...The Vietnam War between USA with South Vietnam and North Vietnam with Viet Cong had lasted about 10 years and had many significant consequences. Therefore, it’s one of the most important wars in the recent years and has possessed many resonances so far. It is an unforgettable war for the USA because it has unexpectedly lost the war. The USA has lost the war against a fragile,undeveloped country which is North Vietnam. USA has lost the war against a fragile,undeveloped country which is North Vietnam. There has been a lot of controversies about this war so far. These controversies are concentrated on the moral dimension of the war. In other words, the experts and the analysts are concerned about whether this war is just or not. The Vietnam War can’t be considered as just war when we evaluate it with the aid of the Jus Ad Bellum critters. It doesn’t meet the 6 critters such as just cause, comparative justice, legitimate authority, right intention, probability of success and last resort. First of all, the USA doesn’t have a just cause to declare a war against North Vietnam and Viet Cong. In this war, USA struggles against communism and wants to terminate the so-called dangerous activities of the North Vietnam and Viet Cong founded by Ho Min Cinh in South Vietnam. USA doesn’t correct a suffered wrong here although it regards communism as great public evil. Western countries which adopt liberalism disapprove communism and they think that communism have to be removed. In this war, USA...
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...American Foreign Policy Leading to the Vietnam War American involvement in the Vietnam War is one of the most controversial issues in our history. However, the United States foreign policies had been dictating our involvement in Vietnam long before the initial deployment of troops into Vietnam. The fear of communism and developments of the policy of containment and the domino theory set the stage for the eventual escalation of the Vietnam Conflict into a war which would claim the lives of thousands of Americans. United States' involvement in Vietnam began as early as World War II, when American forces of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the precursor of the CIA, parachuted into the mountains in the northern region of Vietnam. Led by Major Allison Thomas, their mission, "Deer," was to rendezvous with and train a small group of Vietnamese soldiers that were fighting Japanese occupation troops, and were rescuing downed pilots, this group of Vietnamese were known as the Vietminh. This group of Vietnamese soldiers would soon be the communist leaders of North Vietnam, however, at the time American forces were not concerned that Ho Chi Minh and Vo Nguyen Giap were communists because America was still allied with the Soviet Union, a communist state, at that point during World War II (Westheider 2). The Vietminh under leadership of Ho Chi Minh and with training from American OSS forces were simultaneously fighting the Japanese, while at the same time gaining more political...
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...justifications for the Vietnam war was to prevent the spread of communism, the U.S defeat was to produce nothing of the kind: apart from the fact that Cambodia and Laos became embroiled, the effects were essentially confined to Vietnam”. This quote embodies the reason for the involvement in the war and also the end result. Communism was the number one factor for entering the war in Vietnam and containment was the policy. In the end, Vietnam fell to communism and the United States failed at their goal. Communism was the main reason for the initial involvement in the war that escalated into a full scale conflict; leading the United States to learn some valuable lessons. The era in which the war took place was one plagued with the fear of communism. The foreign policy known as containment was used to as a justification to intervene in numerous foreign conflicts. This policy is centered around the idea of containing communism to its borders and not...
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...France pulled out of Vietnam the U.S felt like they had to take action in order to prevent South Vietnam from falling into Communism. Starting in 1955-56 the U.S started to send military advisors to assist the South Vietnamese army. The U.S was worried that Ho Chi Minh, leader of the North Vietnamese Communists would try to unify Vietnam under Communist rule. At this time president Truman viewed Communism as the greatest post-war threat and was worried about the spread of communism in Vietnam. Truman believed that the U.S should be world police and prevent the spread of communism. As the U.S tried to fight against the spread of communism the power of Communist rebels in South Vietnam kept increasing. As a result president Truman felt obligated to send more and more military advisors until finally in 1965 Truman sent a large number of American combat troops into Vietnam to prop-up South Vietnam. This war was obviously between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of South Vietnam, supported by the United States of America and other anti-communist countries. The United States played a big role taking the side of the South Vietnamese army but failed to have the support of the American people. The involvement of the United States into the Vietnam War was obviously not justified for many reason which I will talk about in the following. Since the American people didn’t support the U.S getting involved in war with communist North Vietnam it clearly went against...
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...There were many reasons that contributed to Australia’s involvement in the Vietnam War. These consisted of a fear of communism, the need to support the USA and other allies and the views of Australian Prime Minister Robert Menzies. While none of these had a great enough influence themselves, the combination of multiple factors were what brought about Australia’s association with the Vietnam War. The most prominent reason for Australian involvement in the Vietnam War was the country’s fear of communism. This was most clearly demonstrated through the use of effective and persuasive propaganda that depicted communism as a disease, or leaders such as Stalin as a spider with a web capturing the countries falling prey to communism. This government propaganda was helpful in gaining support for the war by the Australian public who learned to fear communism themselves. Australia was also opposed to the idea of the country falling to communism because of what it would bring. It would mean totalitarian rule, in which the country would come under the rule of a dictator, freedom of assembly, media and speech would be revoked and censored and the social classes would be obliterated. This would mean people were no longer able to work for their money or own a business, which consequently could bring about uprisings and protests as people struggle to grasp their new ways of equality. The increase in rules and regulations would come as a rude shock to the Australian public who had lived in a democratic...
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...struggling with the spread of communism in the mid 1900’s. In Asia, China had a communist government and it spread to Vietnam in 1975 because of the domino theory. The domino theory is the theory that a political event in one country will cause similar events in neighboring countries. Indo-China consisted of Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos. These countries were in jeopardy of falling to communism because of their location and the domino effect. The U.S. tried to contain communism in Europe and after 45 years, they ended up containing it. They contained it by keeping communism in one country and not letting it spread. It makes it easier to contain if it is in one country. Communism spread to Asia and the U.S. has to be try and contain...
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...Many historians viewed Kennedy as a young, naïve president who lacked a clear policy but the counter argument is that Kennedy was decisive and assertive. In order to judge whether John F. Kennedy lacked a clear policy in Vietnam we have to compare the policies of Dwight Eisenhower’s in Vietnam and John F. Kennedys policies and how it contradicted with their ideologies. The view by some historians is that The Dwight Eisenhower foreign policy was popularly known as the “New Look”. This policy aimed to maintain the American financial economy while Eisenhower was planning the Cold war and continue the containment of communism regime. Also, the “New look” policy relied heavily on nuclear weapons to stop communism. Therefore the policy was been...
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...The Cold War which lasted from 1947-1991 was waged around the policy of containment, the democratic idea to limit communism to the areas already under Soviet control. President Truman of the United States passed the Truman Doctrine whose foundation was in containment. America’s fear of communism was so great they implemented their policy across the globe. Throughout the Cold War, the United States never had physical confrontation with the Soviets, but America fought to end the spread of communism in China, Germany, Cuba, Guatemala, Korea, and Vietnam. The communist ideals of Karl Marx inspired revolutionaries in Russia, such as Vladimir Lenin, and his socialist reforms began to spread across Eastern Europe and Asia in the 1920s. Chinese...
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...The Birth of Communism In 1917 when the world was at war Russia formed a government that would change the world. The Russian Revolution was an uprising of the people of Russia to overthrow the imperialistic rule of Tsar Nicholas II. This uprising was lead by the communist Vladimir Lenin. These communist were called the Bolsheviks. This Revolution led to the USSR or Soviet Union that was a communist country. Communism is a philosophy that seeks to establish a classless, stateless, society based on common ownership. The idea of communism was “invented” by Karl Marx in the 1840-70. After the creation of the USSR the US was extremely scared and concerned about this new idea of communism. During WW2 the US and the USSR were on the same...
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...military service in the Vietnam War. Only men were put into the draft lottery, receiving a random number that corresponded with their birthdays. The men with the lower numbers were called to serve in the war first . This meant many of our soldiers were young and not trained well. Many people were not in favor of the war in Vietnam. People believed the United States were fighting for a losing cause....
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...The Vietnam War was a long armed conflict between North Vietnam, its allies the Viet Cong against South Vietnam and their allies, the United States. North Vietnam was fighting to reunify Vietnam, however North Vietnam was a communist government, ruled by Ho Chi Minh. It was believed that if South Vietnam had fallen to communism, than the rest of Asia would follow. This was known as the Domino Theory. In order to help stop the spread of communism, the U.S. fought alongside South Vietnam. Nonetheless, after a long, costly war, the U.S. had lost the Vietnam war, which would not stop South Vietnam fall to communism. The United States had entered the Vietnam War after the Gulf of Tonkin incident, where North Vietnamese had fired upon U.S. Navy destroyers in 1964. This incident had compelled Congress to take action. Thus, the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution was made, which gave President Johnson permission to take all necessary actions. The...
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...Can WAR ever be just? Can there be rules about war so that fair play is possible? Has there ever been a war with a just cause? This has been a debate for ages. It depends on who you are asking if you ask a Christian they will tell you any war is unjust because god would not want you to kill others. He would want you to turn the cheek. Others may say it is just if it’s in defense. In this paper, I will explain why the Vietnam War was just. The United States got involved in the Vietnam War from 1954 -1964 to prevent and contain communism. In Vietnam, 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. The US had moral and ethical reasons to stand up and face unethical leaders that oppressed other weaker people and to contain the spread of communism. Communism is horrible because the government controls every move you make and you have no say in what happens in your life. Such as no right to vote, no freedom of speech, no right to a fair trial, etc. This is what the United States was trying to protect South Vietnam from. Communists used terrorism, murdered and subversion to destabilize countries. Just this alone was a just cause for the United States to get involved in the Vietnam War. Many feel that this wasn’t a good enough reason for the United States to get involved and was immoral unjust war, or that communism is not that bad. According to Aquinas four things...
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...Why was the USA unable to defeat communism in south-east Asia in the years 1965-1973? The question is often raised on what basis was the USA unable to defeat communism in south-east Asia in the years 1965-1973. It is debated upon many reasons as to why this happened. The US may have lacked the will to win this battle, and so their loss was a result of this. More specifically, the US presidents, Lyndon B. Johnson and Richard Nixon have been thought to have been less enthusiastic uninvolved during the cold war. In addition, the US tactics were frowned upon, being said that they were not intelligently layer out, and so they were defeated. Also, the support of two very strong countries, China and USSR, backed north Vietnam a great deal. USA failed to win the hearts and minds of the north Vietnamese, also failing to understand the situation. Diem was an unpopular individual, Ho Chi Minh was a praised and trustworthy character for the Vietnamese. I will examine the factors resulting the loss for the US, and extract the reason behind it. The type of US soldiers sent to Vietnam to fight are a factor for the loss of USA’s loss of the war. A number of the front line troops were conscripts and not professional troops. They were young, usually from lower social groups and frequently from Americas minority groups. These troops were usually trained in conventional warfare whereas the Viet Cog used guerrilla tactics-hitting the enemy and then running away; not wearing a standard uniform;...
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...To what extent was America's involvement in the Vietnam Conflict the result of the wrong judgments of American policymakers? Abstract In this paper, I will discuss the policy of America during the Vietnam conflict and how this resulted in the unnecessary Vietnam War. I will discuss why the U.S. thought the domino theory would suit the American policies during this time period. Also, I will analyze why the domino effect was not suited well for America. America thought that if communism were to takeover Vietnam, then it would eventually leak out into the surrounding region. This was incorrect and in this paper, I will discuss why it was invalid information. This paper will also examine why American policymakers exaggerated the stakes of the Vietnam War and why this led to unnecessary involvement in the Vietnam conflict. Even as the US realized that the stakes had been exaggerated and that the domino theory was implausible, they continued their involvement in the war. As for sources, I will utilize the sources provided for us by the teacher. These sources are Chapter 10 from LeFeber and History in Dispute: Was US intervention in Vietnam justified? These sources will help me explain why the US’ tried to base their policies off of the domino theory and why this was not the best policy. Also, I will conduct my own research using the online database JSTOR. I will also utilize the Pentagon Papers, a source I found online. Together, all these sources will help me formulate and discuss...
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...The War of Vietnam Social Science Mr. Thompson 03/25/2014 Why did the USA become increasingly involved in the war of Vietnam? There are many reason why America got involved in the war of Vietnam. The countries Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia were then called the French Indochina. This is because the French had conquered the area before in the 19th century. The French indo china was wanted by the French, because of its materials like rubber, coal and rice. Also Vietnam was the world’s third biggest grower of rice. However, because of these new materials Japan wanted to conquer this too. They took time and waited for the right time to go and attack Vietnam. This finally came down to the year 1940 when France was defeated by the Germans. So Japan went into Vietnam and started taking out what they wanted. In 1940 the French were defeated by the Japanese. Therefore, it meant that Japan had control over the French indo china. This then expanded the Japanese empire even more. Japan had hoped to keep the French indo china but by the end of the Second World War 1945 the French had returned to reoccupy the territory they had lost earlier. In August 1945 the French had defeated the Japanese and took back what was their’s. This couldn’t have been done without the support of the USA. The Japanese got rid of the French and then the Americans got rid of the Japanese. This meant that the Vietnamese was the only military force left in Vietnam. Vietminh are the Vietnamese fighting for the independence...
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