tried to stop that. He worked his way into creating an independent Vietnam and organized an army using guerrilla warfare. Minh went to war with the French and ended up winning and this helped create a free North and South Vietnam. South Vietnam had an uprising and a communist group called the Vietcong arose using the same guerilla warfare that Ho Chi Minh used to defeat France. With the United States backing France and wanting to stop the spread of communism, they got involved. America’s involvement in the Vietnam War was most definitely a tragedy and moral crime. …show more content…
With Vietnam happening in front of their eyes, while they were becoming young adults, they were forced to be the decision makers of the war. The Vietnam War happened while the Civil Rights Movement was in full swing and the increasing views of counter culture helped these young adults question the goals of America. The choice was to fight in Vietnam or protest at home; to support the government and President Johnson or protest against them. It is a tragedy that so many lives were sent to Vietnam and lost because of President Johnson’s beliefs of morality. Also, it is a tragedy that he kept sending troops over because he didn’t want to be responsible for losing the first was in the United States history. I think the United States getting involved lowered the moral of the nation and made it harder to live when it should have been a time of peace and

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Better Essays

    The war in Vietnam was a conflict that started in the 1950s and ended in the early 1970s. During this time period, the United States became increasingly involved in Vietnamese political, economic and military affairs. There were a combination of reasons as to why the United States became more involved, the most important of which in my opinion were the Domino Theory and the growing influence of the National Liberation Front (NFL).…

    • 1547 Words
    • 45 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Vietnam Dbq Essay Example

    • 489 Words
    • 2 Pages

    While some argue that America was right and has just justification for entering the war to preserve democracy and to fight for some greater good for peace it is quite simple to see that the U.S involvement in the Vietnam War was greatly unjustified, due to the fact that the war was originally a civil war between two different governments in Vietnam, in addition to that the majority of Vietnam’s citizens were on the “enemy’s” side. The only reason American leaders stayed in it so long was that they didn’t be want to be seen as cowards to other countries and wanted to keep their never surrender look to the public because they were already too deep into the war.…

    • 489 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Michael Lind takes the approach that this war was something America could not have avoided if we had any hope to eventually win the Cold War over the Soviet Union and emerge as the world’s number one super power. He acknowledges that the administrations involved with the conflict did little to clearly explain our involvement to the public, and would often change their reasoning over time. But he goes on to explain that we had a very real reason to get involved in a conflict that many believed did not involve us. To easily explain why, is to simply bring up credibility. “Credibility, in power politics, is a country’s reputation for military capability combined with the political resolve to use it in order to promote its goals.” (Lind, 1999) In a sense credibility, or perceived power, was one of the most important tools in the Cold War. Allies and small dependent countries had to believe that America would be able to support them in a crisis, and enemies had to be under the impression that we would be able to back up any threats. To back out of Vietnam would have only prepared America to enter another battlefield later. A main reason of entering Vietnam was to avoid a humiliating defeat to our own reputation as a powerful country. Keeping South Vietnam out of Chinese control and permitting the South Vietnamese to enjoy a freer lifestyle were lower down on the…

    • 1192 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Vietnam War Dbq Analysis

    • 874 Words
    • 4 Pages

    The amount of blood and tears shed for this country is ridiculous, considering how unnecessary most of it ended up being. The Vietnam War, which was the longest war since the Cold War, was a war between Southern Vietnam and Northern Vietnam in which the United States became involved in on South Vietnam’s side. It was originally fought because Vietnam wanted to declare its independence from France stating, “Vietnam has the right to be free and independent country and in fact is so already,” but the conflict quickly converted to a civil war between North and South Vietnam (Doc. 1- Declaration of Independence- Democratic Republic of Vietnam). The United States put themselves in the middle of it in hopes of preventing “the countries of Southeast Asia from passing into the communist orbit, and to assist them to develop the will and ability to resist communism from within and without and to contribute to the strengthening of the free world” (Doc 8- Policy Statement about American objectives in Southeast Asia). The Vietnam War only caused more problems for the U.S. and South Vietnam than should have happened though.…

    • 874 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The United States stemmed the growth of Communist ideology through Harry S. Truman’s policy of containment based on previous ideas by George Kennan. It promoted the usage of armed forces and troops to aid countries in risk of communist influence/concepts and guided America’s foreign policy throughout most of the Cold War. The policy sought to confine such ideas solely within the existing boundaries of the Soviet Union. Many communist-threatening events during the Cold War were at a halt due to Truman’s tactic of containment as for example, the Vietnam War. The Vietnam War originally started when a group of Northern Vietnam nationalists attempted to overthrow the French leaders and unify the country under a communist government.…

    • 479 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In conclusion, the US’s decision to take part in the Vietnam war was a mistake. They should of remained neutral and let other countries handle their own business instead of encroaching into international affairs. From the Americans citizens perspective, the involvement was unnecessary and it lost the trust of…

    • 493 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    CBA: The Vietnam War

    • 279 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The Vietnam war was a very horrible. This war took place in Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos. Viet Cong, against South Vietnam and its principal ally, the United States. This war was for because communism was threatening to expand all over south-east Asia. The Vietnam war went from November 1, 1955 to April 30, 1975.…

    • 279 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    American foreign policy is not always characterized by its citizens' attitudes, leading to many disputed events throughout history, such as the Vietnam War. The Vietnam War, which began in 1955, was both a civil war between North and South Vietnam and a proxy war involving other prominent nations, such as the United States ("Vietnam War"). In 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson authorized the direct involvement of the U.S. in Vietnam after a short clash between U.S. and North Vietnamese naval forces occurred, which led to the Southeast Asia Resolution being passed by Congress (Berman and Newman). While Americans may have been on board with such involvement in the 1940s and 1950s, where anti-communist policies and periods, such as the “Red Scare” reigned strongly among American politicians and legislation, by the 1960s,…

    • 480 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Vietnam War Portfolio

    • 1051 Words
    • 5 Pages

    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.…

    • 1051 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Vietnam War DBQ

    • 672 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Vietnam war was the longest war in American History which fought between 1964 to 1975 and the most unpopular war for the American of the 20th century. This is the only one war that United States lost the war but no one knows the truth because the US government had not told about this war yet. The resulted in nearly 60,000 American deaths and in an estimated 2 million Vietnamese deaths. It seemed like the American won the war but actually they were not. The experience for the American soldier in Vietnam was long and painful one for the nation. During the war, the Vietnam is spilt in the two groups; the South which was Capitalism and the North which was Communism. To support the South Vietnam’s government, the American sent the soldiers…

    • 672 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    This was a moment that a lot of our family members lived and even fought through. This was a war similar to the Korean war where the US attempted to stop the spread of communism to South Vietnam using force but instead of stopping it like they had in Korea they inevitably lost. This was a war that had lots of support in the beginning as Americans had lots of pride and patriotism for their country but soon they lost this as many young and innocent people died in the Vietnam war. This caused disagreement between Americans and their communities as well as the communities and their government as the government insisted upon fighting the Vietnam War. This would eventually cause protests and riots, specifically on college campuses and in big cities.…

    • 1795 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    In march 12, 1947 with the truman doctrine and the newly introduced policy of containment usa decided to award itself with status of policeman of the world giving themselves a permission to intervene anywhere in the world when they consider it is neccessary. This was the policy that allowed them to interpose in vietnam. Vietnamese people under the leadership of ho chi mihn, founder of viet minh defeated french at diem bien phu who had controll over whole indochina (thailand, vietnam, combodia, laos). Although usa was sending aid to french they didn't help much because president eisenhower has just been elected to end the korean war therefore he didn't want to involve usa in another conflict.…

    • 813 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Vietnam, although not technically considered a war was an extended conflict that still had to be justified to an American people. The Tonkin Gulf Resolution was the identification of this extended conflict and was declared by Congress in 1964 making this conflict official. This resolution was justified because it was declared by a competent authority and was seen as being the best thing for the American people at the time, even though today it receives a lot of pessimism from those same Americans. Many would say that we should not have been in Vietnam in the first place and that we were yet again pretending to play the role of global peacekeeper, others would say that we were just promoting our own interests. The U.S role in Vietnam first started in the late 50’s as a mission to help the French with their territory in Indochina. As U.S allies, the U.S was obligated to help France in its territory and try to end any aggression towards them and if helping an ally, conflict is justified. The true extent of the United States involvement did not really start until the communist division of North Vietnam and South Vietnam after France lost control over its original territory. When asking whether the beginning of a conflict, if not war, is justified the party that is taking the action chiefly has to question whether the human rights of the citizens are put in question or not. As with any Capitalist nation, it is a goal to fight communism when possible on a global scale because it threatens the people of that country as a whole. This threat comes not only from the likelihood of the country to oppress its populace, but also because by fundamental nature, communistic countries do not trade with Capitalist ones. This conflict was also justified when examining Just War Theory because a country is allowed to protect itself from possible future aggression. One of the chief concerns held by…

    • 867 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    One thing that got the United States into the Vietnam War was the end of colonialism. The European countries were unable to deny the escalating demands for independence in their Asian colonies. In Vietnam, for instance, an independence movement under the leadership of Ho Chi Minh rose to challenge French rule. The United States helped France by giving financial and military aid.…

    • 1010 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Vietnam War is known as one of the most gruesome wars fought by the Americans, the result and amount of losses suffered by both sides show how pointless war can be. When France fell to the Vietnamese the idea of Communism was taking over was more stressful than going into battle itself, this made the idea of going to another country for war a popular topic among American politicians. America was in the hype of a booming economy with many manufactures moving to a factor environment, with assembly lines and mass production they had an affordable economy to live in while WWII had left many countries in the red America stayed in the black with plenty of jobs and space to expand.…

    • 1102 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays