...2014 The Causes of the Vietnam War The Vietnam War is now considered as one of the most distressing moments during the 20th Century. The Vietnam War was caused by many factors that contributed to the war in Vietnam during the years of 1959 to April 30, 1975. This war just prolonged the struggles between nationalist forces attempting to unify the country of Vietnam. Most of the factors that contribute to the war were the beliefs by a lot of people who wanted to prevent Vietnam of becoming an Independent Country. There are many people who suffered a lot due to this war going on and still due to this day people still picturing how they fought the war. What were the causes of the Vietnam War? Why did the United States become involved in this war? Why did the Vietnam War have such a huge impact both on the Vietnam and the United States? What was the impact that Ho Chi Minh had during the War? One of the most important features when describing the Vietnam War was why the United States became involved in the war, and their reasons for conflict amongst the Vietnamese in the North of the 17th Parallel. It is known that the US was involved for many reasons, particularly their belief in the Domino theory where if one country fell to Communism, the rest of South-East Asia would fall along with it. There are many other reasons why the United States became involved in this war. There are many reasons why the United States became involved was them being concerned with Vietnam and that would...
Words: 2042 - Pages: 9
...April 29, 2013 Cause and Effect of War The Vietnam War was during the years of 1964-1975. This is the longest military conflict in U.S. History. Around 85,000 Americans were killed during this war. This war cost over 150 billion dollars. The war involved the North Vietnamese army and the National Liberation Front on one side against the United States and the South Vietnamese army. The war was fought in South Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, and a little in North Vietnam. One cause of the war was that the Vietnamese had struggled for their independence from France which was a result of the First Indochina War. As a result of this war, the country was divided into North and South Vietnam. The United States got involved in Vietnam because U.S. authorities thought that if the whole country fell under communist control, this would cause a domino effect and communism would spread through all of Southeast Asia. This was the reason to get involved in Vietnam. When the Japanese finally surrendered on September 2, 1945 in the First Indochina war, Ho also declared independence for Vietnam. The French refused to accept Vietnam’s independence, and later drove the Viet Minh into the north of the country. In 1965, the United States sent troops to help maintain the Southern Vietnamese government. Unfortunately, their plan didn’t work and in 1975 Vietnamese was under Communist control. The United States demanded for Japan to leave Indochina, or else they would be forced to use military action. After...
Words: 1350 - Pages: 6
...high school; thinking of what a great life waits ahead, but suddenly, a draft notice arrives in the mail forever changing the course of a young man’s life. This was the unfortunate reality for many young men in December of 1969 when the Selective Service of the United States conducted two lotteries to draft soldiers for 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....
Words: 1593 - Pages: 7
...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...
Words: 2328 - Pages: 10
...“Involvement in two world wars and the Cold War transformed America into a “crusader state” convinced of the superiority of its institutions and way of life and intent on imposing them on the outside world. ” Whether fought at home or abroad every war is to impact all parties involved. Such example of staggering influence on one country’s culture is no more evident then in America’s involvement in the Vietnam War. Upon entering the war the USA’s government was convinced and assured the public of its confidence in very quick and consequences free resolution to their problem on the other side of the world. However, what it failed to predict which later was to prove crucial was the blowback that the war would have on the nation itself. The extent to which a superpower can be influenced by a smaller struggling and weapon lacking society has never been more evident and recorded than in America-Vietnamese case. The American culture has been shaken to its core. The following piece however aims to analyze and simplify those reasons due to which scars amongst society are being healed even now so many years since the war ended. Twenty five years have passed since the United States officially relinquished their involvement in Vietnam. Not since the Civil war had the country been so divided. Every American family was impacted, losing husbands, sons and daughters. Over fifty thousand Americans were killed and many more of those who returned suffered and still suffer deep physical and emotional...
Words: 1252 - Pages: 6
...Is it possible for someone to be a coward if they simply stand up for what they believe in? Is it possible that the person calling another a “coward” is cowardice themselves? Yes, this is very possible. The Vietnam War was a long, hard, and conflicting war for not only Vietnam, but the entire world. American men began getting drafted around the 1970’s, but roughly 300,000 men resisted the draft. The term resisted is extremely different from dodged. The men who fled America were draft resistors, not draft dodgers. The novel The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien is a collection of stories about American soldiers fighting in the Vietnam War. The narrator, Tim O’Brien, was in a platoon of soldiers based in Vietnam and survived through the war....
Words: 859 - Pages: 4
...The Vietnam War “I saw courage both in the Vietnam War and in the struggle to stop it. I learned that patriotism includes protest, not just military service.” This quote from John. F Kerry shows the reality of the Vietnam War. This war persisted for almost 20 years, and it ended in stalemate. Many Americans were protesting the war at home. Protests occurred all throughout the war, but many of the people in the United States were not aware what the war was like until the media covered Hamburger Hill. Even after ten days of bloody battle, the UN forces decided to abandon the hill, and it was later reclaimed by North Vietnam. Many American citizens thought of the war as pointless, as the troops had no place in this civil war between North and...
Words: 1042 - Pages: 5
...United States pulls out of Vietnam Nkiruka Bridget Ofunne Chamberlain College of Nursing Identification of Vietnam War Between 1858-1884, France invades Vietnam and makes Vietnam a colony. The United States pledges $15 million worth of military aid to France to help them fight in Vietnam. South Vietnam declares itself the Republic of Vietnam, with newly elected Ngo Dinh Diem as president. South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem is executed during a coup. Cause of Vietnam war In 1964, North Vietnamese attack two U.S. destroyers sitting in international waters (the Gulf of Tonkin Incident). In response to the Gulf of Tonkin Incident, the U.S. Congress passes the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution. A sustained U.S. aerial bombing campaign of North Vietnam begins (Operation Rolling Thunder). In March 1965, the first U.S. combat troops arrive in Vietnam. Historical Interpretation of the war Why did the United States government finally decide to leave Vietnam? What was our exit strategy? What happened to the troops that came home? What happened to those we left behind? No event in American history is more misunderstood than the Vietnam War. It was misreported then, and it is misremembered now. "Rarely have so many people been so wrong about so much. Never have the consequences of their misunderstanding been so tragic." (Nixon) Nixon and Kissinger quickly agreed upon two premises about American policy in Vietnam. First, the war in Vietnam was not "winnable" in any conventional...
Words: 445 - Pages: 2
...Impact of US Foreign Policy on the Vietnam War The Vietnam War is one of the most talked about wars in history. It began in 1959 and did not end until 1975. These years saw protests, conflicts, casualties, and confusion for the United States, as well as the terms of three presidents: John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, and Richard Nixon. When U.S. involvement in the war began under Kennedy, it was originally put out as a plan for the United States to only aid the South Vietnamese, but, after his assassination, Johnson was put in charge. The path that the war took under Johnson was filled with controversy and large numbers of casualties. When Johnson did not run for a second term, Nixon was left in charge to ultimately turn things around. Soon, all of the American troops were removed from Vietnam, and the war slowly began to come to a close. But what was it about Nixon’s foreign policy that was so much more successful than Johnson’s? Was Nixon’s policy more closely related to Kennedy’s successful strategy than Johnson’s was, and, if so, why didn’t Johnson do a better job modeling his policy after Kennedy? These are all questions that political scientists still look at today as a way to solve the many questions that are still being posed about the war. I have looked deeply into these questions, and found answers through researching the history of Vietnam as well as the three presidents. As I read about each event that unfolded, it became clear to me why there were such...
Words: 3614 - Pages: 15
...this was the beginning of the early stages of the Cold War. Succeeding Eisenhower, President John F. Kennedy also had to uphold a high level of responsibility especially regarding Vietnam where communist China and Russia sought control. In the 19th century, France annexed Indo-China. However, during World War II, France was overrun and became occupied by the Japanese. Indochinese nationalists opposed to both Japan and France, and joined forces to create an independent movement called Vietminh. This movement was controlled by communists despite the objections of the nationalists. The movement was led by Moscow who trained Ho Chi Minh. After World War II, France promised independence to Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam, three states under the Indochina regime; with the Vietminh movement proven to be independent without France’s offers, tension arose among communist China and democratic United States. This dispute led to the Geneva Conference: Truce for Indochina. The agreement stated that Laos and Cambodia will be independent and will observe neutrality in the cold war while Vietnam will be divided at the17th parallel – with the North under a Communist government in Hanoi, and the South under a French sponsored anti-communist government in Saigon. Then in mid-1956, the people of both the North and South will vote for a single all-Vietnam government. This agreement however, was not signed by the United States or South Vietnam. President Eisenhower still determined to...
Words: 738 - Pages: 3
...this was the beginning of the early stages of the Cold War. Succeeding Eisenhower, President John F. Kennedy also had to uphold a high level of responsibility especially regarding Vietnam where communist China and Russia sought control. In the 19th century, France annexed Indo-China. However, during World War II, France was overrun and became occupied by the Japanese. Indochinese nationalists opposed to both Japan and France, and joined forces to create an independent movement called Vietminh. This movement was controlled by communists despite the objections of the nationalists. The movement was led by Moscow who trained Ho Chi Minh. After World War II, France promised independence to Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam, three states under the Indochina regime; with the Vietminh movement proven to be independent without France’s offers, tension arose among communist China and democratic United States. This dispute led to the Geneva Conference: Truce for Indochina. The agreement stated that Laos and Cambodia will be independent and will observe neutrality in the cold war while Vietnam will be divided at the17th parallel – with the North under a Communist government in Hanoi, and the South under a French sponsored anti-communist government in Saigon. Then in mid-1956, the people of both the North and South will vote for a single all-Vietnam government. This agreement however, was not signed by the United States or South Vietnam. President Eisenhower still determined to...
Words: 738 - Pages: 3
...The Vietnam War The Vietnam War The Vietnam War was hard on all countries; one in particular was the United States. As Americans thought the end was near they soon found out that it all was going to begin with the Vietnam War. This particular war caused hardships for not only the financial aspect of the country, but for the citizens of it as well. To put it simply it divided much of the country. Student Unrest One of the main groups of people that the Vietnam War affected was college students. As the war escalated, the draft began. College students were affected by this mostly because of the military’s rules for joining. The poor and underclass usually could not pass the tests to get in the war and many others had jobs, such as teaching or engineering that was cause for the military to not draft them. This is when student unrest began. As time went on and the war continued to drag on, students all over the country began to question the war. Students began to question the president’s decisions when it came to the war, as well as began questioning what they were fighting for. Martina Bexte 2002 wrote that “People realized that the glowing reviews of the war effort their government had been releasing were “sanitized” and far from the truth.” Students all over the country began protesting against the war. They were angry at the president for what he was doing to the Vietcong’s, as well as the fact that Americans were fighting for a cause that no one believed in anymore...
Words: 797 - Pages: 4
...Vietnamese revolution of North Vietnam caught the attention of the United States. The United States made it clear that they would not accepted a unified Vietnam under communistic rule after the Korean War. During the Eisenhower and Kennedy administration, it was believed that allowing Vietnam to be under communistic rule would cause a domino effect, which not only neighboring countries surrounding Vietnam would fall under communism, but more influential countries would be affected and fall under communism as well. It was also believed that if the United States allowed Vietnam to become communist country, then somehow this domino effect would spread as far as into the United States, converting their country to communism as well. For the...
Words: 795 - Pages: 4
...The American Experience Since 1945 HIS The Vietnam War The Vietnam War was a Cold War military conflict started in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. The war was from November 1, 1955 to the fall of Saigon on the 30th April 1975. Right after the Vietnam War the first Indochina War was fought between North Vietnam was support by it communist allies and the South Vietnam, was support by the United States.("The Cold Warrior", April 9,2010, p. 1) Student unrest draws a lot attention when the war started; during Vietnam War the draft took place for the first time since 1942. There were two viewpoints in 1960 that evolve. One group felt Vietnam was for a purpose and we should stay until the job was done. The other side felt it was such a burden both socially and economically that United States needed to get out of Vietnam.(Ryan, 2008, para. 1) The Baby Boomers both men and women were eligible to be sent off to fight in a war that was a conflict begin question for the American involvement. Students that could afford going to college went after college they would then be eligible to be sent off to Vietnam. To protest the war large demonstrations took place on college campuses. This was an incentive to protest the war and tried to put a stop to it before they could be drafted. The young men who could not afford collage were outnumbered by the upper class and middle class. The war was long a drug out war as the resentment grew so did the financial cost. With the...
Words: 1141 - Pages: 5
...some people on the left to make comparisons to the American experience in the Vietnam War. These people argue that the United States has put itself into an in-extractable “quagmire” from which there is no feasible withdrawal. This type of reasoning by historical comparison is not wise because no two historical events are completely alike. In the case of Iraq and Vietnam, extreme caution should be exercised in comparing two wars so far apart in historical circumstances, geography, and time. It becomes pretty obvious that the differences between the two conflicts greatly outnumber the similarities. This is especially true in the strategic and military dimensions of the two wars. There is simply no comparison between the environment, the scale of military presence, losses incurred over time, the quality of enemy resistance, the role and scope of enemy allies, and the duration of open warfare style combat. There are, however, two political parts of the Iraq and Vietnam wars that are similar in nature: our attempts at nation-building in a foreign culture, and our trying to sustaining domestic popular support in a long and drawn out war against insurgents. Policymakers should have an understanding of the reasons for U.S. political failure in South Vietnam, as well as for the Johnson and Nixon administrations’ failure to sustain popular support for the accomplishment of U.S. military objectives in Vietnam. A repeat of those failures in Iraq could have uncalculated consequences for...
Words: 1628 - Pages: 7
